The final round of the Welsh Enduro Series took place at Llangollen over the weekend. Here’s Aran’s latest report of his enduro race season.
Unlike the rest of the Welsh rounds this year, Llangollen is a venue I have raced on multiple occasions perviously. I already knew how good the tracks were likely to be; the One Giant Leap Llangollen uplift team is one of the mainstays not just for enduro but for all British gravity racing.
The steep hillside offers some well-maintained tracks (thanks Martin and crew!) mixed in with some fresh loamy, natural sections. On top of this, the venue also works really well for spectators. Almost all of the racing is viewable simply by looking up from the bottom fields.
When I was a younger rider Llangollen was always quite a scary venue for me. The tracks are steepe, but they are well supported, meaning to be competitive at racing you have to be very committed and very fast. On a steep track like this that can get quite scary quite quickly as small mistakes evolve into big accidents almost instantly. Yes, it’s often fairly ‘oneline” and ‘bikeparky’ but the average steepness – and speed – is high.
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As has become tradition for the WES, the final round at Llangollen is presented in a three stage ‘mash-up’ format. The twist is that on race day, riders can have as many runs as they like down each stage with just their fastest run counting. This means that whilst the final round at Llangollen features just three stages, I would argue that it has the potential to be the most physical race day of the year for the more serious competitors.
The mash-up format also often benefits the fitter riders who will be able to squeeze out two or three laps of each stage, usually getting faster each lap. The mash-up format can also shift the advantage away from more smooth and consistent riders towards more risk taking and loose riders; if mistakes are made the option is there to just have another go (providing the riders and bikes are still in one piece!)
For me the Llangollen stages were the best tracks we have raced all season. Fast, flowy but still undoubtedly steep and technical.
Stage 1
The first stage (first by name-only as any order was fine one race day) started with a flat-out top section over some nicely manicured jumps and turns. It then quickly descended into well-supported but rough and shaley corners. Some of these corners would then spit you out into steeper and rougher sections so you had to be careful not to get too carried away. The track then hit a drop over a fence into a fast right where the stage opens up with an optional triple into some wide sweeping turns. The final corner of the stage before the relatively short sprint to the finish was a tricky one as it was shaley and mostly flat. I was one of the few who fell victim to its lack of support (see video above).
Stage 2
Stage 2 began with a singletrack motorway section which had the added pressure of traversing parallel to the push up. It then dives sharply into a left hander and the stage then just becomes a massive long line of really nice corners. As this point comes to the end some wider and faster corners then lead on to a set of jumps before a pair of looser and flatter corners to finish. It’s hard to pick favourites here as all of these tracks were immense fun but for me the flow of the corners on S2 provided some serious enjoyment.
Stage 3
The third stage began with a singletrack traverse of the hill again then dropping steeply into some nice corners. All the stages had some line choice with really clear high and low lines into most of the corners. In contrast, Stage 3 had some more widely taped traditional line choicy sections. There were two clear sections here, the first being a chunky, rooty section out of a corner. Here the inside seemed to allow a much straighter line and much less braking, it provided a tighter corner at the bottom but speed could be regained fairly quickly with a few cranks.
The second is a section that anyone who has raced Llangollen before should remember: a widely taped section round a big tree with lots of puzzling to be had.
Stage 3 then finished with a short sprint followed by some flat corners in the woods. You then exited the woods over a drop, pedalled into another drop then turned left on the grass for a risky finish with good potential to throw the whole run away.
This year the weather added extra charm to Llangollen. Some heavy showers on Saturday and a threatened rainstorm overnight only further upped the anticipation for racing. In the end the rainstorm came about lunchtime on race day meaning riders were scrambling to get race runs done before the heavens opened. This said, the tracks weren’t dry before Sunday’s storm hit, the rain on Saturday and the lack of sun had left a still very moist set of stages for Sunday morning.
Line of the day
This section on Stage 2. I didn’t really come to the conclusion of which line was quickest (you decide). This section had three options with a fairly predictable outside line (purple) but two much tighter inside lines (yellow and blue) with some nasty jackknife turns to return you to the main line. The outside here is heaps longer and, whilst it has support, it’s not enough for most to comfortably fly round at speed. What adds some further puzzle to this is that straight after this corner there is a gap which straightens out the track and will save some serious time. It’s comfortably doable from the outside but much more difficult to clear from the shorter, more direct inside.
Results
With around seven minutes of race time from three well-rehearsed stages, good results here required not only quick but clean runs. A few seconds spent tripoding or crashing would cost a lot more at Llangollen than at a regular enduro.
Starting at the top, local boy Alex Storr took the fastest time of the day beating the rest of us in the Senior category by almost a minute. Alex’s dominant performance here showing that it wasn’t just local knowledge that put him ahead of the rest. Ieuan Jones and Fraser Kelly joined Alex on the Senior podium.
Behind Alex Storr, Kyle Hayes (40-49) and Jamie Johnson (30-39) completed the overall podium for the day’s racing. Kyle beat Jamie on the first two stages with Jamie taking the last stage, however the margin built by Kyle early on was too much for Jamie to claw back.
For the women, Becci Skelton and Jess Stone had a nice battle for fastest time of the day. In the end despite a faster stage 1 from Jess, Becci took it by just over a second. With Hollie Vayro (U21) taking the final spot on the podium. It was nice to see some close racing and a busier women’s field at Llangollen this weekend.
The Hardtail class was the most competitive it has been all year. Five riders battled it out with Rob Loomes and Sonny Baston leading the pack. Sonny however beat Rob to the top spot in the end after chipping away a few seconds each stage.
Alfie Wilkinson racing in the under 15s had an impressive race. His second race ever (I think!) saw him take his second category win and he took it by nearly 30 seconds.
As for my own race, after an abrasion on my cornea earlier on in the week I didn’t think I’d be racing at all. Luckily it healed quickly and I managed to go straight from the hospital to practice on Saturday and get a good day out on the hill.
Sunday got off to a much worse start with a snapped chain out the gate and a crash at the bottom of my then chain-less run. In the end, I managed to recover to 4th after rerunning Stage 1 and putting down some more consistent runs on S2 and S3.
WES Overall Standings
With Llangollen being the last round of the season we also got to finalise the series standings. Aran Francis (oh, that’s me) was pleased to do enough at Llangollen to remain 2nd Senior for the series, joining Fraser Kelly on the podium. It was good to see Fraser take the overall in senior after a rocky start to the season with an injury and a couple of crashes throughout the series.
It was also sick to see Jack Sunderland, the Jorts Warrior, take the series overall in the Masters category after battling with Myles Baldwin throughout the season.
Becci Skelton also had a pretty decisive grasp on the Masters category, having a near perfect season winning all but one round where she was instead busy podiuming the National Downhill.
Overall, Llangollen seems to be a case of Adrian saving the best ’til last for the Welsh Enduro Series. A high-quality set of stages that proved both challenging and fun especially with the moist conditions. There was a good atmosphere especially during podium ceremonies with biblical conditions causing some speaker mishaps, lost brollies and almost losing the Saracen Bikes tent!
Thanks!
I’d like to say a big thank you to Adrian, all the Marshalls and medics and the rest of the Welsh Enduro team that made for such a quality season of racing. Hopefully I’ll be back for more next year.
