I've been representing Epic on the gravity side of things at the Grassroots Enduro series... thought I'd give a bit of a report as not much going on in enduro in the club these days.
I think the grassroots is a really good format. Unlike the other Irish enduro races, there is no Saturday practice and the format is turn up on the day, do as many timed runs of the 3 stages in any order you want from 10am to 3pm. Then your quickest time on each stage is added for your overall time. Firstly it's all on one day so doesn't take up the whole weekend (good for family life!), and the blind racing format means it's not down to who practiced most and if you makes some mistakes you can just do another run. It's no less demanding though... you can just keep racing the stages all day (and some of the transitions can be long) so some of the races for me so far have been 30K, 1500m climbing and up to 30 minutes of flat out race runs. Oh and it's only 35 euro entry fee.
They are really popular usually selling out in a couple of hours with 200-250 riders. Usual age categories plus elites but slightly different rules than UCI/CI for determining category so I'm in the under 40 in these (but the 40-50 years category in XC events this year) which makes it hard cause it's the most competitive category! They also run them through local clubs in less well known venues so you get to ride some new places on brand new trails in many cases.
Round 1 was down in the Nagles near Fermoy back in March. Lovely trails mixture of pine and deciduous woods. I've been really focussing on enduro training the last while so was pleased to pick up 7th in a competitive field.
Round 2 was a couple of weeks ago down in Dunmanway, West Cork. A bit more commitment for this race as I had to drive down the evening before and stay nearby as it's a long drive down. Trails were very fresh, wet and pedally... didn't suit everyone but maybe the flat, xc type pedalling speed I've done for years helped as I bagged 6th.
Last Sunday was round 3 down at Mt Leinster (same woods as the K Capital Cup there). I love these woods and the trails were really varied and very physical, but perfect conditions with loads of grip. Delighted to get a podium at last with 3rd (although a mix up with initial results after the race meant I didn't get called up so missed my 2 minutes of fame standing on the box).
There are 2 rounds left (Killarney and Sligo) but they are in September after all the other racing over the summer. I'm looking forward to being competitive at these and trying to get a good overall series result.
I'd recommend people to give these a go - it's great to just turn up on the day, give all you've got over as many race runs as you've got the energy for, and the racing is really competitive (top dogs like Killian Callaghan, Dan Wolf and Johnathan Maunsell are at many of the rounds). It's a great day out.
Oisin.
I think the grassroots is a really good format. Unlike the other Irish enduro races, there is no Saturday practice and the format is turn up on the day, do as many timed runs of the 3 stages in any order you want from 10am to 3pm. Then your quickest time on each stage is added for your overall time. Firstly it's all on one day so doesn't take up the whole weekend (good for family life!), and the blind racing format means it's not down to who practiced most and if you makes some mistakes you can just do another run. It's no less demanding though... you can just keep racing the stages all day (and some of the transitions can be long) so some of the races for me so far have been 30K, 1500m climbing and up to 30 minutes of flat out race runs. Oh and it's only 35 euro entry fee.
They are really popular usually selling out in a couple of hours with 200-250 riders. Usual age categories plus elites but slightly different rules than UCI/CI for determining category so I'm in the under 40 in these (but the 40-50 years category in XC events this year) which makes it hard cause it's the most competitive category! They also run them through local clubs in less well known venues so you get to ride some new places on brand new trails in many cases.
Round 1 was down in the Nagles near Fermoy back in March. Lovely trails mixture of pine and deciduous woods. I've been really focussing on enduro training the last while so was pleased to pick up 7th in a competitive field.
Round 2 was a couple of weeks ago down in Dunmanway, West Cork. A bit more commitment for this race as I had to drive down the evening before and stay nearby as it's a long drive down. Trails were very fresh, wet and pedally... didn't suit everyone but maybe the flat, xc type pedalling speed I've done for years helped as I bagged 6th.
Last Sunday was round 3 down at Mt Leinster (same woods as the K Capital Cup there). I love these woods and the trails were really varied and very physical, but perfect conditions with loads of grip. Delighted to get a podium at last with 3rd (although a mix up with initial results after the race meant I didn't get called up so missed my 2 minutes of fame standing on the box).
There are 2 rounds left (Killarney and Sligo) but they are in September after all the other racing over the summer. I'm looking forward to being competitive at these and trying to get a good overall series result.
I'd recommend people to give these a go - it's great to just turn up on the day, give all you've got over as many race runs as you've got the energy for, and the racing is really competitive (top dogs like Killian Callaghan, Dan Wolf and Johnathan Maunsell are at many of the rounds). It's a great day out.
Oisin.