Thumbs up for Southern Enduro [Photo Credit: Adam Staton]
Every couple of months ephemeral mist forms in woodland in Southern England. Building for a few days it clears on a Sunday morning to allow entry into a magical world – Southern Enduroland. For the price of two wheels and a ticket you can come and enjoy this land of joy and laughter, exhilaration and exhaustion, friendship and competition.
Setting up in the sun is much more pleasant!
This isn’t a fairy tale but racing Southern Enduro truly does feel like entering another world, especially at Pippingford Park, which so far has a 100% sunshine record as a race venue (did you hear that QECP?!). After driving through some of Kent and Sussex’s finest countryside, you pull into Pippingford Park and a grass and wooded valley opens up before you. Maybe it’s the sunshine or maybe it’s the nature of the course – long and varied stages with some fun features and plenty of pedalling – either way, I love Pippingford.
Having missed the Day/Night Enduro in May it felt like a long time since Round 1 and a broken mech and hangar meant it was touch and go if I was going race at all. However, the parts arrived on Friday and after completing all the other chores and family commitments I got them fitted late on Saturday afternoon – Cinders would go to the ball and race the next day.
Actually made it to the race briefing for once!
One of my Secret Weapons riding buddies, Spencer, was racing as well so at 6.30am I turned into his road to collect him and found him pedalling up and down with a massive grin on his face and full of race day excitement! A quick jaunt through the Weald of Kent and we were reunited with the rest of the Southern Enduro gang and catching up on gossip.
How do we always manage to colour coordinate?!
After a bit of bike faff and signing on we headed out en masse for practice as usual. The Stages at Pippingford are a good mix of off-camber corners, steep chutes, roots and jumps and drops; and slowly we split off into groups to focus on specific features among the Stages.
Honestly we didn't just lie around and chat all day!
Before we go any further I have a confession to make: I am stubborn and have a very bad habit of ignoring problems sometimes! Yes, that did include a torn deltoid and rotator cuff and yes, I am still regretting it. You’d think that would have taught me a lesson, but seemingly not as I have been ignoring a grumbling dropper post for a month or two so that I didn’t have to miss any riding. My luck finally ran out when it stopped working not long after we started riding in practice. Having bled the post the night before I knew that it wasn’t going to improve so chose to ride with it down and accept the pain. Although this annoyed me intensely I’m coming to realise that racing is like that: you can prepare as hard as you like but there are going to be things that will happen on the day which affect how you do. It was so gutting to finish each Stage knowing that I was exhausted from wasting energy through not having my seat up rather than through pushing as hard as I could.In my work with Rise MTB Performance Coaching we talked about ‘reframing’ situations so I tried hard to see it as a challenge to eek as much speed from each trail by pumping the bike and staying off the brakes. I swallowed the frustration knowing that I could have avoided this situation and focussed on the fact that I was still here racing with friends, riding great private trails in the sunshine!
The glorious Ethan from the Sick bikes team - also colour coordinated (with his bike!)
Stage 1 had changed since the last race so that you continued along the gully ricocheting between trees from one side to the other like a human pinball, rather than taking a sharp left across the fire-road and through the woods. Racing along to the cheers and clapping of friends and riders I was reminded again exactly why I love racing at Southern Enduro. There were several first timers in the women’s categories and like pupils who were no longer the youngest in the school, Nikki, Maddie and I cheered them on while reminiscing about our first season racing. The reputation of Southern Enduro as a women-friendly series is growing and it was brilliant to hear women saying that they had been worried about racing but found it so welcoming and they were loving it. Several female spectators even said they’d been convinced to race next time.
So many female riders we even got our own loo!
Stage 2 was the most pedally with some fun drops and a great sharp turn into a chute. It no longer included a river crossing but did have a hellish uphill section that had me glimpsing at my tyres to make sure they hadn’t suddenly gone flat! Whistling across the fire-road to affectionate shouts of ‘stop smiling Vicky!’ it wasn’t long before the race was half done. The conditions in the woods were humid and tropical and everyone was feeling shattered as we climbed back up the transition for Stage 3. This was my favourite Stage this year, with drops and a great rooty chute that you could throw the bike down. The added gravity sections within Stage 3 meant that I came off it with a genuine sense of making the best of a bad situation.
This year's classic Pippingford pic [photo credit: Steve Baxter)
It’s great returning to a venue and discovering how your riding has progressed since you were last there. Last year I loved Stage 4 because of it was fast, flowing and swoopy with a great section of berms. I still enjoyed its speed, but an extra 10 months’ riding meant the jumps were now something to play on too. By the time I passed my friend Klaire who was marshalling near the end of Stage 4 I was spent. I grinned and dug deep as she yelled ‘just pedal, Vicky!’ but she said afterwards she felt so sorry for me because I looked totally worn out.
This GoPro snap is as hazy as I felt right then! [Photo credit: UrbanWolf Photography]
What had started the day as a category of five finished as a niche category of Nikki, Maddie and me so we all got a chance to stand on the podium 😊. I can’t get to Champs – boo! – but I will be returning to Okeford, the original ‘downduro’ and my first ever Southern Enduro venue. Can’t wait to see how I feel about it this year!
