Endurance Moutnain Bike Champions

News Release / 09.11.2012

After six months of intense mountain bike racing at venues stretching from the south coast to the Scottish border, the inaugural Endurance Series has come to an end and the first ever Champions have been crowned. Tactical racing, consistent performances, early season form and late charges all made for interesting and at times unexpected series leader boards.

Racing started back in March with the Whinlatter Mountain Bike Challenge and some familiar names made their mark at the shortest event of the series. Neal Crampton won after a close fought battle with Rich Rothwell (M Steels Cycles/Enigma/Exposure) and Greig Brown (www.Dooleys-cycles.co.uk) came in third. In the women’s race Helen Jackson (Planetfear.com) lead from start to finish and Sally Ozanne and Jo Cardwell (Basecamp MTB Grantown-on-Spey) made their only series appearances. Andy Howett (SWCC/Mt Zoom/Bikefood) and Kirsty Forrester (Cheeky Dior XT) made modest starts with top 20 positions to score some vital series points.

From the shortest event to the longest with 24 & 12 Hours of Exposure in April and leader Helen Jackson maintained her early season form with a 5^th place in the 12 hour event. Kirsty Forrester rode herself to an excellent fourth place in the 12 hour to put her second in the series and Maddie Horton (Certini-Mccaulay's) made her debut with the 12 hour win. It was also the first event of the year for Amy Baron-Hall (Cookson Cycles / Velocake) taking an important third place in the 24 hour race and Sally Hall (Rock UK) grabbed 6^th in the 12 hour. In the men’s races some new faces appeared in the top spots but a 12 hour third place for Rothwell gave him the series lead and Howett maintained his consistent approach with a top 30 in the 24 hour to put him in second spot. Ant White, Martin Smith and Graham Mcconaghy also started their points tally with solid top 15 performances.

At round 3, the Gorrick Exposure 100, some of the top contenders started their late run for the title with Ben Thomas (Mountain Trax RT), George Budd (Salsa Factory Racing) and Tim Dunford (Cannondale Racing) stepping onto the race podium. Horton took her second win in a row to leapfrog Jackson into the series lead, beating the new names in town Hanneke van der Werf (Team Jewson/MI Racing/Qoroz) and Amanda Brooks (Ellsworth Haven). Howett’s consistent attendance and performance at all the rounds now put him in the top spot and despite his absence, Rothwell still held onto second going into the summer break.

Another third place at the Brighton Big Dog in August put van der Werf level on points with Jackson for second in the series and within touching distance of the leader, Horton. Thomas made it two for two and Budd and Dunford had a reversal of fortunes to tie them on 194 points. Howett added another 82 points for 10^th place to his total giving him the series lead and making him the one to chase for the rest of the year.