Southern Enduro Mashup - Return to Head Down!

November 13, 2017

Southern Enduro Mashup - Return to Head Down!

The Secret Weapons (Spencer, Will, Me, Darryl, Joel, Damo) and Simon

Having spent the whole season raving about racing Southern Enduro (SE) it shouldn’t have surprised me when all the ‘Secret Weapons’ signed up for the Mashup enduro. The fact that it was an ‘extra’ race in the season already made it feel like a party but being able to share it with my regular riding buddies was going to be awesome, just as it had been racing with my local mate Tom in the last Round. Let me enlighten you as to what a Mashup enduro is: it’s a free-for-all! Three stages, five hours and you can race them in whatever order you like, when you like and with whom you like. Ride all three stages at least twice and the fastest two runs on each are your race times: job done!

Early morning coffee stop

Getting up in the dark, bleary eyed at 5am, the race-day banter between Spencer, Darryl, Will and I got the excitement building as we prepared to set off for Head Down, Hampshire and it didn’t let up all day. Damo and his son Joel had gone down the night before and camped in the van; the rest of us car shared and drove in convoy from our far corner of the South coast.

The Secret Weapons and Luke

The Kent Trails Facebook group was out in force including Luke, who had read my first blog on Okeford, and foolishly mentioned to Damo that he’d like to try Southern Enduro. Before he knew it, Damo had signed him up for Mashup too! Several of the SE regulars were missing including Nikki, Martin, Maddie and John, not to mention Scott’s parents Denise and Mike and I really missed them. However, this was a bonus for newbies like my guys and another friend, Shaun, thankful to grab a slice of the SE pie!

Catching up with Emma, Sam and Tony

Before long I was cocooned in the Southern Enduroland bubble and was busily catching up with friends; after a while Damo asked if I knew ‘everybody’ there?! I guess it’s the same for any Series, be it EWS, UCI or SE; doing a whole season of races feels rather like you’ve joined a travelling circus and you simply arrive in a new venue and race with your mates (albeit mountain bikes, rather than unicycles, LOL). Pure magic!

Start of the track walk

The Mashup rules stated that there were no practice laps, only a track walk, so after we arrived and met up with Damo, Joel and Luke we registered and headed up Stage 2 to see what it was like. There ensued an hour or so of slapstick comedy worthy of a Carry On film, as we slipped and slid in our attempt to walk Stages 1 & 2 before the rider briefing at 9.30am.

Damo fell first....

Then me....

Scott says that the worst time to ride Head Down is the day after heavy rain and guess what happened the day before the race…? Wet leaves, chalk and loam equals testing conditions, which even the more experienced riders struggled with, but the unusually mild autumn day meant things improved as the day wore on. It certainly wasn’t the mud-bath we raced in in Round 2!

Mass start at 10am

After watching the start at 10am we hurriedly got our bikes set up and pedalled up the transition to get racing. The marshalls were brilliant as always, but the mass start meant that there was more queuing than usual at the Stage heads. On the up side the queues provided valuable catch up time with the girls, who had also come with their regular riding buddies.

Fellow Kent Trails riders Rachel, Mark and Matt on the start line

Riding as a group, we decided to start with Stage 2 as it had the shortest queue at that time. For me, it was the one with the most fun features and I was pleased that as the track dried up I let myself enjoy them and hit all but the largest double. I couldn’t believe that only a couple of months’ ago these jumps and drops had phased me.

Darryl, Spencer and Damo queuing

I found Stage 1 the same: at last the steep loamy switchbacks and chutes were not an issue as I looked where I was going and ‘showed that berm my bum’. Cheers Lynne for that top tip (see the Air Maiden Coaching at Chicksands blog)! However, I couldn’t make friends with Stage 3. Even though it resembled our home trails – tight and twisty through the trees for a large part – we just didn’t get on. Having done my 2 runs I abandoned it in favour of playing on stages 1 & 2! Life’s too short and those two were so much fun!

Catching up with Jen at Stage 2

Whether it was not having practice rides to get my get my head in the game and focus on the race ahead, having my regular riding buddies there or the Mashup atmosphere I have no idea, but I was far too chilled all day – several times I found myself half way down a stage with my glasses hanging from the neck of my top and even started the day without knee pads – LOL! Just as well it wasn’t part of the series as I certainly didn’t have a race face on, just a very happy one!

Smiles for miles - half way through with Spencer

There are several things I’ll do differently next time I race a Mashup and the main one is to have a race plan! Making full use of the time, I’ll try treating the first few runs on each Stage as practice and session a particular Stage before moving on to another one. And – I’m going to stop being so bloody polite and moving aside way to early when I hear a rider approaching behind me. By the end of the day I’d learned not to do this and outran the guy behind me on Stage 1! YES!

With friend and Vets winner, Renee! She's so fast!

But what did the Secret Weapons make of it all? They loved it – there are rumours of Damo and Joel doing the entire series in 2018. Will came 4th in the Fun category and Spencer, Damo and Darryl came 13^th, 17^th and 18^th in Vets. Watch out Super Vets, Spencer will be playing with the big boys next year! Joel and his mate Simon did well in the Under 18s too, inspite of Joel destroying his front brake in an off on the first run!

Job done: they loved it! Spencer, Will, Darryl and Simon

So, it’s exactly a year since I started MTB’ing in the UK – I’m still not as fast as I want to be but I’m quite chuffed with how far I’ve come. Racing has always been about pushing my riding skills and ‘getting comfortable with being uncomfortable’ but the unexpected bonus has been to find I’m part of an amazing community – thank guys, you’re all awesome!

Will be so good to see you racing again next season, Sam!

I can’t wait to see what the next season of racing brings but for now I’m looking forward to a winter of shredding trails with friends and a couple of biking adventures in Wales and Scotland! The Secret Weapons Welsh Roadtrip is coming up in a couple of weeks so watch this space 😊.