Practice Day
The Royal Engineers Gravity Enduro team came together from all areas of England to compete in round three of the Army Inter Corps Enduro Race Season at Milland Southern Enduro. This took place on the 6th and 7th of August 2022.
A real tough day of practice, with the intense heat sapping the six team members. This depleted their water and food supplies and required individuals to dig deep into the reserve tank to finish all the stages. A number of wash outs, near misses and a lucky escape for Aaron. He had a big off, down a shear drop in the woods, through a couple of tree branches, landing in a heap next to a wall, he walked away, surprisingly, relatively unscathed.
A bit of recovery time after practice before heading back up for individual seeding times on Stage 1. Most of the team finished the run within 10 seconds of each another. The exception being our flying machine that is Elliot, achieving a very quick time with an off when his rear tyre blew out on the kicker close to the finish line. Again, riding away with minor injuries.
Race Day
A late start with most of the team setting off just after 1100 hours on the Sunday. Handling the ups more tactically than the previous day, to conserve energy, with it being so hot again. Within the 20’s and not a cloud to be seen in the sky. Runs 2, 3 & 7 refuge could be taken under the trees and 4, 5 & 6 were mostly exposed, in the open on the exposed hillside.
The trails contained a lot of technical sections, loose steep downs, powdery berms with little to no support for railing around, tight sections, jumps and gaps. The terrain contained a mix of open grassland, deforested open trail, wooded sections, roots, loose dirt and sliding shaley slate. This made for a very testing day on trail. Just about every rider had a story to tell of near misses, offs and mechanical issues suffered throughout the day. The team saw Enduro packs snapping and falling into the wheels, punctured tyres running routes on flats, chains coming off, rider route tape tangles and tape affecting the drive train. All riders returned from the day safe and well with, the middle four riders total times, for the seven runs, within 25 seconds of one another. Race results from round three will be released to the teams very soon.