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Or can they?!
I would love to see a british or world level enduro race held in my beautiful Lake District back yard, but for some reason the only events we get around this neck o th woods seems to be in Grizedale and even then, it's on fresh cut (nice) trails in the trees, but not the sinyewey and awesome rocky bridleways that I personally think make grizedale a great riding venue, and typify the sort of riding found in this part of the world. Boggy woodland carving can be fun, but it doesn't scratch the surface of the riding available around here, and if we were able to use some of the many long, rocky, techy, mountainous descents in our little idyl,, bridleways or otherwise I really think it could compete with some of the big international venues currently on the UKGE and EWS circuits.
At least one of the stages at UKGE Grizedale this year was run on wicked rocky, droppy walkers only path they get special permission to use just for the race...
You can.You just need to get them closed by the relevant council for the duration of an event...and hope no one opposes,complains or kicks up a stink about it.Because walkerists and horsey types are very tolerant of bikes in general.
The Llangollen NPS DH course crosses a byway (about 20ft) when they use the wooded super steep top section.
PMBA Grizedale rounds use footpath... Its ace.
The main problem I can see, once you have the landowners permission to race on a public right of way, is that it is a public right of way and may have people on it.
PROW can be closed to allow a race to run on it (for example Hit the North) unless it's a bridleway these have a exclusion on racing that can't be lifted by a closure
this means that you can't even cross one, the classic example is the Manchester Commonwealth Games XC course which was much reduced due to the bridleways, much to the frustration of the team that delivered it
that is unless you are a certain event in the northern lakes which seems to have an exemption
Footpaths can be closed for racing but it costs a few hundred quid per path and doesn't mean a huge amount on the ground if people want to use the path. Bridleways can't be raced on.
Actually the next UKGE is at dyfi and some of the stages are usually epic sinyewey and awesome rocky that I personally think make great enduro stages
[i]So, why can't Enduro events be run on bridleways/footpaths etc?[/i]
Which is why they are held in Scotland, we don't have any of those restrictions 😆
Having seen the state of some trails used for racing it would probably be a very unpopular move.
^ This is a good point. A few hundred racers in rapid succession plus practice and a trail can look pretty wrecked. Pros probably do less damage due to a higher riding standard.
As above, whether you could get a legal closure or not, it's moot if someone decides they're walking it that day or worse, turns up on a nervous horse. I suspect most event organisers would prefer to avoid factoring either scenario into a race weekend where plenty can already go wrong...
Scott (Fitz) around? planning on doing this for a stage of the new Southern Enduro next year. a potentially big setup not far from QE that needs bridleways for transitions, i think. um i'll check back later.
for transitions that is, race stages would not be on any rights of way! maybe it's how you define a race 😉
transitions on b/ways is ok, that's what trans wales used to do.
ok then 🙂 makes sense, transitions shouldn't really ever be a rush with e-timing anyway.