Mini Enduro – Haldon Hill

Haldon has had a bit of a slating in reviews gone by, but that hasn’t stopped it from growing into the mint trail centre it is today. Back in the day the place was littered with super booters and girt big hucks but those have since gone and Sunday 10th February saw Chris Roberts bring out some race tape to put on a mini enduro race. Haldon couldn’t be more suited to this type of event.

Weather
With the race being In February the weather was never going to be great but it really wasn’t great particularly not for sunny Devon. After heavy rain over night and heavy showers in the morning we knew we were in for a wet one, mudguards where luckily purchased in advance!! When my brother and I arrived at Haldon there was a thick fog lingering over it, with intermittent showers making conditions a bit more challenging than normal.

Grass Roots racing
It was quite a surprise to arrive in the car park to find a girt big One Industries vehicle alongside Atherton racing. It was pretty sweet to see the Athertons at a grass roots race alongside 150 riders that where willing to brave the weather and pay the £45 entry fees.

Practice
Practice was good we had enough time to do a run and some sectioning on each stage. Although there was 150 riders the nature of the event ensures there are no queues and certainly no issues of track traffic. Everyone spread out between the 3 stages and we were free to get on with smashing turns in a very relaxed fashion. There was a great atmosphere and buzz about the place which ensured for some great racing later in the day.

Stages
There were three stages all tracks provided a great variety of challenging riding from some steep tight sections to some loamy turns and plenty of muddy rocky bits. There was plenty of pedalling involved as well with the 1st stage being surprisingly pedally when it came to race runs, it was by far the longest stage and it had a few sprints along with some quality loamy turns at the top.
Stage 2: Was more suited to the downhillers with some sections being quite tricky and having a few crucial turns to be smashed and it being relatively short meant it required more skills than endurance.

Stage 3: By race runs was a muddy off camber mess with sections that in practise had been quite fast were now slower or so they felt after a good days riding under our belts. I was probably feeling it from chasing my Brother (the XC bandit) around all morning.

Tracks
The tracks where very well chosen by the local riders and organiser, nice one! I recommend everyone who hasn’t made the trip down south to come and give the tracks a go. Come down and try and beat the Atherton’s times on strava.

Racing
There were a few little issues with timing it must have been a learning curve for the organiser and the results got published on roots and rain first thing Monday so it was all good. I think the event was mint and look forward to doing more like this in the future.

Results
Gee Atherton won but don’t read too much into what the piece of paper with the names on said as Dan Atherton ended up having to do his second and third stage twice that’s to the bottom and then back up again as his first attempts didn’t register. Maybe because they were off the Richter scale we’ll never know. Taylor Vernon was chasing them not far behind.
I ended up 4th which meant I beat my brother.

Adam Price- Ride.io – 6:53.6 …. 1-0…. Ben Price – Torq performance- 6:57.1

Pro-Am
Gee Atherton – 6:01.0
Dan Atherton – 6:13.4
Taylor Vernon – 6:42.5

Senior
Joe Buck – 6:59.7
Matthew Snelling – 7:14.3
Rich Gardiner – 7:17.2

Master
Martin Astley – 6:54.9
Kye Forte – 7:05.2
Joe Finney – 7:12.9

Veteran
Richard Webster – 7:26.2
Andy Saddler – 7:35.6
Lee Sampson – 7:40.9

Super Vets
Christopher Waddup – 9:38.2
Robert Williams – 10:35.0
Graham Paramenter – 12:59.0

Open 13-17
James Keen – 7:57.5
Finley Clay – 8:00.9
Oliver Watt – 8:04.7

Hardtail 13+
Paul Mackie – 8:05.5
Chris Lamley – 8:13.3
Brett Stabler – 8:35.5

Women
Fay Cunningham – 9:42.9
Ruby Miller – 09:47.3
Helen Burgess – 09:56.2

Check out the rest of the results here…..
http://www.rootsandrain.com/race1754/2013-feb-10-one-industries-mini-enduro-1-haldon/overall/

Words – Adam Price

Photos – Martin Walker (Roots & Rain / Facebook)