Race Report: X-Fusion Enduro1 – Round 3 – Grogley
31 July 2014 | By billy1979So far this year the Enduro1 series of races in the South of the country have really upped their game & put on some great, well organised events. In the lead up to round 3 at Grogley woods in Cornwall, Carlos (the organiser) posted that entry numbers weren’t as high as they needed to be and a cancellation could be on the cards. Thankfully this spurred enough people on to get their entries in and everything was set for Enduro1 to put on their first race in Cornwall.
Grogley Woods is situated between Bodmin & Wadebridge, only a 20 minute drive from the official trail centres of Cardinham & Lanhydrock. Whereas these local trail centres are aimed more at families & novice riders Grogley has been built by local riders to provide something a bit more challenging. In the area you get the bonus of not only Grogley woods but Bishops Wood & Hustyns Wood within spitting distance of each other which offers the perfect Enduro-style loop.
The setup of three different woods for the stages & another wood on the opposite side of the valley for registration did make things a little more tricky to work out but once you had your head around where things were it definitely made for an interesting, if not a little more tiring venue. Once registered and issued with your timing chip to attach to your wrist, riders were started at the usual 30-second intervals from near registration. This sent you straight down into some interesting single track with berms and jumps before you had got anywhere near Grogley woods. With a first transition like this we knew we were in for a treat.
From the bottom of the valley it was a steady fireroad climb up to stage 1, a trail known by the locals as ‘Quarrytipper’ that was pretty much a downhill track. The top section had some fast flowing bermed turns before you entered the middle section of tighter, flat, rooty turns & a lot of trees at the side of the trail to be wary of. Down the bottom section things got steeper with some steep dug in switchbacks that were still quite greasy from the previous days rain. You then fired down a gully, round a 90 degree catch berm before a 5 second sprint over some dodgy roots to the timing gate. From there it was back up the Grogley fireroad to the top of the woods before dropping into another great transition singletrack, along a muddy farmers track and out onto a road. Pedalling along the road you soon dropped into Bishops Wood for another transition singletrack before pedalling back up the valley to Hustyns wood.
Stage two in Hustyns Wood saw a mixture of freshly cut lines, old MX enduro trails and old forgotten MTB trails being thrown together to create a slidey, rooty and quite pedally stage. The top section diped you in and out of small gulleys, round flat rooty turns as well as round the odd bermed turn before spitting you out across a fireroad and into a long rooty traverse. This was quite tricky to keep the power down all the time as the roots kept trying to kick you back wheel up into the air but before long it was over and you were into the last section; a 6 foot wide gulley. This was a bit like a roller coaster as you headed almost straight down the hill picking up good speed whilst at the same time trying not to get caught up in the water eroded rut in the middle. The next transition bucked the trend by giving you some uphill singletrack, winding your way back up through the valley before you hit the fireroad and winching your way round to the top of the monster that was stage 3.
For the majority of riders, stage three was a 6+ minute long epic that took you through tight, rooty Christmas tree sections, along off camber hillside traverses that seemed to go on forever and then down into a high speed final section, dodging trees & ruts before spitting out through a stream to the timing gate. It was a really physical stage that took a lot of judgement on the riders part in order not to blow themselves out too early; and that without taking into account the 20-second uphill sprint midway through the stage. This is what more enduro stages need to be like!
A mixture of singletrack and fireroad led you back to Bishops wood for stage 4, known locally as ‘the rabbit hole’. This had to be the most fun and flowing of the stages as well as the most man-made of the lot. There was a deceiving flat section at the top that soon led into the steeper stuff. You fired down the hill meeting jumps, drop, catch-berms, rock gardens, built up switchbacks and flat out straights. It was so much fun that I bet most riders finished it and wanted to head back up to do it again! Unfortunately this wasn’t an option and it was onwards along the Camel cycle trail (an old railway line linking Bodmin & Wadebridge) back to Grogley woods for the final stage.
