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Thursday, 23 February 2012
URBAN X DH ENDURO
Again we were blessed with a bright, sunny winters morning. Awesome weather for a four hour race. Yes!! you heard me!! a four hour race, welcome to Enduro racing. The concept of this event was to see how many runs you could do down a specified track in four hours
Enduro racing is starting to become very popular these days, especially in the winter months where riders use them as part of there training. Two riders did just that, Lee Hawden and James Kaye were using this event as part of their prep training for the infamous Mega Avalanche. I did it in 2010 and the memories of the pain still haunt me to this day...good times.
I was very un easy about putting on a race like this because first off I hadn't done it before and I didn't now how my usual crop of mini DH riders would feel about it. After a beer and a burger with Arthur Herrington, the man behind the lens at Art82 Photography convinced and assured me that we could pull it off together. As no one had done a down hill enduro mates race before in our area we were keen to be the first so we went for it.
All in all I felt that it went well for our first outing. Out of 70 pre-registerd riders 40 took part on the day, spirits and the good old "ban ta" remained high through out the four hours of pain. The highlight of the day was when our local boyo Santa Cruz pro rider and x UCI World DH Champion "Steve Peat" rolled up on his Santa Cruz 29er and went for a blast on the track. Like the gentleman that he is he hung around a bit, chatted to the riders and posed for a few snap shots....what a guy. I have to wonder if he was just passing by or was he checking up on SPS (Steve Peat Syndicate) rider Freddie Oxley progress. Well he didn't have to because he won the whole thing by a run.
I would just like to say thank you to the local sponsors: Geared Up, Just Riding Along and Static clothing for their contributions. Also my Urban Extremist UK club mates Steven Johnson, Hyper Steve Rout and Alex McCabe( photos) for marshaling and making it a worry free event for me. And last of all Arthur Herrington of Art82 Photography for the awesome photos plus the trophies and for giving me the idea to have a go at it.
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