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

Tears, Fears and Beers - Enduro race - ELY, NV -

Just a word of warning, this is a novel....

This last weekend, I went to give my first enduro type race a try in ELY, NV.

Enduro races are a bit different from any race I have done. Instead of riding uphill really fast (well, slow for me) like XC races or use a lift or shuttle to get to the top for a Downhill or Super D race, enduro combines pretty much everything. It is similar to what we do on a normal ride for the most part.. Ride up then race down... There are typically transfer sections or uphill sections that are not timed, then you have timed sections, which are mostly downhill sections. The climbing sections require good fitness and the downhill’s require decent bike handling skills along with good fitness. In this type of race, people just use an everyday trail bike so they can climb and descend.

When we started the trip, the car I normally use for biking does not have AC anymore (with 219,00 miles on it, I don’t care to get it fixed..) and with the wife, daughter and dog going, we decided to take the in-laws truck. We packed up the truck at about 4:00 on Friday to start the 4 hour drive to Ely. We started and the truck didn’t have AC either... Sweet. We drove for a while with hot air blowing out, until magically about 40 minutes into the drive, it started blowing cold air!!! Hallelujah!! After that, the drive wasn’t too bad, but there is absolutely nothing from Nephi to Ely... Seriously, it felt like we were driving to the middle of nowhere, but it was cool to go through a place we hadn’t ever seen before.

After our arrival, I headed over to the Jailhouse Casino to check in and when I walked in the door, I thought I recognized this person playing the slot machine. Then I realized it was Ben Cruz from the Cannondale Overmountain team. I thought it was pretty cool to see a couple well known pros at this race. I went and signed in and headed back to the hotel to hang out with the family and grab some dinner.

Finally, it was time to get some rest. However, the night was anything but restful... Our daughter was yelling, “ DADDY!” nonstop and wouldn’t sleep until I got her more juice. Then, just about every hour, right when we were falling asleep, she would yell it once, “DADDY!” and fall back to sleep. In the morning, after very little sleep, I woke up with some stomach issues from the Mexican food the night before.. I jumped up and realized our daughter was sleeping in the pack n’ play in the bathroom. Since her pack n play took up the entire thing, I didn’t want to wake her up and ran down the hall looking for another one. After what seemed like an eternity checking all the door signs, I found one just in the nick of time... literally..

I went back to the room, grabbed my bike and gear and set everything up. I wasn’t feeling too hot, so I only ate a clif bar for breakfast and rode about 2 miles to the park where the race was to start. Everyone was there hanging out and chatting, but I just laid down in the grass acting like I was stretching. Then it was time for the race. With no sleep and nothing in my body, I started out on the 27 mile sport loop.

It was pretty cool and different. We rode past a few brothels, through two casinos, through town and headed up to the hills. The initial climb was about 7 miles (I think) until the first timed section. Everyone was going up at an easy pace and it was just a big group ride. I rode with several different groups going up and being a first timer, asked everyone what the sections were like.

All the experienced riders told me the course is the same, but the trail conditions change from year to year making it interesting. This year was really dry, so there was a LOT of dust.

We came to the first timed section and it was super fun. The corners had 2-3” of dust and it was super loose with a little climb thrown in there. After completing this section, we started up on the next transfer section. There was this girl in front of me, that had calves of iron. I could hardly keep a comfortable pace and keep up with her, so she slowly started pulling away from me. We came to the second timed section after a climb up a dirt road and some single track. When I pulled up, I realized all the pros were about to take off. The first part of this section had a few tighter turns that went to a few short steep up hills that just burned my legs, then it opened up and was just fast and fun. The race pretty much just followed this format for 4 timed sections and was rad. They had built some nice burms, some pump track type stuff, jumps, and natural spines. It wasn’t too technical or anything, but the dust and rocks tested your handling skills as well as fitness.

On the last timed section, the trail met up with a dirt road with an arrow pointing right. I started up the road (the correct route) looked to my left and saw a trail with a couple tire marks. Thinking I had missed the turn off, I jumped off my bike, got on the trail (the wrong route) and followed this for a bit. After a while, I realized there was only one tire track on the trail behind me and that was mine... Great.. I went back up to the road, got on the right course and came down to the finish. I didn’t really care as I was just having fun and enjoying riding totally different stuff than I am used to. I ended up in fourth place and lost by less than two minutes to the first place finisher.

Right after the race, we packed up and headed home. Unfortunately, our daughter was done and there wasn’t much to see with the family. On the way home, we went through a massive dust storm complete with dust devils that were 100’s of feet high and wider than I had ever seen, we stopped at a dried up lake thing, walked out in the wind storm and took our time. We finally made it home in time for the sister-in-laws birthday.

The trip was actually a lot of fun. The race was well organized and just a blast! The trails were loose, but well maintained and the format was awesome. I can’t wait to do a few other enduro’s this year. As far as the town goes... well, I wouldn’t go back, except to do this race again... and the wife said I should probably go without her and just camp at the park next time.

