A sunny Enduro6

If you flip a coin (or in this case a rather appropriate first aid kit) and it lands on the side you picked, who does the le-mans run? The jury is undecided, but it got me out of doing the run at the start on Sunday! Riding buddy Andy (Leicester RC) had asked me to race and seeing as I've never done Enduro6 or competed in the male pairs category for a while I took up the offer.

The 'unique' parc ferme format (probably not the word the caterer had for it seeing all his customers locked away on the other side of the barriers all day) made for some great tactical battles, with a changeover costing nearly a minute, Giles Drake (team elite) opted for a massive 4 lap stint after the run, counter to the more popular 2 lap strategy of most teams. At just 6hrs, every second counts with positions changing all day long and it was great fun mixing it up with the Rapid Racer Products and Columbia Bikefood teams as we all chased a top ten finish. 

After the driest April on record, conditions out on the course were very dry and dusty. Happy days! A couple of short steep power climbs weren't enough to keep average speeds below 20kph (and lap times as low as 24 minutes if you're Lee Williams) with a couple of fun descents to reclaim the altitude gained. There were also a few bits of really twisty 'designed at walking pace' singletrack, but as everything else was so fast and flowy, you couldn't complain as they were the only chance to catch your breath.

With no fun cop-out category, the racing at the front of the pairs was pretty fierce, a proper elite xc racer smackdown. I'm not biased, but it was AWESOME :-) to see Dave Collins and Dan Booth (Hope Factory Racing) closing out the win. Me and Andy finished 15th, my face at the finish line realising I'd just missed the cut to to get out for a 13th lap was a classic!

Congrats to Phil on his second place in the solo category - seeing him at the finish was not the picture of a man who wants to drive back across the country towing a caravan on a bank holiday weekend!

Racing action from the seaside resort of Catton Park

6hrs of dust. Probably not as quick as fake tan, maybe as long lasting.

Someone isn't trying hard enough. Stop smiling and start suffering!

Thanks to Rob Crayton for the pic (you can probably guess which one!). And Nadine, XCracer.com, Exposure lights, Accelerade nutrition, Mt. Zoom components and Gateway Cycles for their support.

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