UK Loses Gravity Enduro Series for 2016
 | After five years of the UKGE I have to announce there will be no sixth year in 2016. The series started off slowly and built up to something massive. It took over my life, morning, noon and night. At the start of 2015, I became homeless with our first born expected in April, this was what can only be described as troubling times for Liz and myself. This is in no way an excuse for my handling of the PR associated with UKGE, it is the hard facts, I am putting my hands up to making a complete mess of the situation. Maybe in the near future people will look back and think it was visionary, only time will tell. All through my years of organising events, it has always been my goal to put rider's wishes first, if they ever said I had done a bad job, I would have stopped. At heart, I am a racer, always have been and always will be. It is what we live for - great racing! The UKGE team has brought you amazing races across the country and put enduro in the UK at the forefront of every Mountain Biker''s thoughts. So, thank you to all who have made the five years amazing, and so much fun as well. I am going to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to all the sponsors that have supported the series: the Forestry Commission, for letting us host the races, and to the happy faces we see at so many races. Charlie Williams, for his outstanding contribution to the series - he has bought all his years of racing in Europe into developing the stages. Last but not least, anyone who has helped prepare stages over the past five years, especially the "Trail pixies;" Dominic Pearce, Ed Wright and Richard Marsden. Next year sees me hitting the big Five 0, so it is time for me to go racing and spend some quality time with Liz and our beautiful baby girl, Imogen. The UKGE team will be doing possibly two events in 2016, one of these will be a week long bike festival, the other remains a close guarded secret! Get yourself along to round five at Dyfi and say goodbye to the original and still the best series for Gravity Enduro in the UK. - Steve Parr |
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What were the PR issues, what's the BC done?
Real shame that it has come to a close. Could someone or a group of people take this over and keep it going?
But very good series, as good as ukge, insurance was 20 quid for the year and ffs are no big deal, but not 3 days riding like ukge and obviously doesnt include Wales or england
Wil BES be the same price as BDS at 90 quid a pop ?
Fortunately there will be 2 events from the UKGE team next year and still the awesome Dyfi round to come in a couple of weeks
But plenty of people like to keep slagging off a series they've never even raced!
People arguing about BC... They didn't cause this, exactly, but if they'd done their jobs and got behind our sport, it'd have taken a massive amount of pressure of Steve and co. Without that unneccesary pressure he could have focused on the important stuff and got things right, we'd probably not have had the insurance fiasco or other PR bombs. He'd not have been put through the wringer and had to deal with all the personal impact, and who knows where the series might have gone.
OTOH, enduro's maybe avoided some pitfalls that BC might have brought, after all the same negligence, incompetence and incomprehension that led us here, would have defined any attempts to support the series too
mean £95, which is more than the EWS cost. that's with he basic insurance which didn't really
cover you for anything minor.
for sure there was a hell of a lot of consternation surrounding the format /insurances/ cost/ venues etc of the UKGE but having never organised a race i'm not gonna comment on that as i have no right to.
The BCF and UCI on that matter need to get their heads out their arses though!! (from a scottish perspective) with DH race attendees falling and almost getting cancelled due to lack of numbers, and xc races only having a handful of competitors compared to sold out scottish enduro races of up to 500 riders the BCF need to acknowledge this is the future of biking for the next decade or so. they need to support and guide it. Britain as whole provides so many top class athletes in DH and Enduro its bordering on the ridiculous. Coupled with the industry hellbent on making its money from "allmountain" and "enduro" its utterly inconceivable that the BCF won't support that format of racing. hopefully they will see the light before next year and something may arise.
I urge people to come forward and support events as much as possible. what people fail to realise, is that BCF supported or not, the organisers of events like the UKGE, SXC, SES, SDA etc are run by folk volunteering and sacrificing their time. correct me if i'm wrong please but the BCF sanctioned events are not run by a bunch of BCF salaried employees, just a few dedicated rider's parents who want something more than grass roots races for their kids. they get next to zero thanks for it. but all hell breaks loose when it doesn't go to plan. if they make profit from it great but if not then it all goes down the pan.
and for those not interested in racing thats totally fine, you make up the vast majority of the riding population, but please bear in mind that the 28lb 150mm travel carbon superbike you own would not be possible without racing pushing the boundaries.
peace out and again RESPECT steve, wish you all the best for your family and future
www.moredirt.com/event/949
you will need insurance too, cheapest is cycleplan www.cycleplan.co.uk ,20 quid
Would be nice to see it sell out, but £90 entry + £20 insurance + mandatory full face makes for an expensive date vs PMBA etc