Cycling Ireland has updated its rules to officially recognise enduro as a discipline.

Of course, enduro has been running just fine on its own for the past few years thanks to organisations like EMBA, BEMBA and the EWS. However, being officially recognised (like downhill or 4X) means that you can now have national champions and it could give the sport more credibility going forward.

A demo event for an Enduro National Championship will be held in 2017 with the first Irish Enduro National Championship to be held in 2018.

Sure, this is only a small step but hopefully it signals a path for British Cycling and maybe the UCI to follow suit. There’s probably a lot of people that would want to keep national bodies away from enduro so it’s worth saying organisers can still work independently if they wish.

The Rules

Cycling Ireland has worked with current event organisers and the Off Road Commission to create some universal rules. We’ve had a quick scan through  and here’s what we’ve taken from it:

• There are no practice regulations – it seems to be up to the organiser how practice works.
• Full face helmets are not mandatory (again an organiser can make the final call)
• There is no minimum or maximum distance for stages
• All starts must be stationary (rolling starts are given a 1 minute penalty)

For the full rules click here.

The rules are due to be officially ratified by the Board of Cycling Ireland. Anyone with queries are invited to comment, via lawrence.salonen@cyclingireland.ie. Queries should be submitted by Wednesday 30th November.