Fantastic start to the Scottish Enduro Season - over 100 riders on a classic forest course. Ground in great condition. Lots of new ground and a lot of hard work put in by the SBEC club. Blue skies and happy faces - and a lot of very tired riders.  This is what Enduro is all about.

Final Results Version 3 now available - click here for results.

Report by Sophie Bruce

SBEC Thirlestane Enduro

The first round of the Scottish Enduro Championship was off to a cracking start at the weekend, with perfect weather conditions for a challenging ‘old style’ enduro with tight check times. The event was held by the Scottish Borders Enduro Club on the Thirlestane estate near Lauder where there was a combination of different obstacles to tackle including clear fell timber, the ‘Borders Bog’, logs and the dreaded tree roots! The Special Test took place in one of the twisting forest sections close to the beginning of the lap. Riders wound their way through the 5 minute test and out onto the hills overlooking the boggy section below. The more confident riders took the steep route down the side of the hill whilst the less confident riders rode down the road to meet at the boggy section. The occasional rider decided to take an early bath in the river section before tackling the long, rocky uphill climb out onto the moors and over the policeman’s helmets.

Scottish star Fraser Flockhart stomped the competition coming in first place for the Experts after successfully attacking the 10 mile course and completing all 5 laps. Mountain biker Fergus Lamb came in close second with Joel Gowan in third. Pro rider Jane Daniels came up from Wigan to take fourth place after battling with Steven Currie JNR who was competing in his first time card event in a year.

Mark Ritchie lead the way in the Over 40’s who battled bar to bar with Steven Currie SNR. Kyle Deswert came in third place only two seconds behind Steven in the overall test results, followed by Gavin Elliot in fourth. Former Scottish champion, Murray Thomson came in fifth place.

Also managing to survive the brutality of the track was Clubman rider Ross Hamilton who took gold in his class. In second place was Ben Mitchell who fought tooth and nail with Gary Turner who ended up with 60 penalty points but still managed third place. Erich Schonwalder came in a close fourth followed by Cameron McCann in fifth.

The over 50’s also fared well on the track. Andrew Maben led the charge only a second ahead of Duncan McCormick in the test who came in second place. Julian Stevens came in third place with Craig McCormick in fourth and Robert Elliot in fifth.

There was success in the Clubman B class which was dominated by Brad Swinbank. Alan Milligan followed in second with Grant Gillender in third, Gavin Freer in fourth and Andrew Currie in fifth who all managed to make their check times.

The sportsmen had a tough time on the course but there were several riders that overcame the obstacles and rode all three laps. Max Hamilton came in first place with Peter Mayo on his tail in second place. Gordon and Jamie McIntyre were awarded third and fourth place with Neil George Alexander in fifth.

Overall, the riders had a mostly successful weekend and kicked off the enduro season with a bang.

 

Photos copyright (c) scottishenduros 2017. Email me for a print or copy
Perfect Parc Ferme - sun and bikes .
Andrew Bisset leads off 2017	Jane Daniels
Alan Davidson	Nathan Mclean
Steve Hughes	Euan Allan
Euan Davidson
Danny Cockburn	Lewis Forbes
Ryan Jones	Ben Mitchell
Brad Swinbank	Graeme Armstrong
Darren Laurie	Nial Patton
Steven CurrieJnr	Andrew Bisset
Joel Gowan	Fergus Lamb
Duncan Norrie	Greg Gallacher
Kagen McKenzie leads the charge	Steven Currie Snr
Gavin Elliot	Alan Davidson
Did I mention the stumps . .
Damien Greenall in the stumps	Stuart Wilson
Last man off Bartley Kelly
The chase is on
Lewsis Anderson
Duncan Norrie	Jane Daniels
Kagen McKenzie
The "A's " team	The correct way to exit the test
Phil Fallows	Mark Lewis
Euan Allan pushing hard in the test	David Tait
Andrew Maben gets it up	Followed by Garth Kamieson
Its a looooong way down	Not sure about this easy route . . . .
Now that hill WAS STEEP !!!
Mark Ritchie	Murray Thomson
Max Hamilton still having fun
Its that trials bike still going strong	Stuart Mack
	Happy Dad - the lads back on time in one piece