QECP Day and Night Enduro – Race Report
Oli Carter headed to the Queen Elizabeth Country Park to take part in a true grass roots event – The QECP Day and Night Enduro.
Everyone starts riding because its fun…
Everyone starts racing because they want the bragging rights over there mates…
These 2 core reasons for why we ride are often over looked in this day and age of high profile and serious racing…. but not by the Trail Collective at Queen Elizabeth Country Park.
Their grass roots race series is among the best in the country, the quality of the tracks, the atmosphere of the event and the spot on organization makes for some of the most fun racing I have ever done.
The Day/Night race format is a great concept for the UK. I don’t know about you but I night ride a lot over the winter, if you want to keep up to speed then there isn’t much of a choice. Riding in the rain and mud is hard enough for some but add in the night factor and suddenly your favourite trail changes to a brand new beast, I swear it makes you a better/faster rider… riding a lot more from feel rather than sight.
With over 200 riders signed up to race, the Trail collective did an amazing job at putting on an event to suit everyone, beginners to Pro. The tracks were a great mix of technical DH and fitness with relaxed transitions, everyone had enough time to comfortably make there start times for each of the 4 stages. I might just add the best live timing system too!!! (big race organisers take heed!!!)
Stages 1 & 2 dropped out the back of the park down the ‘steep’ side of the South downs giving 2 technically challenging DH stages. Keeping upright was the trick to a good result here. I pushed hard where I knew the tracks were running well and backed off slightly in the blown out sections. My Exposure lights blinded everyone but me, burning so bright and enabling me to keep on the fast high lines out of the ruts. Have a look at the on-board video to get an idea of the tricky conditions from practicing the stages in the day and Racing them at night.
Stages 3 & 4 were the physical ones, both around the 4 lung busting minute mark… it really was about who could grit there teeth and get the power down, my Cube Stereo 29er was in its element here smashing through everything in its path.
Stage 4 finished into the race arena with a great flood lit set up and most importantly beer waiting for you as soon as you crossed the line, necking one out of breath and all fired up was definitely a highlight of the race for me!!
No question about it, the QECP Trail Collective put on an amazing show, combining the race with the QECP cycle fest and Hardgroves cycles Demo weekend put the icing on the cake for an amazing festival of riding, racing and having a good time on 2 wheels.
Make sure you keep a beady eye on the QECP Trail Collective website and FB page for this summers racing and for next years night race. I think tickets will sell out quicker than ever as this race takes its place as number one night race in the UK.
www.qecptrailcollective.co.uk/
Photos – Big mac Photography
https://www.facebook.com/bigmacphotography
