Race Report: Tracy Moseley Wins the PMBA Enduro at Grizedale

Last weekend saw the PMBA hosting another sell-out event at Grizedale Forest. This year has seen the PMBA go from strength to strength with sell-out events at every venue. There's never been more demand for each race this year and Grizedale was no exception. Grizedale was a strict one-day event and was labelled as the toughest event of the year.

Grizedale is one of the Super 6 Trail Centres around the north of England, the others being Chopwell, Kielder, Hamsterley, Grizedale, Whinlatter and Gisburn.

It's always a challenge at Grizedale, one of my favourite venues
—Ian Austermuhle

Grizedale sits between Lake Coniston and Lake Windermere in the South Lakes. But being in such a supreme location has its risks, mainly the weather. All eyes were on storm Lorenzo coming across the Atlantic, however, the PMBA series organiser Kev kept his nerve and put in extra plans for stages and for car parking. He put on another outstanding event, where others may have caved. From late Saturday afternoon right through Saturday night there were biblical lashings of rainfall which turned otherwise good muddy trails into slimy, muddy rivers. But this did not deter the 300+ riders from turning up and fighting it out for a place on the podium and also for the series.

This was an approximate 12 to 13 mile route with four stages, 3 super technical stages and one gravity black trail centre stage. Stage one (Loose Lips) was an all new stage at Grizedale for the PMPBA and started the other side of the valley. The other stages themselves were much closer together. Stage 2 (Viking), many of you Enduro fans will know from previous races and headed down towards Coniston lake. Stage 3 (Black) was flat out gravity trail centre black, nothing too taxing, just watch your speed or you'd end up orbiting the planet on some of the jumps.

Stage 4 (Blind Mice) was another familiar stage to the regular Hope PMBA series racers. Much of this stage was rooty and muddy with sections of characteristic sharp Lake District bedrock.

This is British Enduro at its best isn't it?
—Tracy Moseley

With 12 categories up for grabs at the Hope PMBA Enduro Series (including Hardtail) it's a complicated affair to run through all the results. However, in the men's race the fastest overall rider was again Ian Austermuhle (30-39) in a commanding 7:21.18. Second fastest male went to Josh Noble (U21) in 7:49.84 and third fastest to Josh Morris (21-29) in 7:52.20. Across the 4 stages only barely 30 seconds separated the top fastest 3 riders. It was great to see a veteran Chris Dixon breaking into the top 10 fastest males in 8:03.29. It's great to see the vets pushing the younger competitors all the way, kudos Chris!

The fastest woman of the day and no surprises went to Tracy Moseley (35+), a previous world champion in an incredible 8:52.74, second fastest went to Martha Gill (21-34) and PMBA ambassador rider in 9:29.93 and third fastest was Toni Fryer (21-34) in 10:00.53.

For a full run down of the results and to see how you compared to the rest of the field, head over to roots and rain. To see the entire 2019 series results head over to SPORTident

Round 6 of the PMBA at Grizedale was by far the most fun race this year! It's the best feeling splashing through lake sized puddles and dirty slop...so good
—Jayden Randall

So that's it for the 2019 Hope PMBA Enduro Series. Every single event a sell out with waiting lists for riders not quick enough to sign up. Next year is shaping up to be off the scale, with a return to Llangollen and expanding into a 5 stage mammoth monster of a race weekend. With a kids race to whet the appetites of the younger rippers, this is the one series to watch out for in 2020. Races will be going on sale on Saturday 16th November at 9.00am. It is anticipated that some rounds will sell out in seconds, especially Gisburn. To keep track of updates head over to the facebook pages or the official PMBA Enduro website.

Race report and images brought to you by @JWDTphotography, Adam Sherratt and @DialledinUK
Video brought to you by Ben Gerrish @HDDNmedia