Innerleithen Day/night Enduro! THE best weekend of racing I have ever had!!! Oh my days! I'm still buzzing…
So, Saturday 20th of November was the day/night enduro held at innerleithen. This is a new format of racing I've not experienced before but, probably the best and most fun! It consisted of 2 stages/tracks that you did once during the day then repeated again when it was dark. Each stage had an opening and closing time for you to get up to the top of the hill and start the stage. You were then timed down the descents (the stage) and the accumulative descending time was basically your result.
This meant you could casually climb to the top of the hill chatting to your friends, then when you started the stage it was down to business – riding as fast as you could down to the bottom of the descent! It was just a chilled atmosphere with awesome riding with awesome people!
(Waiting to start…)
I managed to make it down stage one… kind of… having my forks locked out (doh!) made things interesting! Itwas quite frustrating as I crashed and was pretty all over the place. But the muddy snaky nature of this track was pretty extreme so to get down it alive was an achievement! Though, that was in the light! Who knew what it was going to be like in the dark…
(…starting…)
We then headed up the hill (slowly! We didn't have to race up the hill, yay!!) discussing our runs, this consisted of "I crashed here" or "I nearly crashed here" and "That was just MENTAL" which it was. Though, we were all buzzing and couldn't wait to get up to stage two. Now, this track was brilliant!! It wasn't as natural and slippy as the previous one instead, it consisted more of a messy top section then on to the downhill tracks! SO FAST!! On the way down it reminded me of the down hill race (minus the full sus, instead a hard tail) but still just going as fast as you possibly could down a hill – a new found love of mine. I had to sneakily over take a dude on the way down then unfortunately couldn't get passed a guy at the bottom but it was no biggy – this race was about having fun, it wasn't life or death! Once I'd dibbed my dibber I could feel the excitement in the air!! Everyone loved that track, the speed, the flow, the fun! It had it all.
(…and I'm off!!)
It was then time to change kit, had a cup of tea and a sandwich before papa Winton and I headed up the hill, in the dark!! Stage 1 was a bit of a nightmare for me again, falling off making silly mistakes… It was just pretty crazy! Dad had had an 'over the bars, landing on his head with an imprinted light in the mud' moment… He was okay though! We all pedalled to the top again ready for the final stage of the day. I knew I had to get this right to make up for the time I'd lost both times on stage 1. It was the final push! I had a cople of dodgy moments in the top section, nearly going over the bars and punching trees but managed to settle into to the final section. The last part I managed to hit all the good lines and make it to the bottom BUZZING!!!! In fact everyone at the bottom was, the atmosphere was brilliant – relaxed and happy with everyone all just loving riding their bikes and riding them fast.
We headed down to the tent to sync out dibbers and get our bit of paper with the times on:
I hadn't really been thinking about timings or trying to win, I was having too much fun just riding to worry about racing! But I was pleased with my time considering I was on a hard tail, and even more pleased when I realised I'd beaten my Dad who was on a full sue!! Okay so he couldn't tie his shoe laces in the morning due to being so crippled from a hard core session but that was poor preparation Papa Winton ;) I had so much fun and a great laugh – best £30 I've spent on a race!!
Well done to Emma, still not lost it over the years and Lesely, not bad for only just getting back on your bike after being off since April!! And Well done to everyone else who raced, hope you had as much fun as I did!
I would recommend enduros to anyone, so get in about it people!!
Wint tin ton