The Dudes of Hazzard ‘This is Enduro now’ enduro by No Fuss Events took place in Kinlochleven, Scotland on the 17th and 18th of November. The 3 stages sat atop the rugged Highlands Mountainsides which surround Kinlochleven, with a base for the event in the ICE factor climbing centre.
Stage 1 -
‘The Greymares trail’ Started off fast, down open hillside with a few short, sharp pedals near the beginning. Further down this stage came the most technical part of the race. With steep rocky chutes covered in a thin layer of mud and water. This saw a good collection of riders sectioning the bottom sections and brought a fantastic atmosphere.
Stage 2 ‘Gary walks the dog’ was a shorter stage, with a mix of fun fast wiggly straights with some short sharp climbs.
Stage 3‘The Kennels’ was a long fast descent from high up on the mountainside above Kinlochleven, this stage began on open hillsides with the most fantastic scenery, there were multiple lines through the loose rocks and gullies which also allowed for some high speeds. The trail then dropped down into the trees and onto a luge of fast natural turns with bedrock and loose stones everywhere. The stage finished with a muddy off camber sprint which caught out several riders right before the final timing dibber.
Saturday's practice day saw a mix of weather from snow and sleet to sunny spells in the afternoon. It was a great crew of riders out practicing with high spirits all around. With everyone tired, but content after a big day in the hills learning the stage, the ICE factor became the hang out spot for everyone with warm showers and an evening of mountain bike movies and music courtesy of Stu Thompson from MTBCut.
Sunday came round for racing and the weather was looking surprisingly kind for November in the Highlands of Scotland. With sun breaking through and snow on top of all the surrounding mountain tops it made for a fantastic backdrop to the days racing.
After an awesome day of racing with a stacked field, including top enduro racers and world cup downhillers alike, the results were in with Fergus Lamb of Perth City Cycles ending the day victorious! Katy Winton took the win in a good turn out within the Womens’ category.
Full results can be found here.
The resounding atmosphere is that the race was a big success and hopefully with some more of the same enthusiasm from everyone involved and the pristine race organizing skills of NoFuss Events a follow up race can take place in 2013.
Final shout out to all the Sponsors and helpers for the event who really made it happen.
Cheers Everyone!
The Dudes
if only every one shared this relaxed but slightly competitive attitude.....
of course there isnt anything wrong with being hideously competitive is there :-)
If it had been hot, dry and sunny, it would just not have been the same.
Track 1 was carnage at the bottom corners, some poor girl/woman was having a lie down away from her bike on my race run, she could not have apologised more for being in the way. She had crashed, I was just glad she was ok.
Track 2 was short and fun, with a killer wee climb on it.
Track 3 was rut fun up top then some nice loose berms down the bottom.
Having had a lie down in a river up top on Track 1, Liam is mad for jumping in that water.
Summer Dudes race next year please, with some super long stages (2 days, with different tracks on different days would be amazing).
I had fun even if slow
That short vid doesn't do the trails justice - they were brilliantly technical. Loads of grip. It looks muddy, but as betsie said. it was mostly water .
We need more technical enduro trails like this - less trail centre.
The dibber system is also good. You set off when you want to. So you can hang out with mates all day and go in the order you want to. 345 riders all made it round in well under 5hrs and that was me holding right off to be the last rider.
I think there should have been an award for worst facial hair.... or is that what Ferg won?