MTB east 2026 Season Round-Up – Thank You to Our Riders, Volunteers & Sponsors

2026 Round-Up

First of all… how many people noticed the little love heart hidden on the course, and can anyone spot where it was? ❤️

That’s another season done and dusted (quite literally!).

A huge thank you to everyone who took part this year. I’d also like to give a massive shout-out to our sponsors:

* Epic Custom Kit for providing the winners’ jerseys.
* Squirt Cycling Products UK for all your bike maintenance needs.
* Performancecoaching.me
* MT ZOOM Racing for all those little bling upgrades to your bikes.
* And, of course, traversbikes.com.

A big thank you to everyone who helped on race day:

* Kevin Darragh, Adam March and Jon Smith on the comms team.
* Michael Bebbington and Vinnie on sign-on.
* Amanda Jones, Natalie Thomas and Jo Hitchen for running the timing. And Steve Pennock
* My parents for looking after the car park and marshalling.

I’d also like to thank the clubs that helped provide marshals throughout the season: Southend Wheelers, Rayleigh MTB Club and Hadleigh MTB Club.

Last but certainly not least, thank you to @ESSEX COMMUNITY FIRST AID EVENTS VOLUNTEERs and Farvies grill

Kevin also gave up his Saturdays before every race, walking the course with me to make sure everything we’d built was safe and ready to ride. He then stayed on afterwards to provide free coaching for the female riders.

Course preparation is also a never-ending process. Michael Bebbington, Rob, Pete Shrimplin and I spent many days before each race creating new lines, building features and getting everything ready for race day.

I’d also like to thank Stuart Carmichael and all of the team at Flitch bikes , who prepare and marshal the Gallows Green race.

Sorry if I’ve missed anyone. I genuinely couldn’t have done it without you all. Love you all.

I really appreciate everyone who took the time to reply to the Facebook feedback post. I’ve also received lots of emails and spoken to many people throughout the season. I’ll take all of your feedback into account and implement changes wherever they make the league stronger.

I’m currently speaking with British Cycling about the possibility of running the races under them again, as we did before 2020. It’s not an easy decision because they can be slow and inflexible to work with. If we do return, I still intend to keep the ability-based categories.

The main reason for considering it is that it would give local riders more opportunities to score ranking points for national events and improve grid positions. Hopefully it would also attract more elite riders and encourage more younger riders to race at MTB east. However, I won’t make the change unless I’m convinced it benefits the league as a whole.

One last thing… (in my best Columbo voice…)

We’ll be bringing back the MTB east season heat map for 2026!

Many of you will remember it from a couple of years ago. It combines every lap from all seven races and shows how every rider compares with everyone else across the whole league, regardless of category.

It’s not there to shame anyone. The aim is to give everyone a realistic idea of where they currently rank and whether they would be more competitive in another category.

Only the top three riders in S1 and S2 are required to move up, but anyone is welcome to promote themselves if they want a bigger challenge. As for moving down, I’ll leave that decision up to each individual rider.

Thanks again to everyone for making another fantastic season possible. See you all in 2027! 🚵