Southern Enduro #2 - Tidworth

Like a fine wine the Southern enduro series is maturing, getting better with each taste. We headed to Tidworth Freeride in Hampshire for some super tight racing at round 2 of the series

Tidworth has forever been a DH and Freeride venue so we were really excited to see what Scott and his team were going to conjure up for the Enduro Crowd. A big shout out to Phil and Neal from the Tidworth DH club and Ian from B1ke for making the venue ‘Enduro specific’ for the weekend, even building a transition climb for the event!

As per usual the weather played all its cards over the day, with trail conditions ranging from dust to ice rink like wet hard pack chalk. These made for testing conditions for everyone over the 6 stages.

With the venue being nice and compact, practice was a relaxed affair…. you could get to the top of the hill in around 6 mins and with the trails being between 1-2 mins you could get as many laps in as your legs would allow.

Stage 1 was the pedally and natural stage… starting off climbing up a rooty DH descent for 20 seconds then dropping into an interconnecting track combining fresh cut trails and existing DH tracks. This is something that the Southern Enduro team are really good at, taking an existing venue and making tracks that deviate off the main trails making it a fair race for locals and visitors alike.

Stage 2 was another pedally one but used more of the man built DH features, connecting a few trails together making a great stage. Rock drops, jumps and big hard pack berms really let you push the speed…. although the ground conditions sometimes had different ideas.

Stage 3 was a great DH stage, again linking a few existing tracks together. Racing was super tight on all the stages with one mistake costing you a load of time and putting you right out the back of the pack. I found this on stage 1 with my front wheel washing out in a fresh cut section, it cost me 5-10 seconds and a lot of places in the overall!

Stage 4 was a flat out DH track, with a few techy corners and a fast rock garden… this was super sketchy in the wet conditions as i found out in Practice. I came in way to hot and pin balled through, hoping to make it out the other-side but it was not to be…. a big OTB left me taking a digger on my hand and shoulder, cracking my carbon handlebars. It was a good crash to say the least but totally knocked me for the rest of the day and i was unable to match my result to my number board, which was the days plan.

Stages 5 and 6 were 1 and 2 repeated, a chance for many to redeem themselves and better their first run times. The new tracks had got quite blown out by second runs but were even more fun in the ever changing conditions.

With the short and tight nature of this race it was always going to be down to the wire. It was Chris ‘The Don’ Doney, last rounds winner who took the win, followed closely by Ollie Mckenna in 2nd and the original Enduro Burke Ben Deakin in 3rd.

Considering this is Southern Enduros first year of racing they are quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. The fact that half of the elite field had entries to the national round on the same weekend but opted for the Southern Enduro proves that. Scott and his team have definitely got the touch that so many Enduro race organisors are missing right now, from beginner to elite the racing is top notch and some of the most enjoyable you will do.

If your not planning one of their races this year i strongly advise you to re-schedule and get round 3 or 4 in the diary to come and see what all the fuss is about.