Innerleithen 661 Gravity Enduro series

Well Friday the 15th saw practise begin for the Innerleithen Enduro, it was to be a Friday/Saturday event so that locals could celebrate "games week" and burn "the devil"! I sent a chilled lap with the boss (my dad) and had a look at a few of the stages, I knew the majority already having ridden there over the winter on training rides. The format of the event saw you have 5 timed DH stages and the fastest acumlative time would win the event. However you had a set amount of time to reach the next stage and if you missed it then you had a time penalty!

Stage 1 was the Cresta DH run, which was fast, couple of jumps and then some switchbacks.

Stage 2 was a "secret trail" that was very muddy and pretty technical, lots of tricky rooty and rock garden sections to catch you out before sprinting up the hill to finish.

Stage 3 was part of the red run XC trail and was really fast and flowing if a bit pedally come racing!

Stage 4 was the old classic DH track, which was mega, I've only ridden it a couple of times but it's so much fun, really step, rutted turns.

Stage 5 was the matador on to Caddon bank for a mix of berms and jumps

Qualifying on the friday was to seed you in your respective categorie, on the way up I noticed my gear cable had snapped at the shifter so unable to pedal I cruised in and took 48th place overall and 6th in Elites, a start!

A good nights sleep and a bit of pasta in me, I awoke to a very wet morning, quick tyre change to something more grippier than a rear slick and I was set. I rode pretty solid throughout the day and made only a couple of mistakes across the 5 stages. I pedalled hard on stages 3 and 5 and was absolutely smoked by the end.

I finished 1st elite and 5th overall on the day. I was mega happy with how the event went and will definetely be doing one in the future!