UK's Gnarliest Enduro MTB Race?! Hope PMBA Graythwaite 2020 Lake District

Such a wild race!! Footage highlights from stages of the Hope PMBA race in Graythwaite. Gnar guaranteed!

Tomas and I travelled to the Lake District to race our bikes - our first and only race this year due to covid. I had never raced any of the Hope PMBA series before so wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had done some Tweedlove and Scottish Enduro Series races in the past.

We travelled down on the Friday night to set up camp for the weekend. The event set up was well planned and organised with marshals greeting everyone upon arrival and directing to the different fields on offer. We picked one through the back and away from any of the softer ground!

I took the Go Pro round practice day and boy it was crazy! There had been days of heavy rain and the rain continued during the day. The stages were tough and relentless... even stage 1 was straight into the gnar! This was a proper gravity race. Steep chutes, exposed roots, slippery rocks - surprises around every corner! There were a couple of "flowier" stages in the middle however by flow I mean thick muddy corners and axle deep puddles!

Stage 6... the most talked about stage of the race and rightly so. It left some people wondering if they should continue to race day. It was savage right from the start!

Hope you enjoy the highlights I filmed on the trails. Race day itself went well although I had a big crash on Stage 6 and busted my leg so wasn't sure if I would be able to continue to Stage 7 to finish the race. I took some paracetamol and crashed my way down it - Tomas was super nice and went behind me to cheer me on and shout at me to get back up every time I went down! I managed to take 3rd place so I would say yes it was all worth it! This is a must do race if you enjoy gnarly trails! There's also a full race report with pics up on Pinkbike.