Entries now open for the 2018 UK Gravity Enduro series. Here are the dates – and the confirmed venues – of their return race season.

>>> The best enduro mountain bikes

2018 UK Gravity Enduro Series dates and venues

• April 28th-29th: Innerliethen
• May 26th-27th: Eastridge
• June 23rd-24th: Afan
• August 25th-26th: Ae Forest
• September 15th-16th: Dyfi Forest
• Entry: £73.00

The UK Gravity Enduro website has been updated with this info and links to entries

If you’re interested but need to ask a question the best bet is pop by the UKGE’s Facebook group page too. The UKGE team are good at responding to queries on there.

What does your £73.00 get you?

• Two full days riding your bike
• Trade stands
• Technical/Service area
• Demo rides for family/friends while you are racing
• Free camping for everyone (at selected rounds only)

Saturday

0800 – 1200 Sign on at registration.
0930 – 1500 Open practise.
1530 – Seeding, on one of the stages which will be used in the main race, usually stage 5, your seeding time will count towards your overall time on Sunday.

Sunday

0930 – Start from rear of finish arena, please come and sign out, we don’t want to be looking for you at 7pm!
1715 – Award ceremony, pending BC approval.

Prizes

There will be prizes for the top 3 in each category along with spot prizes from some of the biggest names in the mountain bike industry. These prizes include riding holidays to the Italian Riviera and the French Alps, everyone is in with a chance of winning.

A bit of background to UKGE

After others tried and failed, the original organiser of UK Gravity Enduro racing has announced his return. There will be a 2018 UKGE.

Back in September 2015 news broke that there would be no UK Gravity Enduro series for 2016. The reason stated at the time was that the UKGE organiser had been made homeless and having a child earlier in 2015. The absence of UKGE continued into 2017.

So it came as something of a pleasant surprise to hear the organiser – Steve Parr – announce back in May that he as going to bring back the UKGE for 2018.

UKGE’s Steve Parr

For those who may not know, Steve Parr has been one of the original ‘founding fathers’ of enduro racing in the UK and had always enjoyed a great reputation for putting on a good race. Even in the troubled 2015 series, the races were overwhelmingly well-received and enjoyed by the racers.

#bringbackparr

The return of Parr came after an online campaign dubbed #bringbackparr. This campaign hoped to bring Parr back into the enduro race-organising scene, no doubt partly inspired by the attempts of other enduro series organisers all went awry.

>>> British Enduro Series cancelled

It’s clearly not easy to put on a national series of enduro races. The format is arguably much more demanding than other races formats due to rights of way conflicts, sheer mileage of terrain covered, multiple timing equipment required and marshal numbers required etc.

Anyway, the #bringpbackparr campaign appears to have worked.

So far we know that the intention is for the 2018 UKGE format to be the same as in years gone by. So that should be five rounds, all around the UK, practice and seeding on Saturdays, racing on Sundays, five timed stages per venue.

The insurance and full-face helmet question

Compulsory insurance and full-face helmets were two big issues during the last season of UKGE. Although only a couple of years ago, the enduro scene was very much in its infancy back then and evolving and changing all the time. Not aided by the fact that British Cycling kinda sidestepped dealing with enduro altogether. The spectre of liability and people suing people reared quickly its ugly head.

Apparently personal insurance will not be mandatory at UKGE 2018 (although it is highly recommended). Full face helmets must be worn for the racing stages.

Interestingly, modern removable chin-bar helmets might be a good idea for UKGE; there will be no rule to wear full-face during the linking stages. So you just need have full-face protection for the timed stages.

Entries will go live on Saturday February 3rd at 09:00hrs. Places will be limited to 300 spots per venue.

Good luck Mr Parr! The UK is well overdue a proper national enduro series. Fingers crossed.