We’re confused. Not so long ago, the UK had no national Enduro series.
This week there’s not one, but two national Enduro series. And they’re both called “the British Enduro Series”.
// Photos by Dan Wyre photo // words by Jamie
Steve Parr clearly has big shoes to fill. The gap left behind by the UK Gravity Enduro Series (which folded 2 weeks ago) has been filled by not one, but two series. Both are claiming to be the UK’s national enduro series and both are branding themselves as the “British Enduro Series”.
One series is being organised by Si Paton and crew from the successful British Downhill Series. The other, is being organised by Neil and crew from the successful grass-roots Red Kite enduro series. Both have an identically named facebook group (here and here) and both have got (give or take a few) the same number of followers on their page. If that’s not confusing enough, both are claiming that they will deliver a UK-wide enduro series with several rounds, prize money, pro-pits, challenging, fun tracks and will earn the support of British Cycling.
What are they both offering? Si Paton’s BES is claiming to bring the British Downhill Series vibe to enduro. They launched their Facebook page in December 2014 and are claiming “100% reliable, accurate and live timing”, a 5 round series, “industry leading sponsors and service teams” and that their aim is to get BC to adopt enduro as a recognised format. Paton and co. now own Britishenduro.co.uk and Britishenduro.com but haven’t announced a title sponsor as yet. Rumour has it, they’re aiming to get the BDS final out of the way before this is announced. You can’t argue with their success in DH – they’ve brought a huge level of professionalism to the UK’s national series with a full start sheet at each event. On Facebook Si has claimed that “The official British Enduro Series is organised by the BDS Team. Nothing to do with Redkite. Guess they were not aware that we already grabbed the series name, Facebook. Twitter, www etc.. And announced this last week.”
Neil and co’s British Enduro Series launched this week with a website, social media profiles and sponsorship from Marin – with exactly the same name for their Facebook group as the ‘other’ BES. They’ve shot up to 700-odd fans in one-week catching up fast with their similarly named competitors. They’ve announced a 7 round series with races throughout the UK and the website mtb-enduro.co.uk. Their official website will launch in October.
So … now we have two very similar series with an identical name, offering almost identical events. On Facebook Si has claimed that “The official British Enduro Series is organised by the BDS Team. Nothing to do with Redkite. Guess they were not aware that we already grabbed the series name, Facebook. Twitter, www etc.. And announced this last week”. Neil and co. have said that “There appear to be two ‘official’ national enduro series. We have been running MTB events for a number of years and an enduro series is loved by it’s followers. As British Cycling stepped aside from the Enduro scene I would suggest that there is no such thing as an official Enduro Series.”
So – does it matter? Probably quite significantly to the race organisers – but as riders, nah, not really. Neil and co. are quite right, without BC support there’s no official series. It’ll come to down whoever can put on the best events, get the most entries, build the best tracks, nail the timing and win the support of the riders.
Ultimately, for us riders it’s a great problem to have. We’ve got more options than ever before, two potentially high profile series to get stuck into and a huge statement to British Cycling that enduro is in demand.
It’s a bit odd that the organisers of the Marin sponsored series couldn’t pick a different name for their series but … who cares? We’ve got enduro battling it out to impress us and more races than ever before. Competition is good.
