Video: UK Gravity Enduro Tour 2015 Season Preview

Welcome to 2015 people – this is your new home for UKGES news and videos for the 2015 season. Throughout the year we will be dropping film and news stories for each round and will be doing our very best to ensure that we bring you the best coverage we possibly can. We’ve put together a little film to try and whet your appetites for the forthcoming races. Thanks to all those who took the time to get involved.


A Cunning Plan

During the course of the year, we will be largely focusing on the progress and pace of the top riders. However, at every round we will be picking a rider to follow over the course of the weekend to track their progress and get a little insight into how individuals who actually have to earn a living and manage family life, attack and ultimately enjoy their racing. So come talk to us and be part of the story.

2015

Safety comes first! I'm sure this is not something that gets you super excited but lets (full) face it; it is an important issue. Signage and taping has doubled this year and the mandatory implementation of full face helmets is another positive decision in the interest of the future of the sport, not to mention your face. Standard practice almost everywhere else, sweaty on a hot day but much appreciated if things don't stay rubber side down.


The quality of the tracks at UKGES have grown with the enthusiasm for the sport. Grizedale 2014, in particular, was a tour de force. A committed in-house trail team have developed the balance of physical and technical riding enormously.

So what else in on the up for 2015? Timing for sure, Chris Robert and the Naked Racing team have been on it and with a new timing chip system – times will be uploaded instantaneously to the web via www.actionsportstiming.co.uk and all runs are backed up using last year Tag Hueur system for added security.

2014 Results Analysis

I was keen to have bit of enquiry over the course of the year to explore some of the numbers behind the race results. Over the next few articles we'll be asking some questions to see if there are any stories lurking behind the podium. Seeing as we are yet to race in 2015, let's have a look at 2014.

Let's start with an easy one: Who was the quickest rider? Sounds simple enough but there are a number of ways to look at it. Who got the most points over the year is not necessarily the best way to look at it. What I've compiled below are five different ways of measuring the overall results from last year. It's not what you measure but how you measure it that really matters! This analysis is greatly impacted by those riders who do not race all the rounds, however, there are ways of reviewing the data to level this out. But let's see what we can come up with.

1) Overall series points from 2014


2) Taking the enduro format to its logical conclusion; who was actually fastest based on aggregate times over five rounds? Clearly this throws up some issues with those who didn't race 5 rounds, elite male/female being the most obvious. The Don took last year's series title but missed the last round due to injury. Excluding all those who didn't race all five rounds the series' results look like this:


3) What if we average out the stage times over the year to see who had the fastest average stage time of the year? Again, we can only really review those who raced all five rounds, given the variability of stage lengths over the course of the year:


4) Now let's look at the average stage position over the course of the year to see how competitive each racer is across every stage; a good check on consistency.


5) The last measure is to only consider each riders best race, review their average stage position and in doing so, make some effort to eliminating the effects of riders not doing the whole series or just doing their favourite or home race, giving a more useful comparison against the whole field of racers within a category. This means we can include all those riders who only raced one or two races and it becomes a more interesting measure of performance.


I'll be adding all data from 2011 through to 2014 and beyond to build up an ever-increasingly clear picture of everyone's true competitive nature. Personally, I like the average stage position ranking over the course of the year as the truest indicator of pace. Maybe this is where you should be looking to see who is the fastest out of you and your friends?!


There we have it. We have come full circle and we are now back at the start of 2015, I must say it is a shame not to have Leigh Johnson tackling the top elite boys at least for the start of the year, out with a shoulder injury. As the results above show, he could have been a real contender for the year. Also missing, crowd favourite Neil Donoghue, concentrating on other duties and taking a well-earned rest from full-time racing. This will leave a nice gap for others to slot into at the top for the overall title.

See you at Triscombe!