News | Welsh Gravity Enduro Announce New Mash-Up Format
With 2016 seeing the end of the UK’s Gravity Enduro series, it will see the return of the Welsh Gravity Enduro series for it’s second year, hosted by UKGE track builder and all-round nice guy Charlie Williams. This time however it comes with a twist, as the format is far more suited towards grass-roots racing and fun, with the pressure of having to put in countless kilometres to get to the top of many stages in a certain time being ditched. This sounds like the kind of thing we at Enduro Mag favour; a real rider’s race!
The idea is to have all the races set in trail centres, for ridability, especially as the races will be between January and May. There will be three stages, all open for three hours for racing, where riders will do as many timed laps as they can on each one during that three hours; their best time to count. There will be five race weekends, where riders can choose to race one of or both days of the weekend, with their best five scores to count as overall series standing.
There will be none of the full-face or insurance rules of the UKGE, keeping things simple and much more rider friendly, this really is going to be like a big mate’s race, as riders can spend the day trying to beat their buddies’ times. Charlie has so far sorted out one venue at Afan and the last round will possibly be in Shropshire’s Eastridge Woods; others still to be confirmed. The dates will be January 23-24th, February 20-21st, March 19-20th, April 2-3rd (Afan) and May 21-22nd orMay 28-29th.
There are three possible title sponsors currently in talks with Charlie, these will be finalised after the last round of the UKGE next weekend. There will be prizes for overall and individual fastest stage times. Categories will be Under 18 14-18 years old, Senior 19-29 years old, Masters 30-39 years old, Veterans 40-49 years old, Grand Vets 50+ years old, Women 14+ years old, Elite Males, Elite Females, Hardtail 14+ years old and E-bike.
The timing shall be fully live and taken care of by Action Sport Timing and shall be sent riders phones whilst riding (a first for the UK!) There will be full medical and marshall cover and the racing will come with a £45 price for one day, both days price TBC. There is one more round left of the WGE 2015 at Coedy Brenin (Nov 29th), where stages will actually go down parts of the existing trail centre’s tracks for the first time ever. This will see stages run on the Adam’s Family, Cain and Abel via Serpent’s Tail then Beginning of the End finishing in the centre. We shall be giving these events a visit over the winter, so watch this space!
website: www.welshgravityenduro.com
Words: Jim Buchanan Photos: WGE Media