Race report: The British Cycling Enduro National Champs

Last weekend was the last ever Hope PMBA enduro race and also the first ever British Cycling supported enduro race. It’s fair to say it was a weekend of mixed emotions, and boy did they go out with a bang. Let’s see how the weekend unfolded.

This wasn’t just any Hope PMBA Enduro Series round, but also the British National Enduro Championships, endorsed and supported by British Cycling. This was a huge vision and achievement from Kev Duckworth, who has been fighting for this now for several years. He’s been a significant force behind the scenes having helped and promoted the enduro race scene over the last 10 years! Kev was instrumental in forming BEMBA (British National Enduro Series) and getting many of the organisers nationally to form a national enduro series after the departure of the likes of Si Paton and Steve Parr’s enduro series. So full credit to Kev, his team as well as British Cycling for pulling off a superb but well-overdue National Champs.

The race was based at Ae forest, one of the amazing 7 Stanes, it’s one of the forests famed for its downhill trails and a plethora of wilder singletrack trails. There couldn’t have been a better setting for such an important race weekend. It was a busy one too, with not only the British Enduro Champs, but on the Saturday there were other races too, in the form of the Hope Women’s Enduro, the Hope Academy Enduro and a free U10s race and balance bike race, as well as the Hope Academy providing training and fun riding for the kids. Hopetech has supported the PMBA Enduro for many years, and it’s always amazing having them along in force for the women racing and the younger generations racing. It’s what Kev has always said “Enduro for all”.

On Saturday the women and Academy racers took on a mash-up format of race across 3 stages of trail centre stages. More tame than the main event, but great flowy and fast trails with berms, jumps and drops a plenty. With the mash-up format the racers could ride the stages in any order as many times as their legs would let them, the race lasted all day and is a great way of introducing races to the younger generation as well as providing a great and supportive platform for women to race also. And whilst this race was taking place, 100s of riders were practicing the stages for the big one, the National Champs.

The National Champs was a 5 stage race with a mix of gravity-style trail centre tracks mixed in with far more natural rooty, rock and slippery mud. And yes, you guessed it, Kev put in some god-awful long sprints too. These stages were not mash up, but had to be raced in order, with ebikes setting off first, then a group of women followed by the masses, and finally towards the back the elite and podium seekers. For once this year, the weather wasn’t too bad, on Saturday it was mostly dry, but we were met with some heavier rain in the evening. For the race, it was dry with gentle breezes keeping the midges away from the marshals and riders queuing on the stage starts. To be fair, for a summers day, it was quite chilly at times. For a full rundown of the Women and Academy race results head over to roots and rain here.

For the main race, there were two sets of results, those for the PMBA Enduro Series and then those for the British Cycling National Enduro Champs. You can view the results over on Pinkbike here. The faster man on the day went to Corey Watson in an incredible 13:38.00 and ahead of William Brodie by 17.22 seconds. Third fastest of the day was Luca Thurlow in 14:61.00. It wasn’t an easy win for Corey though as he was beaten by Will on stages 1-3, but barely anything separated their times, but it all went down to stage 3 where Will lost plenty of time.

The women’s race was also simply incredible with the 3 fastest riders going to Harriet Hardnen, Ella Conolly and Polly Henderson respectively. All three were jockeying for the win. Harriet taking the stage wins on stages 1,2 and 5, Ella took the win on stage 3 and Polly on stage 4. This was some racing for the fastest woman of the day. For the full results head over to Roots and rain here.

Kev finally introduced his races to ebikes in 2023 and for the Champs, there was no exception. Sam Shucksmith took the overall fastest male winning each of the 5 stages and Tracy Moseley took the overall win in the women’s ebike race, but was pipped to the post on stage 2 but one second by George Swift.

There you have it, the first-ever British Cycling Enduro Champs hosted by the Hope PMBA Enduro Series. An outstanding achievement and a very positive move for Enduro racing. Enduro racing is genuinely a struggling part of cycling at the moment with races being cancelled and more than just the PMBA closing its doors for racing. The North of the UK is going to have a huge gap in racing in the coming years, which does make me worry where the up-and-coming young riders will hone their skills and gain valuable race experience.

Finally a huge thanks to Kev and his team of very loyal helpers, medics, marshals and dedicated sponsors over the years. Not only has Kev provided some of the best races across the UK, from the epic Graythwaite and up the road to Gnar bike park, Lee Quarry across to Havok, one Giant Leap – Llangollen, day/night races at Gisburn and Grizedale, to Scotland and Kirroughtree and Ae. No other race series covered 3 nations in the mainland UK. He nurtured young riders through his PMBA Enduro Series ambassador programme and provided some outstanding grassroots racing for 10 years. I hope this is more of an au revoir than a farewell to Kev and his Hope PMBA Enduro Series.

That’s a wrap for this race report, to keep in touch with the memories and any news or shenanigans head over to the Hope PMBA Enduro Series Facebook here or the website here.

Words and photos – JWDTphotography – aka Jerry Tatton – The Silly Hat Wearing Tog
Photos also by James Tatton – cos I’m getting too old for this…………..