by Nuno Luz
The last round for this year of the Southern Enduro series took place last 28th of June at Milland, near Liphook.
My first experience in UK Enduro was exactly here back in September 2023, with definitely very different weather conditions.
What started out as a cool overcast day ended up being quite challenging, with dry and loose terrain that accentuated all the features and adding an extra challenge to riders, myself included!
The race was composed of 5 stages which, unlike the Pedalhounds Mashups, can only be ridden once, not leaving great room for mistakes and bringing the stakes much higher than on the more entry level Pedalhounds series.
Added to this, I had decided to step up from the comfortable and cushy Fun category to my age category, knowing all too well that it would be more demanding and harder to get a mid of the pack position.
After getting my timing chip I then proceeded to practise, where you could get a feeling of each stage, and I immediately realised that the lack of rain and hot weather had changed the track and thus my riding style would have to adjust to this.
The stages are usually quite steep, with pronounced off camber sections, tight corners and some drops, as well as a couple of sections where you would have to negotiate tight trees and a challenging drop. Most of the tighter and slower corners were extremely sandy, and as riders went through practice it became blown out and traction was hard to find.
Given this reality, I tried to increase the compression of my fork a couple of clicks to allow for the harsher terrain and to drop the rebound slightly to compensate.
I did get a bit more traction, but it resulted in a bit harsher riding and more fatigue for me!
To add insult to injury, mid-way through practice the sun had made its glorious appearance, and riding up to the beginning of each stage became quite challenging with temperatures rising to high twenties and at some point 28 degrees Celsius.
This combined with the fact that every time you had to get to the start of a stage you would have a good elevation to tackle, up to 70m at a time and on a heavier enduro bike, made it even harder.
Southern Enduro do seeding on their events, which means that you have to judge your technical expertise and fitness and let them know this so they can slot you in with faster or slower riders. The last thing you want in one of these steep descents is to run into a slower rider and lose time or ruin someone’s run – especially when you only have one go per stage.
When they hosted the nationals in Minehead it was even harder, since seeding was done based on your practice times during the first day, but at least you would get two days of racing.
This time my slot got pushed to 12:40 which was when the sun was at its peak, and the heat had settled. I much prefer to start early, because of how fresh I am and the weather being cooler.
Stages were short, around 1m and 15s up to almost 2m, and for the top riders this would come down to 51s and 1m and 20s respectively. But the nature of the terrain, weather and natural features, as well as some man made ones, added to the increasing effort and fatigue making this a really challenging and technical Enduro race, which I do enjoy.
Hydration and some rest at the top, just by the start of each stage to get the heart rate down, were essential. And then some waiting in line before setting off downhill.
My first, second and third stages were the fastest, even though I felt a bit sluggish that day and wasn’t acclimatising well to the sudden temperature increases. My riding style went from confident to relatively slow and defensive, but still faster than my first experience at Milland back in 2023.
My favourite stage was definitely stage 4, quite flowy with a few jumps, tight corners that were less loose, and the iconic wooden bridge just before the end of the stage.
Stage 2 was definitely the most sandy and challenging with very steep descents leading to tight and narrow blown out corners, and unfortunately I lost some time with some mistakes on both this stage and stage 5, which had a massive impact on my final position.
Because you don’t get another go, I couldn’t do anything and it’s fair enough as it was the same for all the other riders too. I do enjoy this model of competition, but I do prefer mash-ups since you get more runs and every run you can improve, test new lines, learn from your mistakes and get more value from the competition, in my view.
In the end I got 23rd out of 26 riders in the 40-49 category, which was below my expectations but at least I had some fun, made new friends and got to ride my bike on some of the most challenging courses in the South of England.
Now I’m looking forward to my next Enduro race in September, especially since it will be in Milland again, run by Southern Enduro and even better as a Mashup!
If you’re also interested you can sign up here: https://southernenduro.co.uk/events/milland-mashup-enduro-2026/
Happy racing!
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