Race Report: One Industries Mini Enduro - Forest of Dean

The Cannop Cycle Centre in the heart of the Royal Forest of Dean has increasingly become a popular spot for Mountain Biking; whether that's for a family ride round the woods, uplifted Downhill runs or more recently for Gravity Enduro events. Last weekend saw the second round of the One Industries Mini Enduro rock up to the old Colliary site for the third Enduro race there in the last 6 months.

As venues go it has everything you need with plenty of space for parking, a bike wash, café and a multitude of off-piste and official trails criss-crossing the hillside. The weatherman had forecast heavy showers on Saturday for the unofficial practice and then heavy rain for most of race day which was set to make things a bit trickier after getting used to nice dry, grippy trails over the last few weeks. The entry lists looked stacked with over 75 riders in Senior, 109 in Masters & just shy of 300 riders in total! With this number of riders and the wet conditions it was bound to become a mud bath in no time at all.

The stages turned out to be very similar to those used last November for the Mini Enduro. However instead of just running three stages, the first stage was to be ridden again at the end to enable overall times to be made of four timed runs and give riders a little more saddle-time for their money.

Stage One saw riders sprint out of the start gate, round a drifty turn and onto a 20 second fireroad sprint to get them going. From there on things became a little more tricky with some well worn ruts and rooty corners weaving you through the first set of trees. Dropping down over a fireroad and into a steep slidey gully, riders were then faced with a number of bus stops and small jumps before hitting a long off-camber. On the Saturday the off-camber had a couple of sneaky high lines that got you off of the main worn in and line and straightened out a couple of awkward kinks; but as expected, by race day, these had been taped out to make things more even/awkward (delete as appropriate!) The final section saw you head down the hill and pick up a bit more speed before hitting what turned into a complete bog and mess of rutted lines by Sunday afternoon. There was then one last rooty sprint towards the timing beam, where you could either ride down into a ditch and out through the compression or gap the lot, which had become a much more popular option since last years event, although it did take a number victims when it went wrong, myself included!

Stage Two, like Stage One, was identical to the stage used previously for the MiniEnduro so those who had ridden back in November had a little of an advantage. The top section saw a mixture of drifty flat corners and rutted ones as you pedalled your way through the fairly flat woodlands. The second half became a little more gravity assisted and an extra line or two had been added on the more technical corners but unfortunately the big roll-in to the fire road and the timing beam had to be left out as there was an endurance horse ride also happening in the woods that was using that bottom fire road, so it was marginally shorter than normal.

A quick push and ride back up the hill and you were at the start of Stage Three, again starting at the usual point, 30 metres from the start of stage 2. This one had a very muddy flat sprint start, to the point where if you wiggled to much whilst getting the power down you could feel the back end start trying to catch the front! There was another long traverse of the hill with small compressions and ruts which if you looked ahead there was also the odd highline developing to miss some of the mud. A fireroad and a few gentle corners dropped you into the next and the most technical section. A couple of jumps and tight off camber sections dropped you into another traverse of the hill but this time with a freshly dug shelf. This helped you keep some speed into a wide 180 turn that was pure speedway as your back wheel decided it didn't want to grip anymore and most of the time you scooted yourself round. Heading straight down the hill you got back up to speed again before hitting the last section of rooty corners that you just had to hit as hard and fast as you dared. A final sprint through more mud to the end and you were through the beam.

Many riders were experimenting with spikes whilst others were sticking to their normal tyre choice and hoping for the best. Enduro-Mag's Jim Buchanan was psyched on some new Michelin tyre that he had cut down to 'Enduro-Spec' but most of us were just enjoying skating about with the standard hoops of rubber.

Racing started and although there was the odd short, sharp downpour the weather wasn't as bad as predicted. Unfortunately the damage had already been done to the track. As usual there was a great atmosphere and everyone was pumped to get down the stages as quickly and smoothly as they could because it was clear that the ones that managed to keep it rubber side down that would end up doing well.

The Pro AM category saw a handful of Elite and Expert downhillers give Enduro a go and there were comments during the race of how relaxed it all felt, "as if you were just out for a ride with your mates." In the end it was Bike Park Wales' Rowan Sorrell who took the win, although with issues with the timing in other categories, there was a point where it looked like Marin's Chris Keeble Smith was going to take the win when stage 3 times were disregarded. However they were eventually reinstated for the Pro Am category leaving Chris to take second place.

So for all other categories stage three's times were removed. Somewhere along the line a number of categories had errors that could have been solved but not without about three hours work. Chris decided that this was the best way to be able to have podiums and wrap the day up but this did leave some riders disappointed that their original result that was posted up had now changed, especially if they had ridden stage 3 well.

The Under 18 category saw Ollie Hooper in third, Mason Pritchard in second and Ben Jones riding his way to first place. Hardtails were surprisingly not that much slower than the U18's showing that a venue like FoD can be ridden hard and fast without springs front and back. David MacDonald took third with Garrick Thomas in second but it was Zelous Bike Co. rider Paul Mackie that took the win with a very comfortable 30-second lead.

The women's category was probably the easiest to predict the win; with Trek World Racing's Tracey Moseley in attendance it was a done deal from the moment she swung a leg over her bike. Amongst the others it was Liz Simmons who took third and On-One's Rachael Gurney taking second. Super Veterans category saw Dion Thomas in third and Velotive's Tony Hicks a substantial 40 seconds ahead in second. Just under 5 seconds faster was the Super Vets winner Kevan Sherry. Veterans saw a familiar face to the enduro scene & and an old school face from downhill, Jim Buchanan taking third place on the spikes with second place taken by Bad Ass Bike's Andy Sadler not that far ahead. However Veterans saw another comprehensive win, this time by Sam Jones, leading the rest of the field by 20 seconds.

The largest category by far was the Rock Guardz Masters category. The podium looked like a who's who of downhill in the late 90s, two of which regulars to recent enduro events and one who was making a return to MTB racing. Third place went to BadAssBikes/Intense's Joe Finney just 0.3 of a second behind Team Skene rider of days gone by, Gareth Hopkins. And with his usual finesse and skills, taking the win by 8 seconds was BadAssBikes/Intense's Andrew Titley.

The Trailhead Senior category was again tightly contested with a number of riders wanting to gain points for the overall series win. But a lot of riders had local knowledge on their side, combined with the slidey conditions it was prime for some surprises. Respect has to be given to the Bike Glove Store's Tom Dunn, who managed to stay on his bike for possibly the first time this year and rode to a solid 4th in Senior making him a very happy bunny heading homewards to the Southwest. Unfortunately I was hit by the removal of stage three times and although the first set of results showed me in second, I end up in third. Taking second was DeltaBike's rider Paul Pickup but again sealing the deal with a massive margin of almost 18 seconds was Mojo's Joe Taylor.

The results fiasco and the waiting around for the podiums did leave a good day of racing feeling a little strange as some went away happy whilst others drove home a bit miffed with how it panned out. However racing's racing and sometimes this is the way it goes. Its been over a year since the Mini Enduro had timing issues so it can be forgiven as just 'one of those things'. Whichever way it went, it was still a good day of slip-sliding about on two wheels and most people left the Forest of Dean looking forward the next Mini Enduro in June.

Photos: photo-bike.com