Cannondale British Enduro Series 2016: Innerleithen - Video

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So there we have it. The end of the 2016 British Enduro Series, and were here in the beautiful Scottish hills of Innerleithen. Once venue to the World Enduro Series back in May '15 the mountainous village was more than suited to host the final round of Si Paton's brain child. The season started just 50 miles south of Innerleithen in a small village called Ae. With what was said by race director Si Paton, to be the worst weather in his 20 years of racing, the less said about this round the better. Organising the first round of any series is always hard, but when you're faced with challenges beyond your control you just have to go with the flow and hope for the best. We then headed to hometown of Hardline visionary and course builder, Dan Atherton. Dyfi forest was a mix of flat out grassy tracks and steep wooded stages the course builders; Dominic Pearce, Edd Wright and Richard Marsden outdid themselves. Afan was next on the list, home to series overall winner Leigh Johnson. Weather was prime, tracks were prime everything was going well to be a top weekend, it got to about 6'o'clock on the day I arrived and was bombarded with millions and millions of little flying Ba@#*%rds. Apart from the infestation of midges, riders were greeted with some very steep technical decents, incredibly fast stages through dense woods all to finish with a 200m sprint through a field that drained any remaining energy riders had left. By far my favourite venue, Eastridge or known to locals as 'The Shire'. I got to ride all the tracks this year in the week before to scope them out, Eastridge was fun, flowy with some technical sections thrown in there. Eastridge was full of loose rocks and big roots. Not so much steep like the rest of the tracks this year but just some fun, handmade trails. Believe it or not there was a downhill world cup back here in around '98.


Finally that brings us to now. Innerleithen. Probably the most well known of the five venues we've had this year. This place has been hosting downhill and enduro events for decades. The event was split up over two days with the Saturday tracks being over on the 'Golfy' side of the hill. The morning started with a grueling climb to the top of stage one, the rain did hold out, but with the start to stage one being so exposed, it was less than warm to say the least. Stage one had a couple of flat out open turns on the moor then riders were plunged into darkness. Marin rider, Leigh Johnson actually admitted to using lights in practice just to give his eyes time to acclimatise to the dark conditions. It then opened up, across a couple of fire roads and drops into some very tight turns. Finally riders emerge onto a small path overlooking Innerleithen's very nice golf course. Water world is the title of stage 2, as you can imagine it was wet, very wet. The whole track followed the course of a stream running down the hill, and with 200 riders doing the run twice over the day, the final elite men down the track said it more resembled a war zone than a mountain bike track. Another problem riders had to contend with was the dying light, the days are so short now riders were not only racing the clock, they were racing the sun setting. Sunday came around after a bitterly cold night, and included stages 3, 4 and 5 that were all centralised around Inners famous 'Cresta run', which would serve as the final run of the day, but before that had stage 3 to face. Probably the steepest track of the day within 30 seconds you're facing a steep dry selection of turns bringing you out at the bottom.


Riders then transitioned to the shortest stage of the weekend at 1:30, it was practically a sprint to the finish with not a very challenging track. After the issue with the sun on Saturday, organisers made the decision to run a shorter transition to the top of Cresta, with only 10 minutes to recuperate their energy and get in the right mindset for their last chance to make a difference to the final result. Local boy, Pete Williams put in a stormer of a weekend, winning 3 out of 5 stages, to take the win for the day. The cresta run is the classic downhill track at just under 3 minutes culminating in some tricky chutes and turns and across the finish line for the final time this year.


Leigh Johnson pushed hard to extend his lead in the overall, but was ultimately pipped at the post on the day by local man Pete Williams, putting him in a very respectful second place. First in the overall is nothing to feel down about though.


Jake Gilfillan was on top form, securing himself a place not only on the podium for the weekend but for the overall series too.

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Final Results

Continental Elite Men

Pete Williams 14:31.32
Leigh Johnson 14:45.68
Chris Hutchens 14:58.59

Continental Elite Women

Rebecca Baraona 16:56.56
Becky Cook 17:19.62
Martha Gill 19:15.26

Flare Clothing Women

Polly Henderson 19:18.29
Lucy Follett 21:18.81
Heather Kay 24:13.00

Kore Components Grand Veteran Men

Kevin Baines 19:08.20
Alex Cameron 20:01.73
Mike Cockill 20:29.61

X-Fushion Veteran Men

Andrew Titley 15:49.64
Dan Bishop 16:09.20
Darren Scott 16:35.15

Staton Bikes Hardtail

Tom Dunn 17:41.54
Sonny Baston 18:39.43
Alexander Roberton 20:48.17

Super Alloy Springs Junior Men

Ian Taylor 14:51.31
Corey Watson 15:15.51
Jake Gilfillan 15:56.25

DMR Bikes Youth Men

Jamie Edmondson 15:23.52
Harvey Rollason 16:22.70
Oliver Parton 16:30.03

Abus Master Men

Dave Wardell 15:14.45
Simon Wakely 15:57.93
Ajay Jones 16:10.09

Sombrio Senior Men

Vivian Jones 15:08.35
Lewis Summers 15:11.14
Damien Ledgerwood 15:34.91


Full Results Here
Photos by Ian Lean & Doc Ward
Video and Words by Taylor Smith

What a season it's been, there will be a full season round up film on its way in the next month. You'll be glad to hear the series will be back next year once again supported by Cannondale. We hope to see you all there.

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MENTIONS: @FilmSmith / @Leanback / @Cannondale / @Docward

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