Hope PMBA Enduro, Round 1, Gisburn Forest – Video

The Hope PMBA kicked off its season, as is tradition, at Gisburn forest. The anticipation for many riders was pretty electric leading up to the race, with winter coming to an end and spring around the corner, people wanted to get back into the saddle and get on with business. However, a wet and wild one greeted them; and showed who had been putting in the winter training; Jerry Tatton reports for us on the event




Driving to the forest early in the morning, you could tell this was not going to be an ordinary race. With biblical rainfall overnight the approach roads to the forest were flooding, the rivers had started to burst their banks, and the odd car could be seen turning back not willing to brave the deep “puddles”.


Arriving at the Gisburn hub it was clear to see spirits were high. The marshals were already gathering, the banter had already started, the café was open and breakfast buns were going down a treat. It’s always fascinating listening in on the debates and conversations amongst the organisers pre-race, especially if the weather is not playing ball. “do we close down the exposed Stage 3?”, “should we shorten Stage 4?” Rider safety and enjoyment is a huge task the PMBA team take very seriously. After an inspection and some slight regret Stage 4 was shortened—there was too much flooding of the valley floor.


Kev, one of the key men behind the PMBA, was determined to run a race at Gisburn with some more natural off-piste trails, one off-piste stage had been swapped in the run up to the event and then the final part of Stage 4 was surrendered. So for the race itself it was mainly trail centre stages and half the downhill track, but it wasn't an easy course, Stage 1 was a reverse climb—well three climbs—providing tight corners, narrow trees, and rocky sections and then there’s Stage 4, the DH line, a more demanding trail with drops and tabletop jumps that can send you bucketing over the bars if you loose focus.


Trail centre stages or off piste mud, racing is racing, you all know the phrase “when the gate drops, the bullshit stops” and with some amazing prizes from a huge sponsor list.

This event was a sell out at 350 riders and despite the weather 313 riders turned up, and 296 finished to braving the wind, rain and flooded trails. Stage 3 itself had riders past the knees in water in one deep puddle, it was definitely Mudhugger weather!


There were 4 stages in total with approximately a 14-mile total circuit. Stage 1 normally a technical ascent provided riders with tight corners, narrow sections with bar banging trees and rocky ditches turned into river torrents.


Stage 2 was a familiar downhill singletrack trail but with some hard on the pedals flat and uphill sections, again technical if you ride hard and fast due to narrow trees, sharp corners, and a crafty rocky staircase type drop.


Stage 3 was brutal… From Whelpstone Cragg along to the fireroad, there were deep puddles and typical trail centre built berms and jumps. Then came a long and muscle burning sprint up the fire road to the second section of the trail, known as Hully Gully.


Even though the weather was brutal all day there were some stunning times recorded and the overall fastest time of the day was James Swinden in a staggering 9:58.979 over the four stages racing in the elite category. The overall 2nd place was hotly contested by Ian Austermuhle in 10:04.440 and 3rd overall was Callum Russell in 10:06.460. What an incredible race for the top three spots, with only one rider going sub 10 minutes over the four timed stages.


In the women's race Polly Henderson had the fastest time in the under 21 category in a superb 12:19.360 closely followed by Lucy Allan in 12:30.480 and Abigale Lawton in 12:30.480. For a full rundown of all the official times by category head over to roots and rain here



Riders always have a chance to style it up now in the form of the #KSdrop, and more spot prizes for the best pic on instagram. Gisburn final Stage 4 (Gas to Flat) contained the feature, and while impressive this week we have built the #KSdrop over at Graythwaite for the National Champs—check it out on our social media.

Jack Ackroyd keeping it low on the #KSdrop, due to strong winds survival was key! Holding on for dear life, there was no real styling it up or hucking!

So that's it, the PMBA season has started with a bang! The next race in the calendar is the Datatag UK National Championships at Graythwaite and Grizedale, covering 55km and 10 stages. For more information head over to their website here there are still a few places but with 460 entered so far not that many left!


Until next time!!

I'll leave you with a couple more images to "wet" your appetites and entice you into signing up and breaking your racing virginity.

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MENTIONS: @hopetech / @whitenosugar / @JWDTphotography / @orangebikes / @oneal

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