Manx MTB Enduro marked 10 consecutive and successful years of cycle enduro events in the island at South Barrule plantation on Saturday.

Round three of the fun series was hit by overnight heavy rain and, at first light, many of the trails were awash with deep water.

Not deterred by the rain and mud, the hardy competitors headed up to the higher reaches of the plantation for four timed stages.

The main focus of the series is to give others a chance to make the podiums and ride on more straightforward stages.

With the ‘elite’ competitors separated into their own class, it was fantastic to see new names coming forward to take the honours.

Dan Ball set the pace on the opening two stages, with young Stan Cubbon hot on his heels, but on the final two stages the latter let rip and put down two very quick times.

At the final count, Ball took the win by a narrow margin of 0.4 of a second.

Lewis Quirk showed another huge improvement in his riding to take third overall at a further five seconds.

The women’s class saw Sapphire Ascroft set the quickest time on three of the four stages to claim a comfortable victory over Carol Heginbotham, with Rebekkah Ringham rounding off the podium in third overall.

Once again the e-bike class was well supported, with Al (the ‘Riddler’) Heginbotham showing some cunning old lines to outmanoeuvre young Harry Fox for the win by some 13 seconds, followed in third by Michael Cain.

It was awesome to see so many Super Grand Vets (that’s over 60s) line up for the challenge, all-rounder Julian Corlett securing a convincing win over enduro newcomer Paul ‘Azzy’ Ansermoz, with another beginner, Gary Allen, completing the podium.

Corlett even had enough left in the tank to run the Hill League race at Slieau Whallian later the same day.

l Manx MTB Enduro wishes to thank the Baltic Inn and staff, DEFA, all marshals, medics, course builders and Ben Collins for the event timing.

Here’s to the next 10 years!

Results, Manx MTB Enduro fun event, South Barrule Plantation, Saturday:

Enduro class: 1, Dan Ball (Senior) total time 5min 43.60sec; 2, Stan Cubbon (Junior Under-19) 5:44.06; 3, Lewis Quirk (U19) 5:49.56; 4, Cameron Hounsell (U19) 5:52.81; 5, Joseph Huyton (U19) 6:07.73; 6, Kyle Batty (Snr) 6:09.52; 7, Oliver Sidebottom (U19) 6:28.55; 8, Sapphire Ascroft (Women) 6:30.95; 9, Andy Cowin (Veteran) 6:31.91; 10, Derek McNutt (Vet) 6:34.55; 11, Jonah Shaw (U19) 6:39.21; 12, David Kennington (Vet) 6:40.69; 13, Philip Bell-Scott (Vet) 6:41.67; 14, Tim Woakes (Vet) 6:45.32; 15, Carol Heginbotham (Wom) 6:49.65; 16, Joseph Cannan (U19) 6:53.06; 17, Harry Beattie (U19) 6:55.11; 18, Declan Cowell (U19) 7:00.91; 19, Lucas Hills-Field (Snr) 7:18.29; 20, Zohar Shalem (U19) 7:23.09; 21, Nathan Dalton-Baker (U19) 7:31.87; 22, Sam Ansermoz (Master) 7:36.25; 23, Julian Corlett (Super Vet) 7:41.44; 24, Joonas Sakki (Vet) 7:46.27; 25, Josh Muir (Master) 8:12.72; 26, Sean Dodd (Master) 8:39.01; 27, James Fayle (Master) 8:41.01; 28, Dylan Brown (U19) 8:43.89; 29, Ben Wild (U19) 8:50.25; 30, Rebekkah Ringham (Wom) 9:33.01; 31, Joe Morrey (Snr) 9:34.16; 32, Paul Ansermoz (Super Vet) 10:14.28; 33, Henry Allen (U19) 11:34.80; 34, Gary Allen (Super Vet) 14:59.04.

Elite class: 1, Jacob McCanney 5m 05.54s; 2, Robin Arnold 5:15.97; 3, Nigel Beattie 5:32.42; 4, Ton Ton Bangero 5:43.23; 5, Niall McCanney 5:44.74; 6, Elliott Teece 6:00.22; 7, Lee Batty 6:03.41; 8, Charles Smith 6:10.66; 9, Conor Gelling 6:19.04; 10, Isaac Batty 6:52.71; 11, Joshua Kelly 8:12.91.

E-Bikes: 1, Al Heginbotham 6:08.29; 2, Harry Fox 6:21.46; 3, Michael Cain 7:10.52; 4, Kasey Corrin 7:14.00; 5, Gary McElroy 8:51.50; 6, Ian Kelly 9:13.47; 7, Jade Corrin 9:25.90; 8, Sammy Cattle 10:49.41; 9, Shantelle Thorpe 12:50.51.

Full results online: https://www.manxmtbenduro.com/results2023

l The annual pre-Christmas ride to the Baltic will take place next Wednesday, December 20, for carol singing after 8 o’clock.