Stage 5 was again another mixed bag of trail styles; starting out very rooty and pedally it soon opened out into a recently forested section where you just had to get on the gas & keep the momentum going before launching over a bank into the middle section. Probably my favourite part of the loop, this middle section was a complete loam-fest as you weaved your way through the trees surfing on a layer of all-time brown pow!! Every turn seemed to get the bike drifting but at the last second you’d gain traction again spitting you in just the right direction down the trail. You soon dropped down into the steepest part of the hill and a section known as the ‘Champery turns.’ These were a series of steep switchbacks that dropped you down into catch berms. The last one of these even had a little rocky outcrop that you either teetered round or dropped straight over. With the damp greasy conditions these were pretty damn tricky & easily overshot if you weren’t careful. The final section, again resurrecting an old trail twisted you over another mass of root and straight down the hill before hitting a berm and a 5 second sprint to the time gate.
It was then back up to the campsite & registration area, which took you back up the initial transition single track; some opted to pedal whilst others pushed, as there was no time limit to get back to the arena. Once the timing chips had been handed over & the print out of your times received the waiting game begun as the rest of the competitors made their way back and clocked in their times too.
The junior category saw seven young riders taking to the tracks; Noah Williams (Plush Hill Cycles) took third, 25 seconds ahead of him was Lawrence Pitman (Stop Components) whilst taking the Junior win by a 10 second margin was Somerset’s Jack Delbridge. The Grand Veterans saw all the usual faces on their bikes and charging for the win as well as Chris Stares, a usual face on the UKGE scene, making the trip down from Swansea. It was three riders familiar to the Enduro1 podium steps in the end making the top three. In third was Tony Dinham with David Brown taking second place but taking the top step by a massive 2 minutes and 20 seconds gap was Westcoastmountainbiking.com/Velotive’s Tony Hicks! The veteran class also saw a return of three familiar faces to the top three and all of them a nice margin ahead of the rest of the pack, with sub 17 minute finishing times. Third place saw the return of Chris Ames whilst Graham Sheldon sneaked into second place but it was Bad Ass Bike’s Andy Sadler who put two seconds into Graham to take the win.
The largest category of the day was the Masters with 35 riders competing. Second and third places both managed the sub-17 minute times but the winner managed to break the sub-16 minute barrier. In third it was local rider Jonathan Gregory, who despite holding a few of the Strava KOMs in the woods couldn’t quite fend of the competition. The Masters second place went to Chris Blackmore but again it was another Bad Ass Bike’s rider taking the top spot; Matthew De Villanueva with a time of 15 mins 47 seconds.
The Senior category saw the top two riders elevated to Enduro1’s equivalent to Pro (the Overall category) so making the Senior podium were Murray Roe (TFTuned) in third, Charles Jones also making the trip down from Swansea for second place whilst Sam Wakefield took the win with a cool 11 second margin. And finally, elevated from their categories into the Overall top 3, with the three fastest times of the day were a bunch of SouthWest locals and riding buddies who between them took the fastest times of the day on all stages as well as not being too far from the sub-15 minute mark. In third was Tom Dunn riding for Hot Pursuit Cycles/Centrax/Bikeglovestore.com who is slowly getting past the bad luck and numerous crashes that he started the season off with to show his real enduro potential. Second place, and moving up from Masters, was Mondraker UK/Raceface’s Ashley Mullane who was chuffed to put the world to rights & beat his training partner, Tom Dunn, who had beaten him the previous weekend at the Mondraker MTB rally. But to my surprise, especially after a helmet cracking crash 4 days before the race, I managed to knock a couple of seconds off Ash’s second place time to take the overall win for Banshee/One Industries/MRP, with a 15 minute 7 seconds finishing time. It was quite a close fight for the podium between the three of us but I was super stoked to have good mates and fellow SouthWesterners making it to the top.
Despite the threat of the event not going ahead and the heavy showers the day before making conditions a little tricky in places, it has to be said that Carlos really exceeded expectations with this one. From the lush weather (out of his control I know) to the great organisation and the awesome mixture of different trails taking you on a tour of three different woods, it really was of the best Enduros to hit the south of the country yet! Fingers crossed that more organisers will realise the potential of Grogley for events in the future, as I’m sure the woods have even more to offer and I will certainly be looking forward to the Enduro1 series returning there next year.
Photos by: Simon Stuart-Miller
