ND(H)uro – Kidland – Race Report
Last weekend saw the last round of the ND(H)uro races held at one of my favourite venues, Kidland Forest in Northumberland. I obviously had to go along and spend the day getting loose on the steep wooded slopes.
Due to my new business I’ve had a little time off racing but with this one being at Kidland, one of my favourite venues, I had to come out of hiding.
Carl and his NDH crew have a bit of a rep for putting on good (some will read that as challenging) tracks. Remember the first races at Alwinton, amazing tracks that challenged the best of us. These days we’re riding the same tracks but on long travel XC bikes. If you find most enduro races a little on the tame side, a bit to much trail centre, come and try what NDH have on offer next year.
This event was solely on the Kidland hill, not using Alwinton on the other side of the valley. As a single day event it ran really well, four times stages over two tracks. A couple of hours practice in the morning, then each stage was open for an hour for racing.
The original DH track was used for stages one and two, with only a small detour towards the end which avoided the steeper sections. This has to be one of my favourite tracks I’ve ridden, a great mix of steep, rocks, fast flowing sections, it has it all. The enduro route misses the gnarlier bits unfortunately but maybe these’ll be included one day.
Stage two was on a brand new, just cut in trail. The only sections which included much work were some rocky sections in the middle, some great loose rocky turns which were hard to get through clean at pace. The rest of the track included off camber grassy turns, steep loose corners, rough natural straights. It’s fair to say it was a test of skills, far more exciting (to me anyway) than most of these ‘trail centre’ enduros.
With open practice on both tracks for a couple of hours, it gave people the option to ride which ever they preferred, I believe most people spent the time getting to grips (literally) with the off camber looseness of stage two.
Results –
14-18 Boys
Corey Watson – 9:55.32
Scott Woolley – 10:02.60
Joe Braithwaite – 10:25.79
19-29 Men
Michael Easton – 8:51.59 (Fastest time of the day)
Joe Young – 9:19.99
Blake White – 9:48.94
30-39 Men
Phillip Grimes – 9:23.57
Chris Lazenby – 9:27.19
Brad Illingworth – 9:30.90
40+ Men
Zac Hubery – 9:31.42
Ian Cation – 9:46.56
Alun Morley – 9:56.60
Women
Helen Gaskel – 10:36.78
Sarah Newman – 12:19.19
Lucy Bell – 12:36.74
Overall Series Winners –
14-18 – Joe Braithwaite
19-29 – Michael Easton
30-39 – Brad Illingworth
40+ – Ian Cation
Women – Melissa Pearson
Here’s a teaser for next years events but not set in stone just yet –
17 Jan Chopwell TT
14 Feb ND(H)uro Hamsterley Forest
13 Mar Kidland TT
17 Apr Hamsterley TT (transmition etc)
7/8 May Kidland ND(H)uro 5 stages !
19 Jun Pateley Bridge (Yorkshire) TT
21 Aug Eastgate TT (Co Durham)
11 Sept Kielder TT
9 Oct Hamsterley TT Universal Championship!
6 Nov Start Fun-duro Kielder
A big thanks to Carl and the rest of his team for all the hard work and for putting on a great event, not just this one but throughout the year. I’m already looking forward to next year, at one point I even heard Carl say ‘I’d like to put a hard enduro on next year’. Well I certainly can’t wait for that one.
Photos – Adrian Webb –
See his Roots & Rain album here
Or his Facebook page here
