Sun Valley Super Enduro

  This past weekend I participated in the first Sun Valley Super Enduro.  Simply put, it was rad.  The trails, while not really technical, had a good mix of loose, fast, flowy and wide open sections.    The Sun Valley Enduro really tested skill and fitness with four stages ranging from 5-10 miles.  The stages ended up being about 18-35 minute mostly downhill sections of adrenaline pumping fun.  Plus, the views were amazing and everyone seemed to be having a blast.  

I have done a few Enduro races and the stages typically range from 5-12 minutes.  With the longer stages, new trails and an unfamiliar bike, I really had no idea what to expect.  However, it exceeded my expectations and I learned the rockier and more challenging the trail, (without a lot of climbing) the more I like it. I realized 5-8 miles was a great length for an enduro race and I actually really liked racing blind.   I also learned the importance of racing on a bike you know is set up well.

The race was super fun, the format was awesome, timing was great, and location was gorgeous.   After the 4 stages, with 6 dropped chains, 1 fixed flat for another racer, 4 crashes, a broken shifter, sore wrist and back, I made it safely down in 8^th out of only 14 in my class. Not the best overall result, but I had a ton of fun.

Leading up to the race, I unintentionally lost 9lbs from the flu the week before. I knew I was going to have issues, but the issues ended up being different than expected.  The first stage was loose and rocky up top with lots of pedaling.  I kept thinking it was an XC race someone called enduro, so people would show up.  Luckily, after the entire race, I was wrong.

Within a couple of minutes on the first stage, I dropped my chain twice.  About 30 second later, it came off a third time and was completely tangled and looped around, so I got off to fix it.   About 40 ft away there was a girl with a flat that asked if I had some extra tire levers.  Since it was going to take me a bit to fix my bike, I changed her flat.  Then I fixed my chain and adjusted my derailleur to hopefully prevent any more drops.  After a lengthy stop, I decided just to have some fun and instead of looking for speed, I was boosting off rocks and roots every chance I had.  It was a blast.  I finished 2^nd or 3^rd to last, just in front of a couple other guys with mechanicals.

At the bottom, my chain came off again and was hanging on by ½ a link, so I fixed it and went to the next stage.

Stage two was a bit smoother.  It went well, but I ate it pretty hard.  I came in too fast on a blind corner and ended up sliding down loose shell rock for about 8’-9’.  Luckily, I was on my back and side, so the bike was okay.   I ended up in 3^rd.

That night, we went back to the hotel and decided to ride the bikes to town to get some dinner.  We went to this little pizzeria place and loaded up on some pasta and went back to the hotel.  That town is such a cool place.

After a restless sleep, we headed up the mtn for stage 3.  This stage was probably the best for me.  It was loose, fairly steep, fast and rocky with a lot of corners and blown out switchbacks.  As you got lower it was fairly smooth and pedally.  I’m still not entirely sure what happened, but crashed and this time broke the shifter off the bike.  I wrapped it around the bars to get me down and luckily wasn’t shifting all over the place and I ended up in 2^nd.

At the bottom of the stage, Eric had bent his derailleur and flatted.  We were debating on just not finishing the race and heading back.  After a little rest, I figured I could zip tie the shifter to the bars and probably make it down in one piece with limited shifting, so off I went.

The fourth stage was going well and despite the broken shifter, I felt like I was having a great run.  I passed a couple of guys ahead of me and could see the dust from the next guy.  Right as I passed him, the chain did what it was going best and came off…  I reached down and put it on real quick and started pedaling.  After a little while, I came into a rough spot and this time the chain wrapped around my crank and wedged itself between the rear cog and frame.  As I looked down to see what was going on, I went off the trail, over the bars and rolled down the hill.  It was really soft dirt, so no bad injury luckily, so I got up checked the bike, put the chain back on and was off.  After all that, I took 4^th.

It sounds like nothing went really well, but it was actually such a fun race and I hope to make it up there again next year.  The longer, high-speed stages with the variety of trails really made it a lot of fun.  We got to see a new place, ride some new trails and have another adventure