End of the race... Big stupid grin...

of warning, this is a novel....

kend, I went to give my first enduro type race a try in ELY, NV.

rent from any race I have done. Instead of riding uphill really fast (well, slow for me) like XC races or use a lift or shuttle to get to the top for a Downhill or Super D race, enduro combines pretty much everything. It is similar to what we do on a normal ride for the most part.. Ride up then race down... There are typically transfer sections or uphill sections that are not timed, then you have timed sections, which are mostly downhill sections. The climbing sections require good fitness and the downhill’s require decent bike handling skills along with good fitness. In this type of race, people just use an everyday trail bike so they can climb and descend.

n we started the trip, the car I normally use for biking does not have AC anymore (with 219,00 miles on it, I don’t care to get it fixed..) and with the wife, daughter and dog going, we decided to take the in-laws truck. We packed up the truck at about 4:00 on Friday to start the 4 hour drive to Ely. We started and the truck didn’t have AC either... Sweet. We drove for a while with hot air blowing out, until magically about 40 minutes into the drive, it started blowing cold air!!! Hallelujah!! After that, the drive wasn’t too bad, but there is absolutely nothing from Nephi to Ely... Seriously, it felt like we were driving to the middle of nowhere, but it was cool to go through a place we hadn’t ever seen before.

arrival, I headed over to the Jailhouse Casino to check in and when I walked in the door, I thought I recognized this person playing the slot machine. Then I realized it was Ben Cruz from the Cannondale Overmountain team. I thought it was pretty cool to see a couple well known pros at this race. I went and signed in and headed back to the hotel to hang out with the family and grab some dinner.

ly, it was time to get some rest. However, the night was anything but restful... Our daughter was yelling, “ DADDY!” nonstop and wouldn’t sleep until I got her more juice. Then, just about every hour, right when we were falling asleep, she would yell it once, “DADDY!” and fall back to sleep. In the morning, after very little sleep, I woke up with some stomach issues from the Mexican food the night before.. I jumped up and realized our daughter was sleeping in the pack n’ play in the bathroom. Since her pack n play took up the entire thing, I didn’t want to wake her up and ran down the hall looking for another one. After what seemed like an eternity checking all the door signs, I found one just in the nick of time... literally..

ack to the room, grabbed my bike and gear and set everything up. I wasn’t feeling too hot, so I only ate a clif bar for breakfast and rode about 2 miles to the park where the race was to start. Everyone was there hanging out and chatting, but I just laid down in the grass acting like I was stretching. Then it was time for the race. With no sleep and nothing in my body, I started out on the 27 mile sport

It was pretty cool and different. We rode past a few brothels, through two casinos, through town and headed up to the hills. The initial climb was about 7 miles (I think) until the first timed section. Everyone was going up at an easy pace and it was just a big group ride. I rode with several different groups going up and being a first timer, asked everyone what the sections were like.

ll the experienced riders told me the course is the same, but the trail conditions change from year to year making it interesting. This year was really dry, so there was a LOT of dust.

We came to the first timed section and it was super fun. The corners had 2-3” of dust and it was super loose with a little climb thrown in there. After completing this section, we started up on the next transfer section. There was this girl in front of me, that had calves of iron. I could hardly keep a comfortable pace and keep up with her, so she slowly started pulling away from me. We came to the second timed section after a climb up a dirt road and some single track. When I pulled up, I realized all the pros were about to take off. The first part of this section had a few tighter turns that went to a few short steep up hills that just burned my legs, then it opened up and was just fast and fun. The race pretty much just followed this format for 4 timed sections and was rad. They had built some nice burms, some pump track type stuff, jumps, and natural spines. It wasn’t too technical or anything, but the dust and rocks tested your handling skills as well as fitness.

the last timed section, the trail met up with a dirt road with an arrow pointing right. I started up the road (the correct route) looked to my left and saw a trail with a couple tire marks. Thinking I had missed the turn off, I jumped off my bike, got on the trail (the wrong route) and followed this for a bit. After a while, I realized there was only one tire track on the trail behind me and that was mine... Great.. I went back up to the road, got on the right course and came down to the finish. I didn’t really care as I was just having fun and enjoying riding totally different stuff than I am used to. I ended up in fourth place and lost by less than two minutes to the first place finisher.

fter the race, we packed up and headed home. Unfortunately, our daughter was done and there wasn’t much to see with the family. On the way home, we went through a massive dust storm complete with dust devils that were 100’s of feet high and wider than I had ever seen, we stopped at a dried up lake thing, walked out in the wind storm and took our time. We finally made it home in time for the sister-in-laws birt

rip was actually a lot of fun. The race was well organized and just a blast! The trails were loose, but well maintained and the format was awesome. I can’t wait to do a few other enduro’s this year. As far as the town goes... well, I wouldn’t go back, except to do this race again... and the wife said I should probably go without her and just camp at the park next

nd of the race... Big stupid gri