PMBA Enduro Series, 14-15 Aug 2021
A wild weekend. I raced round two of the PMBA Enduro series at Langollen over the weekend. This event was an Enduro world series qualifier, meaning the difficulty was sufficient to be ridden by the best. Practice was on Saturday with the race on Sunday. This particular race was 5 timed downhill stages of around 3 mins, with a 25 min climb up a steep rocky track that in parts was too steep for my 50t cassette. This ascent was knackering and breaking out a sweat on the first one was a great sign of how tiring this event would be.
Saturday: i arrive and pedal up to then be waiting at the top of the hill for an hour and half till the medics were all cleared up. There had been three serious crashes simultaneously and the air ambulance was busy! I first dropped into stage 5. I have only ridden terrain like this once before, in Whistler bike park in Canada, except then I was on a downhill bike. My 160mm hardtail made descending bone shattering. Countless roots and rocks all held together by dust, dust being the only thing that allowed traction. Hanging off the back of the bike I work my way down, using all my ability to stay upright, remembering all I can for race day tomorrow. I pedal up again, and again, to see what the rest of the stages have to offer. More steep, more roots and more rocks. I crashed countless times, rolling down the hill getting caught in the tree was no biggie. I last rode stage 4 on that day. The marshall at the top said 'steep as shit'. Given the rest was steep enough this would be madness. And it was. Near vertical sections where you close your eyes and hope, that pictures could never do justice. I came out of that track a changed man.
Sunday, race day. My plan was to take it easy on everything but the straights, a crash would cost more time than being cautious. Stages one to three go excellently, I'm up to third in the hardtail category. Then rain. Before the hardest stage. I said earlier that dust was the only place I had grip. This was now mud making the roots and rocks even slipperier. I went for it. It did not go well. I slipped out at least 4 times and was so thankful to make it down without any serious injuries. With a broken shoe and a tired, very bashed up body I called it a day and went home to avoid any further injury. The rain was still coming down and my chances of breaking a wrist or a collarbone on the super steep stage 5 were too high for me to ride it. I came away happy. Happy to be in one piece, happy to have ridden this madness, happy to have potential for a result. This madness is the best thing going!
Ollie Maynard