Female Riders Race Team At The British Enduro Champs

What an epic the summer of 2018 is turning out to be. After the excitement of the Fort William DH World Cup ’18 two weeks ago, this weekend saw the British National Enduro Championships, this year hosted by Tweedlove. International riders returned from globe trotting exploits, descending upon Peebles in the Scottish Borders to battle it out for the title.

It’s great to see that the Nationals are important amongst the UK’s top Enduro riders. They were joined by up-and-coming riders who currently compete mainly or wholly in the UK and a swathe of skilled riders capable of taking on this challenging event. Enduro is a very sociable race format and with the familiar faces returning from foreign climes, including Katy Winton, Bex Baraona, Becky Cooke, Kathryn Sharp, Martha Gill, Michelle Muldoon, Ella Conolly and Abigale Lawton to name just a few, it felt like a reunion and the atmosphere in the race village was jubilant. Six gruelling timed downhill stages across Innerleithen, Golfie and Peebles incorporated approx. 1600m ascent in the transitions and 53 km riding in total, to be completed in just one day, testing both the riders and their bikes.


In Friday’s and Saturday’s practice, trails were dusty with the exception of a slippery and treacherous “Water World” run. Former F-Rider Bex Baraona looked fast and aggressive, sliding tight, snaking, freshly cut trails with style. Trek rider Katy Winton had the pressure of performing in front of her expectant hometown crowd and no other town in the UK is more informed about mountain biking, from youngsters through to veterans, than in Peebles. Being by far the UK’s most accomplished female rider in the Enduro World Series (EWS) she was virtually a dead cert to win. Another rider, Ella Conolly, has won every round of the EWS in the U21s category so far this season, was favourite to win the U21s National Champs title. Female Riders Race Team had Polly Henderson in action in the U21s and team captain Roslynn Newman in the Masters. After taking time off to revise and complete exams, Polly was hoping to keep the time gap between her and Ella to a minimum. Ignoring everyone else’s advice, Roz went out to practice a couple of stages on Friday night when a chaotic day had prevented her from riding earlier – that’s determination for you, or…


Competition in the U21s was fierce, not only between Ella and Polly, to everyone’s bewilderment EWS elite rider and 2017 EWS U21s Series Winner Martha Gill was placed in the category even though she turns 21 later this year. Martha’s protests to change category fell on deaf ears, so she was in the U21s joined by EWS riders Chloe Taylor and Abigale Lawton to setup a tasty contest. Surprisingly Polly was fastest in Stage 1, just shy of 5 seconds ahead of Ella with Martha a further 2 seconds back. Stage 2 brought catastrophe, Ella’s chain snapped and tangled in the chain guide, and a fall that could have resulted in serious injury shook her confidence, propelling Polly a huge 53.61 seconds ahead of her.

In the senior women, Katy Winton also had a crash and Roz Newman was having a nightmare too. One of those races where things just don’t come together, but it was good to hear that the women were offering support to one another between stages. In the final stage, to the spectators’, Polly’s dad Stewart’s, Tracy Moseley’s and her own amazement, Polly managed to one-footedly hang on to her bike as she hurtled around the final corner.

And so, a major shock unfurled, Polly Henderson became 2018 U21s British National Enduro Champion and Bex Baraona became overall 2018 British National Enduro Champion. Moreover, the fastest females were 1st Bex, 2nd Katy, 3rd Polly!!!! The future for British Enduro is indeed bright. The shocks didn’t stop there, despite her own despair, a muddy-faced grazed Roz topped the Masters category and wasn’t too shabby in the overall time standings. Last year Roz stood on top of the podium as 2017 British National Enduro Champion in bright pink knitted leg warmers and stripy lycra leggings. This year she stood on top of the podium as 2018 British National Enduro Champion en route to a Madonna party in full 80s garb, much to the amusement of all watching.



Elsewhere...
F-Rider Cairn Bell made the long journey to Austria for the UCI DH World Cup in Leogang, she felt good in practice but ultimately made too many mistakes in qualifying to get through to the finals. At the top of the leaderboard, Rachel Atherton bounced back from disappointment in Fort Bill to take the win ahead of Myriam Nicole by a fraction of a second, while Tahnee Seagrave was disqualified for a mistake in the tapes.

Fellow F-Rider, 10 year old Heather Wilson was racing at Ae forest in another Borders Mini DH. Heather's first run put her 14 seconds in the lead with a 1.37 and on her 2nd run her chain came off 5 seconds out the start gate in the rock garden.
Heather came first with a 13-second lead; 4 wins out of 4 so far with one race left of the Borders Mini DHs.

Teammate Aimi Kenyon was enjoying a birthday weekend off racing. So how do you celebrate your 13th birthday – by riding the black DH track at Fort William of course!

Next up...
This coming weekend F-Riders Rose Tempest and Tyde D’Souza will be in action at the Malvern Classic along with Ella Conolly. Polly and Roz will be taking on the SES at Ae, while Aimi will be riding in the SDA at Innerleithen. Anna Mac will be turning her hand to a Dirt Crit in Peebles on Thursday, followed by Round 4 of the SXC at Lochore Meadows on Sunday.

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