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I've ridden recreationally at Swinley Forest a couple of times with the iBikeRide crew. There's some fantastic and challenging riding to be found there, and it's now become my favourite place to ride around London.

The local Gorrick bike club is active in organising races at Swinley and in the surrounding area, so when I read that this year's Gore Enduro would be taking place there, it seemed an excellent opportunity to try out my first proper mountain bike race. I met up with iBikeRider Phil and his mate Graham (top blokes!) at Waterloo Station, where we caught the train out to Martin's Heron. A short blast on the bikes from there got us up to the staging area for the race.

I was impressed by the relaxed atmosphere as cyclists signed in, chilled out, and fettled their steeds. We watched the lunatics who'd signed up for the 70 mile option grind past us as we stuffed down some tasty tuna and pasta. At this point it was about 11:30 - these guys had already been going for a solid three hours. Since we're not completely insane, we'd all signed up for the 30 mile race. My reasoning for this choice was based on a few rides from home to Epping Forest - that's a round trip of just over 30 miles and I can do that pretty easily. Probably because most of it is on silky smooth towpaths. At 12:30, our race kicked off and an altogether more hardcore 30 miles began to unfold, yawn, stretch and then beat the very will to live out of me. But it was fun, honest ;)

So, on with the race! With the bike computer ticking down the minutes and miles, I was eager to see how long it would take to finish off the first 10 mile loop. The course started with a short climb from the staging area follwed by a double-back straight into the woods. I love Swinley's windy singletrack and this was already a lot of fun. The ground was soft but not overly muddy, so everyone made good progress as we slipped between the trees and hopped over roots. Soon we popped out onto a fireroad stretch, and then back into the trees. This was to set the theme for the whole course - the Gorrick team did an excellent job of balancing singletrack (early in the race, fun; later in the race, brutal) and fireroad (early in the race, fast; later in the race, welcome relief) sections.

Around the middle of the lap came a hill that only the most die-hard masochists could winch their way up. The gallows humour rang out as we mortals pushed up with agonising slowness. "When are we supposed to start enjoying this?!" was a common theme. After reaching the summit we all found out - we'd reached a section of Swinley's awesome berms and jumps. Having sessioned this section of the forest before, I knew what to expect and rolled in with a huge grin plastered on my face which grew ever wider as the speed picked up. The rest of the course was just as varied, with plenty more flowing routes over lovely resurfaced singletrack. I made it back to the staging area in 1 hour 8 mins and had travelled 10.41 miles according to the GPS. After a brief stop to ditch my non-functioning helmet cam (grr) and swig some water (which tasted great after all the liquid sugar that was coating my throat by this point) it was back on the bike.

I got chatting to another guy on the second lap. As we shot the breeze along some pretty smooth fireroad, another bloke on our left cartwheeled into the air in a spectacular stack. By the looks of it he'd tried to pull an energy bar out of his pocket, knocked the bars 90 degrees and gone over the bars at speed. Amazingly he dusted himself down and was absolutely fine. I'd have been a gibbering wreck if that'd been me. By this point, things were starting to hurt. No more bunnyhopping over puddles or putting the foot (feet?) down on the flat fireroad - I was knackered. Arms and legs were taking a beating through all the vibration, and I had a weird burning sensation in my palms. I love my SixSixOne Raji gloves but more padding would have been great by this point! Next bike upgrade will definitely be contact points. 2nd lap: 1 hr 13 min 27 s. The temptation to bail out at 20 miles was huge. Pure belligerence kept me moving. 10 more miles... 10 more miles. My eyes kept flicking back to the GPS, watching the distance rack up ever so slowly.

It's amazing how a bit of fun can reinvigorate you. Third time around, after stumbling up the Killer Hill for the final time with all the speed and power of a tranquillized gerbil, I got a real mood boost from the berms. After that, with half a lap to go, and light at the end of the tunnel, thing were looking up. By this point I was riding mostly on my own somewhere in the middle of the pack, so there was plenty of space to surge ahead on the downhills and then slow down and catch a drink on the flats. Finally and with great relief I crossed the line for the final time. It was a pretty cool experience to have my name read out as a finisher - plus I got a cool Gorrick medal ;) Lap time was 1 hr 20 min 20 s. Total time, according to the GPS that doesn't count when I'm not moving, was 3 hrs 42 min 03 s. The official Gorrick time was 3 hrs 55 min 10 s, and I came in 51st out of 104 riders - I'm pretty pleased with that!! I think I'll be back for this one next year, but probably after some proper training! The course was fantastic and there was a great feeling of camaraderie throughout the whole thing - I'd definitely recommend it :)

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Comments (2)

stumpy_dan said:

	... Gareth, you have a great way with words. I really enjoyed reading this. This was my favourite quote the Gorrick team did an excellent job of balancing singletrack (early in the race, fun; later in the race, brutal) and fireroad (early in the race, fast; later in the race, welcome relief) sections. excellent!
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May 07, 2008
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penfolduk said:

... It was definitely fun despite my minor indiscretions with the floor. I ditched out after two laps due to my 3rd crash lol despite this I still came 91st lol. I feel your pain about the amount of sugary water we drank, was sick of the taste half way into the second lap. Was forcing it down because I knew I had to have it. I would also just like to point out that it was only Gareth "fettling his steed" and it was in the bushes..... come to think of it I did think it was a bit odd at the time Anyway who fancies the Army Enduro in June? Phil

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May 07, 2008
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