The first ever Wasatch Enduro was July 21st at Canyons resort. This enduro had a total of 6 stages. 3 climbing stages that are not timed and 3 downhill timed sections. At the end, only the 3 downhill timed section are factored into your' overall time. The enduro basically mimicked a typical long ride with a few breaks at the top.
We picked up our "goodie bag" that included a sweet hat, gondola ticket, stickers and one of the best energy bars known to man... the pro bar. Then at about 9:00 about 200 racers lined up for the first ascent.
It is part of the North American Enduro tour, so there were several well known pros and Redbull even put up their arch, so it must have been official
We arrived at the top after a nice slow climb and waited for our starting positions. The first of the descents was down lower hollys. It was fast, loose and had a few technical features designed to slow mtn bikers down. However, most of the riders, just jumped on over them and it made for a pretty fun and fast trail.
The end of stage one was at the base then we took the gondola up to mid mtn, rode mid mtn to upper hollys. Other than two loose switch backs, upper hollys has nothing technical to slow you down. It is just fast. As I started getting into my rhythm, I came to an easy little turn that shouldn't have been an issue, but I hit a tree and crashed. I got up and started riding again then about a minute later, I crashed again for no apparent reason. It was pretty sweet..
We then did a slow climb to insurgent. It was going to be the gnarliest, most technical, funnest and longest downhill stage of the day. After a little wait, we all lined up. Everyone got a good look at the first few turns, a little jump and wood bridge. One guy in front of me said how embarrassing it would be to crash with everyone watching. He started his run, hit the first and second turns, foot came out of his pedal... hit the jump one footed...bike flipped up hitting him in the butt and flipped him over into the grass and bushes. He gets up out of a cloud of dust and tall grass saying a few choice words and jokingly yells, "CAN I GET A RESTART?!?!"
After a few more people, it was my turn. I knew I had to make up for a lot of time from the second stage, so I was just going to push it with the intention of dying at the end of the race. I made a few mistakes, but nothing too bad and it was going pretty well through the rough stuff. There was a little climb to sprint up as we got to the trail we rode previously and I was feeling pretty good. I kept on it and could see the dust still in the air from the guy in front of me, so I knew I was close.
I started pushing again then I feel my front tire getting pretty squishy.... GREAT!! It was loosing air. I started going faster thinking I could just ride it to the end. About a second later, the air was completely gone and I was basically on the rim. I stopped, got off the trail and fixed my flat. I watched several riders blow on by. When I got my tire together, my pump broke at about 18psi . I rode down the rest of the way, just hitting the diffferent things and having fun.
I did better than I thought in the first stage and it gave me some hope, just to be shattered with the last run... This is how it went.
Stage 1: 1st place and a good run. Hope of a podium spot
Stage 2: 8th place and two crashes
Dropped in the overall to fifth. Still hope of a podium
Stage 3: 2nd to last place...
Overall dropped from 5th to 28th.
Even though I had some issues, it was the funnest race I have done on some rad trails. It was a long day on the bike in the mountains, so it was a good day.
