Gravity Enduro 2019

Gerry

Yup doing carrick , first race on the new bike and I can't wait. it's a highlight of the year. Not really surprised that they've switched it up, it was more or less same trails for a few years. Fair play to Niall. I presume a few of the existing top sections will be in use. It will be a tough day out on the bike, the notes say 23km but heading to the top a few times!

prunudo

I was anticipating over 30km so don't mind its only 23.

prunudo

prunudo wrote: »

I was anticipating over 30km so don't mind its only 23.

They may recalibrate their measuring devices! My garmin was 31km after the 5 stages.
Event went well, lovely stages. Long pedal to start of stage 1 and then straight in the deep end with a few rock drops (there were chicken lines provided) followed by a techinal rock garden section after that it was all pretty straightforward. Stage 2 nice and flowy, stage 3 was a long one with nothing too daunting. Stage 4 similar to 2 and stage 5 probably a mixture of the previous 4 with a bit of everything.
Overall happy with how the event went, had pr's on every stage, no mechanicals and no injuries so all good. Only slight downer is, I was way down the placings in category. I know its all about the taking part etc but after giving it my all on the stages I'd be lying if I said i wasn't disappointed in how i placed. Will have to do some thinking about ways to improve before next season.

steamsey

prunudo wrote: »

They may recalibrate their measuring devices! My garmin was 31km after the 5 stages.
Event went well, lovely stages. Long pedal to start of stage 1 and then straight in the deep end with a few rock drops (there were chicken lines provided) followed by a techinal rock garden section after that it was all pretty straightforward. Stage 2 nice and flowy, stage 3 was a long one with nothing too daunting. Stage 4 similar to 2 and stage 5 probably a mixture of the previous 4 with a bit of everything.
Overall happy with how the event went, had pr's on every stage, no mechanicals and no injuries so all good. Only slight downer is, I was way down the placings in category. I know its all about the taking part etc but after giving it my all on the stages I'd be lying if I said i wasn't disappointed in how i placed. Will have to do some thinking about ways to improve before next season.

Savage 2 days on the bike. Great trails and bone dry. Went for consistency on the race day - didn't pay off. Should have gone more balls out. No crashes or offs - and bike was 100% so nothing to blame! Disappointed with my result but really enjoyed the weekend. Big turn out down there.

steamsey

prunudo wrote: »

They may recalibrate their measuring devices! My garmin was 31km after the 5 stages..

Was thinking same thing - no way that was 23km.

Gerry

I'd have to agree, while I went quicker than I have before, I was disappointed with my result. It was not a surprise as I knew I lost a lot of time from small mistakes, playing it too safe and not knowing where I was going particularly on 3. 4 seemed to go the best out of the lot. 1 and 5 I had practiced but was not in the zone for 1 and I was a bit tired at end of 5.. No crashes though so that's something and the bike was perfect. As someone mentioned on the day the stage that you felt went best is not necessarily your best. I was sure I had done a good job on 2 but turned out 4 was relatively the quickest.. I did enjoy 4 I did well on the top section and was fairly consistent lower down as well. Hoping to get back to carrick next weekend to see if I can do some bits better while its fresh in my head. Savage weekend out on the bike all the same.. amazing trails. Didn't hear any complaints about the pedally bits either!

prunudo

Interesting that we all had similar feelings about how our own performances went, doing well but not placing as high as we wanted. Can only be a good thing to have that hunger to try harder for next year.

Gerry

Had a long post typed out but lost it.
Much like yourselves, once entered in a race i want to do well or at least do myself justice, despite claims to the contrary. I'm used to finishing a bit further up in xc even when I had much less fitness than I do now. I'm trying to take the positives. I knew even at the time where a lot of the time was lost, mostly it was from taking bad lines but usually on less techy bits, missing a berm or rut, that ruins your momentum. Lesson there is to look further ahead. Happy with how I did the steep and rocky bits, on the roots I could have carried more speed. Cornering hasn't fully clicked for me on this bike, that will take time. Dont feel that I'm really pushing it there but thats what practice is for. Again trying to take the positives I felt for the most part that the bike was not ahead of me, I was able to put it where I wanted, which is important in Carrick with a lot of deep ruts and chutes. I'm hoping to get back to Carrick this Sunday actually while its still fresh in my mind
For next year I'll target races in locations that I know reasonably well and ride frequently. Onwards and upwards!

rizzodun

Judging by the few videos I've seen it seemed a very fast course, which may be why some of you may feel you finished lower than expected, those small mistakes usually cost a lot more time the faster the course is.

I'm currently trying to get out of the bottom quarter of the results of the races I enter....

