Hope PMBA Enduro Series 2018
19 December 2017 | By billy19792018 will be the 4th year of the PMBA Enduro series, and we have a diverse range of events for a diverse range of mountain bikers. As always our emphasis will be on fun, and the variety of what enduro can bring, entries open 9am on Saturday 6th January 2018.
We'll start with a trail centre heavy first round at Gisburn Forest, and step up the technicality & fitness requirements for round two at Grizedale. Round 3; a 2-day Epic at Graythwaite rounds out the spring events with a "certainly not grass roots" offering based around the 2017 Datatag National Enduro Champs stages.
After the summer break we'll hit the loam of Kirroughtree for round four before the series final at Lee Quarry and Havok Bike Park with the second 2-day event of the series.
Credit: JWDT Photography
Building on success
Last year was great year for PMBA Enduro; we hosted the first BEMBA sanctioned National Enduro Champs, ran the inaugural Hopetech womens enduro and lowered our minimum age from 14 to 11 years old. While at the time this age lowering was done for a select few shredders its been a huge success. We have had a good number of kids cross over from Moto-trails as its good for their training as well as CX riders and of course kids stepping up from just riding who had never competed.
Credit: JWDT Photography
Last year we introduced a U16 male category to complement the age reduction, and along with our push for more women enduroists we offered U21, Open and Veteran categories at every round. For 2018 we are going even further to help encourage the next generation we've added U14 male and U16 female categories to our line up. 13 categories in total and 5 podium spaces available per category means we are giving out 65 prizes per round - better than a 1:5 chance of a prize!
2018 Categories.
Men : U14, U16, U19, Senior, Master/30+, Vet/40+, Grand Vet/50+ & Elite
Women : U16, U21, Senior/Open , Vet/40+
Unisex : Hardtail (additional category).
Ages are taken as age on 31st December 2018 not age on day of the event.
Entry Link
Entries open 9am Saturday 6th January 2018
All PMBA Enduro events are available for ages 11+, however we strongly advise that parents entering children under 16 contact us beforehand. We can advise you of what the event might entrail and give you the information you need to make an informed judgement on the suitability of the event for your child. All under 16’s must be chaperoned, the chaperone must stay with the child on the transitions for the full event and make sure they can ride the stages safely in practice. Chaperones must be 18+ they maybe another racer, or a support rider; we do not charge for support riders.
E-Bikes?
While we fully agree E-bikes have a place in mountain biking, especially getting the less fit/able out into the countryside we firmly believe that there is no place for E-bikes in Enduro. If you have ridden an e-bike you will know they are most fun on a technical climb, and just a bit too heavy for maximising a descent. Enduro is all about the descent. Ebikes are not allowed at PMBA Enduro events, even in practice, any racer on an e-bike will be disqualified.
However if you are a non-racing support rider for an U16 you are more than welcome to use an e-bike; please ensure that it is a bike, and not a motorbike; ie "Cycles with pedal assistance which are equipped with an auxiliary electric motor having a maximum continuous rated power of 0.25 kW, of which the output is progressively reduced and finally cut off as the vehicle reaches a speed of 25km/h (15.5mph) or if the cyclist stops pedaling."
