Mountain bike racing in the UK is in a similar position to the one our skinny-tyred counterparts find themselves in. The number of races to enter is dwindling, organisers are being forced to cancel events, and the pathways to the top tiers of professional racing are increasingly difficult to reach. 

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But there is one man who's keeping the faith. Scott Fitzgerald has been running Southern Enduro for 12 years, and racing Enduro for even longer. The Southern Enduro series has developed a cult following, with only positive experiences voiced from riders and our staff at off.road.cc.

We caught up with Fitzgerald to see where he thinks the challenges lie in managing a successful race series in the UK, and what we can all do to keep the scene alive. 

Who is entering enduro races?

One particular point of interest is the demographic of racers - who is it that's coming back year after year? According to Fitzgerald, it's the youth and now the older age brackets with more disposable income to spend on racing. 

"We have a really consistent youth demographic. But our bulk audience for enduro is probably middle-aged men and women - it’s the people with more disposable incomes. And that's where we've noticed a big sort of change.

"Whereas before, people were very much coming to multiple events per year, and they would book up very early. Now it's really the older generations and the youth that are really that consistent, and then we see peaks and troughs with that sort of disposable income bracket."

A logistical sh*t storm

Riders not booking onto events early is one of the main reasons they fold - even if riders have intentions to book on in the weeks leading up to the event, the organisers need to have a good idea of the attendance numbers much earlier than that in order to get everything in order for the day. 

"Our events have always been as big as the riders made them. And at one stage, that was absolutely fine. But now that people sign up very late, it's very hard to plan even basic things like toilets. 

"You've got to book portable toilets in a certain time period beforehand, otherwise there's none available. So, six months out from the event, am I going to have 200 riders or 600 riders? Because that's the difference between £2,000 worth of toilets and £500 worth of toilets.

"And if you've gone out and spent £2000 on toilets and only 200 people turn up, that's pretty much all your profit. That's an extreme example, but all those little bits add up to making it a very uncertain environment for organisers."

Changing rider habits and landowner struggles

So to help events like Southern Enduro stay on the calendar, the best thing riders can do is to book on early. Help people plan things in advance and create a little bit of certainty around their schedules. But it's not just down to this that's causing the scene to shrink. 

"I think a lot of the events that have sort of gone away or have had to stop are down to three major factors. One is that overall attendance is down a little bit. Another is that it's harder to secure sponsorship - there used to be more cash sponsorship than there is now. And thirdly is how late people are signing up for events."

Obviously, there are reasons why fewer people are signing up for races. The cost of living crisis is a major one, as well as people's change in mentality post-Covid as to how they want to spend their free time. 

2022 team orcc aug liam m.jpg, by Liam Mercer

But it's not just about the changing habits of riders that cause friction. Working with landowners, both private and public, comes with its own set of challenges. 

"I think the biggest challenge has been the Forestry Commission. And then there are different levels of private landowners, too. Some, particularly farmers, are pretty cool as long as you don't interfere with their farming. 

"Private estates are probably the next level up, and are a bit more red tape-y. But again, still pretty cool as long as you add to their overall profit and don't interfere with their core business lines."

Communication, communication, communication

But when it comes to the Forestry Commission, Fitzgerald's comments echoed what we've heard from trail builders and event organisers up and down the country - it's pot luck on how positive the experience will be, largely down to the local ranger. 

"Post-Covid, the Forestry Commission canned all of our venues. Luckily, we were moving away from them because I saw it coming, and we were only down to two Forestry venues anyway. So we were very lucky at the time. 

"But this is the first year we've been back with them, and it's been difficult. You have to fill out so much paperwork, and want to speak to a real person about something they don't exist. So it's very hard, but equally, they've got some of the best land for mountain biking, so it’s very annoying."

At a time when more red tape appears and entry numbers dwindle, more organisers are stepping back from running races. And who can blame them? Why invest time and effort and money into running a series when you could focus on one event a year or even just pack it in altogether and go ride your bike? 

"We never came into this to make money, we came into this because we love the racing".

Fitzgerald, while understanding why others have decided to leave the scene, makes it known he's organising events because he loves it. And that won't change. 

"I love running races for people who enjoy doing races. That's the mega positive thing. I never want to stop doing it. That's the reason why people sign up for races, so I can put races on for them, right?"

2023 team orcc ep.04 cover.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Southern Enduro started because of peer pressure after Fitzgerald and his team hosted a few races after racing in a national event and deciding they could do it, too. And that's likely what drives this cult following he's gathered over the last decade - the fact that he was a racer and knows what fellow racers want from an event. 

"We never came into this to make money, we came into this because we love the racing. And I've had that as a core value all the way through. I won't do anything for money. I'll always do what's best for the racers. And I probably do too much.

"I've really focused on the quality of the racing. I think the hardest thing in running a grassroots series is making it accessible for the first timer, and then making it fun enough for the person that's done 50 races."

"Where would I go, and where would the first timer go?"

So, how does Fitzgerald keep it fresh with his races? He's going to start floating venues into the agenda, one for one year, one for another, but when it comes to building the tracks, he has an interesting gauge to make sure things are at the right level. 

"I have children who race now, my middle child is nine, and he does the races. So I think about if I'm racing this, where's the line I take? I'm hucking off that to over there, right. Where's my son going? I use my son now as a reference, but I always had a first timer in mind, whenever I was building anything, or whenever I was taping the thing - where would I go, and where would the first timer go?"

Fitzgerald has some big plans to keep the Southern Enduro series fresh, but also not to implement too much change, as that "scares people off." It's not all been plain sailing - the series had to cancel a new event last year due to low numbers - but it's certainly one of the bigger success stories in the current enduro scene in the UK. 

And even after the Forestry Commission pulled its permissions and British Cycling withdrew support around the same time, Fitzgerald and other organisers banded together to create BEMBA: British Enduro Mountain Biking Association.

Attracting new organisers, in this economy?!

This organisation now heads up the national series, and shows that there's still an appetite for well-run races. But would he recommend starting your own race series in the current climate? Not exactly. 

"I think the only way you could start a race series now is if you owned a venue, so there's no risk. So really, you're just booking timing, medics, all this little stuff. And then if you had to cancel, you could.

"But, even if you owned a venue, then your series would be very limited. So I think that's probably the only way nowadays to actually start a race series. And if we lose one or two organizers per year, it won't be long before there won't be any, or there'll be a few holed-out areas. So it's a tricky situation. And even in really good mountain bike areas, for instance, like Tweedlove, who saw that coming?"

Just in the last few years alone, we've lost Tweedlove (who are admittedly running the Glentress 7 again this year) and PMBA in the north/Yorkshire region, who have scaled back their events massively. 

But, it's not all doom and gloom. The enduro scene is still healthy in the UK, and as long as riders continue to support their local events, the appetite from organisers is generally there. Particularly those who are as passionate as Fitzgerald. 

• southernenduro.co.uk

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