Gerry

I'd agree.. it was fast.. all about carrying speed through those faster sections. And at higher speeds its easier to miss the line. Yeah, similar target as that.

rizzodun

Just in case anyone is interested, the final Enduro of the year and final round of the Mondraker Grassroots Enduro takes place next Sunday in Sligo, hosted by Northwest MTB.

Real short climbs, fast trails with a mix of everything, being a grassroots event means you can take plenty of repeat runs over the 3 stages on the day.

Entries closing this weekend, if you're on the fence get signed up now, these trails are club run and not open to to anyone usually, and quite hard to find the best ones on your own, so take the trip down and see what Sligo has to offer.

https://www.sientries.co.uk/event.php?elid=Y&event_id=5895

steamsey

Great fun up in Sligo today. Seriously greasy trails but the weather played ball on the day itself. Fair play and thanks to everyone who organised it - it ran very well and the trails were really good. Will defo check out more of the Grassroots next year.

Did 1 and 2 three times and 3 twice. Transition up after each trail was grand - definitely makes it more accessible. Had a few offs before I started to take it a bit handier - nearly hit a spectator on 2, and someone nearly ran over me on 3 when I was literally lying in mud after a wipeout! No mechanicals which I was really grateful for.

Beautiful part of the country and some lovely views from Union Woods.

Just one e-bike I think - they don't seem to have taken off for racing.

rizzodun

steamsey wrote: »

Great fun up in Sligo today. Seriously greasy trails but the weather played ball on the day itself. Fair play and thanks to everyone who organised it - it ran very well and the trails were really good. Will defo check out more of the Grassroots next year.

Did 1 and 2 three times and 3 twice. Transition up after each trail was grand - definitely makes it more accessible. Had a few offs before I started to take it a bit handier - nearly hit a spectator on 2, and someone nearly ran over me on 3 when I was literally lying in mud after a wipeout! No mechanicals which I was really grateful for.

Beautiful part of the country and some lovely views from Union Woods.

Just one e-bike I think - they don't seem to have taken off for racing.

Glad you liked it. It had rained all week so there's not much that could be done about the grease!!

Getting good feedback so far, which is always good to hear.

There's usually a few more E-Bikes but guessing the distance and last round of the year put some people off. There's a lad from Bree who's been at the other rounds.

Decided not to race myself but did run some of the stages over the day and was raging I didn't, local knowledge and all that.

steamsey

Does anyone know when the results from Sligo will be posted? Dying to see how bad I did.

steamsey

Results!

http://grassrootsenduro.com/2019-sligo-results/

prunudo

Did you stick with flats or go back to clipless? And how did you find the format of the race versus the gravity enduro set up.
Depending on locations for the races next year I might give one or two of them a go.

steamsey

Straight back to clipped in after Carrick. Gave flats a good go - did most of this year and all the 2019 Gravity Enduro's on flats but happy to go back to being clipped in. Can't explain the difference exactly but quite happy with my result in Sligo having gone back to clipless versus disappointed all year with Gravity Enduro results on the flats. I know there are probably other variables at play but felt solid on the bike on Sunday - really enjoyed it.) I like the mud so that might have helped too).

I'll see how it goes over the winter with clipless but am going to invest in new clipless shoes anyway as the current ones are about to disintegrate.

I liked the format and again - thanks so much to everyone who organised the race. The trails were great and I love the fact that with these races you get to see places you otherwise would probably never get to.

It's more accessible than the Gravity Enduro's (GEs). If you have the time and energy on race day, you can session the trails and give yourself a good chance of improving times with each run. I like the way it's your best time on each trail that counts so if you have a bad run, you aren't too disappointed as you can do it again (time permitting). With the GE's - you realistically practice each trail once and need to conserve energy for the next day - so very different strategies. If you mess up on race day in a GE, tough luck! I did 8 runs yesterday - only because the transition was so manageable. You have a plan like I'll leave 3 because I don't think I can do too much better on it, but I messed up that berm on 2, so I'll give it one more go and try to shave a few seconds off overall time.

Ultimately I'd probably choose a standard GE over a Grassroots but am delighted to have done this one and having enjoyed it so much and will defo do as many Grassroots as I can next year.

Didn't get to do a DH this year but will ask santa for a fullface and give one a go in 2020.

steamsey

https://imgur.com/vP9Chmw

Quick gif on some of the slippiness on Stage 2 - nearly hit a spectator after a botched little jump

rizzodun

steamsey wrote: »

https://imgur.com/vP9Chmw

Quick gif on some of the slippiness on Stage 2 - nearly hit a spectator after a botched little jump

You don't need to pull up on that, and that's not slippy, we call that normal. :pac:

mad turnip

steamsey wrote: »

https://imgur.com/vP9Chmw

Quick gif on some of the slippiness on Stage 2 - nearly hit a spectator after a botched little jump

Cheers for those youtube uploads, great for doing the routes on later dates.