All this could be experienced during the “Przesieka Enduro MTB Series” competition, held last Saturday, June 27, 2015, in the Podgórzyn commune—in the very heart of the Karkonosze Mountains.
The “Przesieka Enduro MTB Series” event can be regarded as a double debut on Poland’s enduro scene. It was the first competition held in the on-sight format, in which riders tackle the special stages without having inspected them beforehand. It was also the organisational debut of Grzegorz Miedziński, who has organised XCO competitions (AMP and AZS MTB CUP) for many years, as well as Eliminator-MTB.com urban sprints.
Both debuts can be considered highly successful, as many positive comments and opinions about the courses and the atmosphere of the competition can already be heard. Throughout the event, an incredible atmosphere of joy—and sometimes even euphoria—could be felt as riders completed successive special stages. The great variety of surfaces (stones of every size, roots, soft leaf litter, gravel and even a little meadow) and the gradients of the descents (and climbs) meant that practically everyone had the opportunity to ride the sections they liked most.
The order and difficulty of the special stages also undoubtedly influenced the course of the competition and the participants’ conversations during the winners’ ceremony, prize draw and evening barbecue. The idea of starting groups also worked well: riders in groups of 20 appeared at the special-stage starts approximately every 10–15 minutes. Even a slight delay at the start of SS1 (caused by a computer failure) did not significantly alter the starting schedule. The online results took a while to appear because mobile-network coverage in this part of the Karkonosze Mountains is not the best. However, SMS messages with individual riders’ results did arrive. So, organisationally, a 5 minus.
As for the competition format (on-sight), before the event there were claims that it favoured local riders. To some extent, that was true (see the results). However, the organisers made sure the individual special stages were sufficiently varied so that even the “locals” felt uncertain as they negotiated successive turns and steep sections. The fact that the winner was Oskar Pluciński (Erkato RT Kraśnik), making his enduro debut and having travelled to Przesieka all the way from Lublin, undoubtedly confirms this point. It was his first visit to the Karkonosze Mountains, although, as he assures us, certainly not his last. Among the women, Agnieszka Jurewicz triumphed, proving the fastest of the eight competitors. In the additional masters and hardtail categories, the winners were, respectively: Tomasz Filinger (Rowerowy.com) and Robert Haręcki (Rowerowy.com). Rowerowy.com won the team classification by a large margin, ahead of Knur Świny and Pussy Enduro Riders.
There are many indications that the competition will become a permanent fixture in the Podgórzyn commune’s event calendar, and that next year will bring further editions of the Enduro MTB Series, as its name suggests. The new organiser and new format won over many bikers, which will likely further invigorate and develop Poland’s MTB enduro scene.
The event’s partner was the Śnieżka Forest District.
The main sponsors of the competition were the Podgórzyn commune and Lower Silesia.
More information at:
www.enduro-mtb.eu
www.facebook.com/EnduroMTBseries
Grzegorz Miedziński