Last Sunday morning found me driving along the motorway, bike in the back, music blaring and sun beaming as I emerged from my little corner of Kent on my way to East Sussex for Southern Enduro Round 3. Last year Southern Enduro started working with Pippingford Park Estate in East Sussex to secure it as a new venue for the Series and in the weeks prior to the race, Scott has been teasing us with pictures from the stages as they’re created. Awaiting us this time were steep chutes, rock gardens, stream crossings and - a tank! Pippingford has a long history with the Army dating back to WW2 and it is still used by Sandhurst cadets every year for a week’s field craft training.
First glimpse of the new course!
Queuing to register before race briefing and practice!
The race village was centred around an old hut overlooking the valley and woods and by the time I arrived there was already a long queue to register. The Rounds always sell out quickly and this one felt busier than the last two, with a boost in female competitors attendance as well - I was happier than ever!
Perfect weather for a race!
The Park is stunning and I found myself wishing that I’d come the night before and camped - it would have been fun to walk the stages and spend the night there, maybe that was influenced by the beaming sunshine and 20 degree heat at 8am. While queueing to register I bumped into a Kent Trails friend, Martin, who was trying his hand in the hardtail category and Simon, who I’d met in Biketart earlier in the week, both Enduro newbies.
Practice is always fun with Martin and Nikki!
Once again, I teamed up with Nikki and Martin to practice but we were also joined by a few first timers: Robert, Tara and Holly as well as Southern Enduro regulars Jen and Katie. Along the way we lost Martin and Robert replacing them with Liz, Maddie (who was the number after me throughout the event) and John. Soon our laughter could be heard ricocheting through the woods: it was business as usual!
Loads a laughter!
Our practices are taking a regular format – we ignore the stage nearest to the race village and focus on the others before returning for coffee and a quick squint at the remaining stage. We'd all been riding in different places over the last month and while Greece might not have been as good a preparation as the Alps or Wales, I was grateful to be accustomed to riding in heat and strong sun. After practice, we crashed out in the shade to cool off and discuss the stages before Scott walked past with microphone and speaker calling all female racers to the start line.
Time to get our race faces on !
Stage 1 was fun! It felt like you were on a bobsleigh shooting from side to side along a gulley at the edge of the fire road, occasionally taking sharp turns up and out to avoid trees. Unfortunately, I was distracted by a photographer as I approached one of these and failed to make the turn, almost ending up in his lap! It was not my finest moment of racing, nevertheless, I really enjoyed this Stage and felt like I was ducking and weaving at warp speed until that point. Having taken us out to the right of the race village we then transitioned across the Park to the heads of Stages 2, 3 and 4.
Blocked off in case we tried to play on it!
Stages 2 and 3 were similar to each other and held some of the most challenging features for me. A couple of bad line choices didn’t help my times and I was gutted when the buzz of Maddie’s Hope hubs swept past me on each of the two Stages. It made me realise how important it is to use practice time and track walks to work out features – next time I'll focus on it a little more!
Transitioning from Stage 4!
Pippingford Park has previously hosted a round of the Southern XC Series and Stage 4 used part of the same track. It was long, fast and so much fun! Strangely, it reminded me of Stage 1 at Okeford in places. We all begged Scott to include that section several times next year, but all we got in response was a laugh and him muttering something about this being Enduro, not Downhill racing! Maddie was riding like a demon – having chased after her when she overtook me on Stages 2 and 3 at the top of Stage 4 I considered telling her to race ahead of me but quickly dismissed that thought. This was the longest stage with a good bit of pedalling thrown in and so was the stage best suited to my skills, I was determined to keep ahead of her. When we finished the stage I was yet again reminded why racing with women can be so brilliant, Maddie was as excited as I was and I’d managed to keep her off my back for the entire stage!
Mike and Denise - I'd be lost without hugs from them on race day!
As always it was a brilliant day and I loved every single minute. My only criticism is that it’s all over too quickly! At least this time we were able to sit around in the sun eating, laughing and dissecting the race while waiting for the men to finish.
Post race chillout
So how did I do? I was 4th by less than a minute – again! It is the price to be paid for my bad line choices on Stages 2 & 3 and cycling into that poor photographer.
Post race selfie with Laura and Tara - fellow Kent Trails chix
I have nothing but thanks and admiration for Scott and the entire Southern Enduro team who make it all possible. I'm looking forward to seeing you all again in a month’s time for Round 4 at Milland.
I had serious van envy when I saw this one!
STOP PRESS: Southern Enduro has added an extra race at QECP on 5 November and there’s a prize for the most stages done in the time frame! Oh yes! They need 100 riders for it to go ahead so make sure you sign up when it opens on 9 September. Details at www.southernenduro.co.uk.
