The Gravity Enduro series took us to Scotland for round 2. It was set on Traquair mountain of Innerleithan. The mountain has previously been used to host national downhill mountain bike races and is by no means an easy course to tackle.
The race was set over 5 stages on the mountain and all the tracks seemed to be gnarly and extreme, in fact this was the hardest course I had ever ridden!
Practice took place on the Friday and Saturday seeing most of the competitors get into one kind of trouble or another, most had broken bike components and some even picked up injuries to themselves. I have never ridden a bike track that I don’t want to ride again but Innerleithan had turned out to be my first!
Stages 1 and 2 included some fast downhill sections between narrow tree lines and steep declines on rocks, wet tree roots and gullys. Stage 3 was the most technical stage in my opinion as the middle sector was so rocky and slippy that the bike would simply stop in its tracks and not go any further! Stage 4 was most of the riders favourite track and was definitely mine, it had a fast chute in the top sector where peddling and top speed was key, this then lead into a techy middle and bottom sector.
Stage 5 had previously been used for national downhill races and was so steep in the middle sector approaching the second fire road that it was impossible to walk up. I recommend mountaineering gear for anyone walking up it!
Unfortunately stage 5 was cancelled in the race due to a crash from one of the gents in the masters category. We all wish him the best of recoveries and hope he is back riding with us soon.
I must admit that my tactics for the race were wrong, being as the weather was so bad and all the stages were extremely techy, I thought it were best to ride slowly and safely to e bottom with no crashes. Obviously this costs time and the results proved that. I am glad to walk away from the weekend of racing with no injuries and have another race experience to my name! See you all in Tiverton for my next race on the weekend of 7/8th June.
