Hotlines: iXS and Answer's Chris Hutchens Wins at The Endurance Downhill

It had been a few years since I last entered the 6 hour downhill event. A last minute change of plan saw me head to Fort William to compete instead of down to the British Championships in Wales which I was disappointed not to be able to go to.

I was looking forward to the pain I was going to be putting myself through though and seeing a lot of good riders fight it out over the hours descending one of the longest race tracks in the world. It’s rated as the best on the downhill world race circuit due to its speed and bike breaking reputation.

The running start kicked off the race before the climb to the halfway point of the track. I made an early break on my Orange 225 leading halfway up the climb before some weapons came past me. Luckily I pressed on and made it onto the first Gondola car with 2 other riders. This gave me an early lead where I grabbed an open track at about 4pm.

Hutch taking an early lead after the Le Mans start.

I hadn’t ridden at Fort William for a few weeks and didn’t practice earlier in the day so took a few steady runs to get into the rhythm of things and to pace myself for the full 6 hours. The first 8 runs went well while I pushed further ahead of 2nd placeman, MTBcut's, Stu Thomson and gave myself a 4-minute lead.

A perfect evening and perfect light to capture the team colours.

I then seemed to hit a bit more pace; warmed up and the blisters appearing on my hands plastered I put in some faster runs. James kept me up to date on the times. James is still injured after a crash in Europe, he’ll be back soon! Al MacLennan was putting in faster run times than me but with my good start and steady runs I was probably 10 minutes ahead in total so I was banking on getting in an extra run at the end or for my continuing improvement in run speed to improve my overall time.

I headed up for run 12 of the day feeling like a good 17 or so was on the cards with a remaining 1 hour and 40 minutes left. 5 more following this was definitely doable. A red flag appeared at the top of the track while I was on the gondola. Not surprised I thought it would be clear by my arrival at the start. Unfortunately it wasn’t and after 40 minutes of waiting around it was decided that we would all do a final run from the top and call it a day as it was 9.15 PM and about 100 riders were queued at the top. That’s when my advantage went but I put in a fast run, the fastest of the day. The important thing was to get the casualty off the hill; I hope he makes a speedy recovery from his injuries.

Depsite being an endurance race Hutch found the time to send some sweet jumps.

Everyone grabbed their stuff following the last run while being devoured by the clearly starved midges. Results were printed and the rumours James warned me of were true. Bumped to 2nd overall but still winning my Category. It was all friendly competitions under the circumstances and a fantastic evening of racing. In total we clocked up over an hour of descending,…..I’ll be getting new wheels now!
Shall I be doing it again next year? I hope so and would recommend it to anyone wanting a challenge and to get a lot of riding done.

Thanks to No Fuss Events for another fantastic event with a super atmosphere. The next No Fuss event for my will be the Tour De Ben Nevis.

Left to right; MTBcut's Stu Thomson, Hutch with a HUGE trophy and 3rd place Ben Arnott.

It’s been a good month of racing for me with 3 races and 3 podiums - One 1st place and two 2nds in three very different disciplines.

Next for me is the SDA at Glencoe but for now a rest is needed! James heads to the next Gravity Enduro in Wales in 2 weekends time, hopefully he’s all fixed up.