Team Remap Chemical bikes at BES #1
Testing weekend for everyone involved in the first BES of 2016. The Remap Chemical Bikes Team headed over to Scotland for the opening round
Its been a funny old off season with the announcement of two national enduro series know one was really sure where to go or what to do and how it would all pan out. The weekend saw the first round of the British Enduro Series at Ae forest, Scotland and would be the first time the whole team would be together on the new custom sprayed Chemical Bikes Adrenal and fresh new black and yellow Whizz Remap kit.
As always with Scotland the weather can be completely hit and miss whilst a downhill race the weekend before was sunning it up it would seem we were going to get the complete opposite with solid rain and strong winds it was shaping up to be a testing weekend for both riders and organisers.
With everything primed and ready in the pits trying to stay warm and dry for as long as possible it was time to face the inevitable. As Toby was having a problem with his brake and had to wait for Sram to get it sorted Rich and Jake headed up the hill to check out what day ones racing would have lined up for them. Stages 1 and 2 would turn out to be hard pack trail centre and very physical with a lot of pedalling whilst stage 3 was back to smashing some proper downhill filled with rocks, roots and ruts and was clearly the riders favourite. This years format is a new one for most racers with the practice and racing on the same day so a lap smashed out in the morning it was time to get racing in the afternoon.
Toby’s run of bad luck continued as a couple crashes and snapped chain on stage 3 left him with work to do the next day however Jake despite dropping a little time on the more pedally earlier stages gained time on 3 to sit pretty in 4th in Junior after day one and in one of the largest elite fields in a while Rich was up into 12th, a great effort by all after the first day.
Sundays racing was no drier with continued rain overnight and bogging tracks the team once again headed up the hill without Toby as a little visit to the mechanics was needed again this time to sort out a bent up mech courtesy of his snapped chain. The stages this time round swayed a little more in favour of gravity with only stage 5 being predominantly trail centre at the top followed by what felt like a foot deep rut the whole of the bottom section but still fun and stages 4 and 6 being an all out gnarfest.
Toby stepped up on Sunday setting a fastest stage time in seniors despite not even seeing the stages and managed to move up to 13th overall so a massive improvement, Rich unfortunately crashed a couple times on the final stage of the day costing him some valuable seconds in a category that was so tight finishing 14th overall but still doing well and finally young gun Jake smoked it on day 2 and blitzed the dh stages moving him to his best result so far and a serious junior overall contender for the season with a 2nd overall.
Thanks to the organisers for doing such a great job in horrendous conditions I’m sure they’ll look back at the event and only move forwards, also massive shout out to all who support the team its been a great start to the year and roll on the rest of the season.