#thedevelopment

Lee here!  I was taken by surprise, yes I panicked somewhat as I never knew the bike races started so early in the year.  Needless to say I attired the The Development’s new male enduro rider, Chris Morrell, in a 2015 team top, it’ll have to do until I’ve sorted the new design out and the main season’s races kick off proper. I’d better get my finger out now though, erk!

Anyway, may I introduce you all to Chris, the newest recruit who will be Robyn’s team mate this season…..

So Saturday 9th January was to be my season opener for The Development. Grizedale Forest was the destination for a risky day and night enduro. Big credit needs to go to the guys at PMBA for having the balls to put on an event this early in the depths of winter. It has been well documented how much rain has fallen in the Lake District with the heartbreaking flooding and as you can guess the trail conditions were surely going to pack some serious Lakeland slop and that was certainly delivered!

It was business as usual at sign on, a laid-back event is always the deal with the PMBA, sign on, get your dibber then off to practice the stages. Saturday's race loop consisted of 3 stages. The night race was optional but consisted of the same 3 stages that were raced and practiced during the day.

Grizedale Forest really packs some fantastic off-piste/walking trails and the 3 stages didn't disappoint! Rocky, rooty and a hell of a lot of mud! Holy shit was there mud!

Stage 1 was the Grizedale classic; Carron Crag. Also home of the best Marshall/heckler of the day, great banter in pretty grim conditions. The trail is a pretty full on rock fest where you’re sharply spat into an off-camber slab, which has been known to claim a few victims.  Afterwards it's on the full gas through some pretty gnarly rock gardens, broadwalks and some lovely little drop offs. This trail literally is a cracker!  Even more fun in the dark with torrential rain just cranking up the gnar factor, awesome stuff. I rode the stage pretty clean and was happy to come away with a 14th out of 55 for the day and the night stages.

PMBA, Grizedale MTB, Day & Night Enduro. from Hidden Media on Vimeo.

Stage 2 was pretty short yet full-tilt smasher. It was also home to one enormous puddle at the start which decided to swallow my wheel! After that though it's flat out singletrack which resembled a river of mud, amazing fun in the dark. I managed my only fall of the day on this stage, didn't lose too much time though and came home with a 14th during the day and a 10th at night.

After clearing a tonne of mud out of my eyes it was off to Stage 3.  A couple of miles of fire road climbing brought you to the sculpture trial where a fast and rocky switchback start lead into an absolute pedal fest. The top half of this trail is a beaut. The rooty singletrack gives way to rocky, muddy shoots. This section was to be my downfall for my top 15 aim. The one place you don't want to get a flat is here, which I did! The bottom half of the trail is a leg-destroying sprint back home. I don't actually know if it's uphill all the way but it certainly felt like it. This definitely showed who had scoffed too much Christmas turkey, yes, that would be me!

I managed to ride all the way back with a flat just very, very slowly. Only getting past by one other rider gave me a bit hope that it wasn't as bad as I thought (oh ye of little faith, it was) 52nd out of 55 during the day but a much better 13th on the night stage.

A bittersweet start to the year but a great event all the same. Hats off to all the marshals who stood in biblical rain. Effort indeed!!! Next up is the Northern downhills NDH(uro) at Hamsterley. Can't wait!!!

Now that the main run of 2015 mountain bike races are drawing to a close with just one more enduro race to go before our eyes turn to Megan’s cyclocross campaign over winter I was ummm’ing and ahh’ing whether to take on some new riders for 2016.  Early on in the year I actually had a male enduro rider all set to be supported alas he walked away at the last minute leaving me up the creek and that made me reluctant to take on anyone else for 2015. I felt really sorry throughout the year with Robyn being the team’s sole enduro rider.

This has now changed; recently I was approached by Chris Morrell and a North-Eastern enduro rider who races in the Masters, he’s been after a little support for a while so we had a good chat and he ticked all of the team’s boxes. It’s not often I take on a rider so quickly either, even before the rest of the team knew!

Chris will be racing Borderline Event’s PMBA Enduro Series alongside most of the Scottish and NDH Enduro events, he’s ready to let rip at the Enduro World Series event in Scotland and will be travelling into Europe for the Trans Savoie, other races are to be confirmed as it’s still early days.

So if you would all join me to give Chris a big cheery welcome, welcome aboard The Development Chris, I have a feeling you’re going to fit right in with my motley crew!

See you on the hills punks,