RACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCING... Time to get our act together.

[weeksy]

OK, we're back to game time !!!

http://minienduro.tv/2021/06/machynlleth-18-07-2021/

Enduro racing !!!

[weeksy]

This seems to be a good representation of what we can expect this weekend.

[weeksy]

By eck that video doesn't show quite how sketchy some bits are, you're grabbing full on the brakes and sliding down hoping it makes a few of the turns. But mostly it's fine.

It's grassy that's now powdery dust at times with a few flat and pedalling bits but mostly the timed sections are gravity.

I have absolutely no chance of staying with my lad, none at all. But sod it, I'll do my best to survive. I'm actually impressed I didn't crash once lol, I thought I was going to

[weeksy]

Checking Strava I only remembered to turn it on for 1 segment. I was 39/62. Which is better than 62/62 for sure. Of course you don't know if people were scoping out segments and stopping etc, but still, it wasn't last!!!

[weeksy]

2021-07-18_09-42-39 by Steve Weeks - Flickr2BBcode LITE

Game face on!

[Crosshair]

Awesome Good luck

[G.P]

Good luck guys

[weeksy]

https://my.raceresult.com/174970/

Live timing.

[MingtheMerciless]

Chapeau to you and Weeksy Minimus.. Yes I know the results may change but well done for racing and looking good so far.

[weeksy]

2021-07-19_01-34-33 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

The boy being cool.

[weeksy]

Event:
Southern Enduro Series #4 – Milland

Date:
2021-09-26

Entered!

[weeksy]

WEll i guess this deserves a bit of a write up, i've been a bit busy so not had too much time.

It was a long long drive, 4+ hours but we made it up there and got out in practice. The climb up was around 15% for much of it and wasn't nice at all, but was do-able with a few walking bits for the boy, which in honesty i was glad about LOL. But at the top it turned into a lovely peak of fun.
2021-07-21_09-47-25 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

The trails were crazy steep at times, loose and powdery. Lots of grassy sections being torn up and lots of tree sections. A couple of bits where you're hanging on and hoping for the best rather than actually riding the bike. Well, for me anyway. Every trail we went down the boy blew me away, which was completely expected of course. But we got down for the 3 runs and despite my worries on a couple of the drop sections within section 3, it actually went OK... None of us crashed and we all went down happy.

Met up with one of the lads for beers and food etc.
2021-07-17_08-22-38 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Onto race day and we got there in plenty of time, transponders fitted for timing and up the hill we go... again... and again... It was showing 29deg and as you'd imagine it was PROPER toasty !!!!
2021-07-18_09-42-39 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

The format was 'mash up' so you can ride any segments in any order you want, you need to complete all 3 stages to register a time overall though.

We went 2-1-3 I rode OK and was happy enough with things on stage 2, but felt i could have gone quicker, too much time spent hanging on and on the brakes, trying to pick my way down lines i thought were half impossible. It was right on the borderline of my ability at times this stuff.

2021-07-18_09-41-10 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Looking at the times i got stuffed by my lad again of course. He was roughly 20s ahead of me.... But hey, that's OK.

2021-07-19_01-34-33 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Onto stage 1 which has a techie drop line entry but was slightly more tame than stage 2 .... well, sometimes... Still steep and techie... but shorter. Considering the climbs, the end comes up sooner than you think. It also had a couple of pedally sections which i felt i could have gone harder on. As you'd expect i lost 20s to the small lad once again LOL.

Stage 3 is the biggy, it's the stage used for the Fox and Hounds, where one of the Athertons chases a bunch of people down the hill who set of before them. Steep and tech again but with some flat/pedal bits both in woods and across the rocks/roots. This time i took some of the drop sections a bit harder than practice day and it paid off, i put in a half decent time overall, but 40s down on the boy.

My target though wasn't my lad, it was 1. Don't come last... 2. Beat the other Singletrack forum guy.

Sadly i was 4s ahead on Stage 1 of him, 6s ahead on stage 3, but on stage 2 i was 15s off his pace !!! Wow... Don't know quite how that was.

We spent an hour getting cool in the car along with gallons and gallons of fluid and headed back out.

My lad was doing stage 3, i went for stage 2....

I took 5s off my time and beat the STW guy overall by 2.5s ! Yay me...

My lad crashed and was 9s slower down stage 3.

the fatigue, heat and the day had taken it's toll and we called it a day.

I ended up 32/36 and he was 20/38. Although the gap for me was a lot bigger to the leaders than for him. He was a little disappointed in his result i think, but he was in the 13-16 class and he only reached 13 the week before... So i thought considering that, he did bloody well.

I was in a group of 4-5 riders who on their day could probably beat eachother, but then the gap ahead to the next grouping is 1min... I don't know yet how 1min could be made up... I'd need to improve a tonne.

We're at Katy Curd training tomorrow, but i still think getting a minute off is somewhat optimistic !

Next race is Sept, it's a fully uplifted downhill race, which will please the boy, although with a £70 entry fee, i've not entered this one.

We've then got an other Enduro a little later, which i have entered this time.

Both bikes performed perfectly over the weekend, although my lad did have a little brake fade on the last run, needing a quick bleed before tomorrows course.

[Crosshair]

Awesome! Well done. Sounds like a great time

[weeksy]

https://southernenduro.co.uk/events/sou ... 5-minehead

Minehead for a semi-seaside race in Oct.

[weeksy]

After the crash on Friday night from my lad, we’re heading to A&E on Tues afternoon (as we’re isolating today so wife can have surgery) which will likely decide whether we’re racing on the weekend or not. It's Southern Enduro series, something i've wanted to ride for ages, but when we entered earlier in the year he broke his hand 2 weeks before the race.

Well, whether HE is racing at the weekend or not ! I’m not sure whether i’ll race if he’s not… it seems a little unfair to me to leave him at home and go racing when i mostly got into this so he could race… but i guess that’s a little debate i need to have with myself closer to the time.

But for now, lets make the assumption we’re going

[Beancounter]

Just been catching up on Friday's events. Hope he's not too badly banged up and is back riding soon.

[weeksy]

Racing Southern Enduro today at Milland, west Sussex. Tricky courses, very narrow chute bits that are hard to get down. Rooty and loamy for this one with a few jumps and techy drops. Not impossible but far from easy!

[Beancounter]

Racing Southern Enduro today at Milland, west Sussex. Tricky courses, very narrow chute bits that are hard to get down. Rooty and loamy for this one with a few jumps and techy drops. Not impossible but far from easy!

Are you both racing? Good luck. Kudos to J getting back on it so quickly.

[weeksy]

Yup.

Me, him, big Dan and his two. However big Dan is a DNS after practice and a big crash. Bike in car, his day is over

[weeksy]

I think he ended up 17/38 on the day with Olly in 16 and 5s overall

For me, I think I ended up 43/43 as some it seems had no completed when we checked results earlier.

You may think "wtf that's rubbish" but you know what, I had an awesome day out and rode stuff I didn't think I could get down, raced hard and pushed myself outsidey comfort zone many many times today

I'll take last place over sitting on my arse doing nothing all day, every day.

The terrain once again was hard hard hard! Steep, sketchy, jumpy, techy, FFS it was daft at times. I was quite shocked I completed 5 stages without lying down looking at the sky in pain. Amazed actually.
The videos we watched don't do justice to how tough it was.

Cracking fun though.

Cost me £30 for a red bull rampage t-shirt and £10 for 2 fabulous beers as well!