Race Report | Living the Enduro Dream in Crested Butte
Entering an EWS race isn’t just tricky because of technical, steep, rocky and root lathe sections, but for selling out in record time! Crested Butte was the race this rider decided to enter, and for anyone looking to start competing, he’s kept a diary of all the trials and tribulations leading up to the event. Check it out!
There’s a few things we’ll have in common if you like ENDURO Mountainbike Magazine: Passion for traveling, riding ‘loco’ trails, one of your favourite Star Wars characters is the speeder bike rider, you have at least one big annual epic ride with friends and finally and most importantly, you love beers with them after your ride.
I’ve been riding bikes for more than 20 years, and my passion has been what we know as “Enduro” today, you know, climbing to a high peak and riding down on any technical, flowy trail. I haven’t found any better feeling or therapy as that!
I am a Costa Rican, moved to Washington DC five years ago, have wife and kids, a full time job, and race for fun some at some of the Enduro events in the US East Coast, such as the Pisgah Enduro and the West Virginia Enduro Series.
Well, last February, planning for my big annual trip, I found that the multiday Enduro at Crested Butte in Colorado, created by Big Mountain Enduro, was going to be the Enduro World Series (EWS) stop in the US!
Without thinking on how many hours I would need for training for a multi day race with the most challenging climbing and long downhills at above 10,000 feet (3300m) of altitude, I decided to do it. Being there, enjoying the amazing place, finishing each day to meet and take “selfies” with Enduro legends, sounded like a great plan!
Believe it or not, one of the most difficult and high adrenaline moments of my process to going to Crested Butte, was securing one spot to the event at the time the online registration was opened. After just less than 5 seconds of the registration opening, my PC screen went blank. Having my phone app as backup, helped me to register to the event. In less than two minutes, the event was sold out. As you can imagine, having the spot secured made me happy but at the same time anxious about the coming months of training I would need to undertake…
Living at sea level in Washington DC, without the hard, long climbing in Costa Rica, made me think of possibly finding a training plan.
The months and hours of training flew by! The last week of July came and it was time for my flight to Colorado 3 days before the event started, you know, to ease my acclimation to high altitude terrain.
Anyone who has undertaken the task of a long drive through breathtaking scenery knows you can’t go 10 miles without stopping to takes photographs, it was a true jaw on the floor moment. I was impressed on the beauty of the area, the friendly people and a colorful town surrounded by majestic mountains. I was told of such bike friendly places only existed in fairytales as a child, but I never expected to see somewhere like this in my lifetime. More bike stores than drug stores…it was a match made in heaven.
Like a child in a sweet shop, no matter how many times I was told to take it easy, I unpacked my bike as soon as we arrived and went for a lunch loop spin. Snodgrass was my appetizer, Lupine was my main and Gunsight, known as the sweet flowy downhill, was my non-weight watching, fat free desert. What a great ride Crested Butte has, I couldn’t imagine how incredible the backcountry was going to be in the coming days.
As Whitney M. Young said, it’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one that to have an opportunity and not be prepared, so I followed my gut instinct and shot off to Evolution Bike Park the next day. 50 kilometers of trails for a wife range of rider skills were on offer, so I took hold of my hunch by the horns and tested out the runs that were supposedly part of the EWS, as some of these featured in the Crested Butte Enduro last year. Avery (Black Diamond) and Captain Jack (Double Black Diamond) were the two I was ready to endure, and with Dan Atherton spotted on the lift up, “welcome to the EWS experience” lit up my mind like an illuminated sign.
After feeling confident riding Avery trail, I thought it was time to meet “Captain Jack”. The trail had a similar flow as Avery, until I got to a gnarly rock garden on a very steep section. It took me a heck of a lot of courage to fight the captain. It took me a couple of stops, but eventually I cleared it, pride shot and confidence down, I vowed to return to defeat the Captain in one shot.
I decided to lay on the grass to rest very close to the lift when Joe Barnes, Fabien Barel and Tracey Moseley passed by in front of me. How cool could it be that these legends were riding the trails I was just on, so I went to the lift to do a couple more runs to gain back my confidence, when I met Jerome Clementz. It felt like I was in a live issue of Enduro Magazine! For sure, this was the turning point when I decided I would finally defeat the Captain. Intimidating rock garden no more. I own this trail.
The day before the race started, I preferred to be “fresh” and not tired of doing any of the high climbing and long downhills of the race as practice.
“Living the dream” experiences seemed to grace my presence quite a lot, with this one after a long, harsh climb on a mixture of road and trail. Surrounded by such a beautiful landscape on Trail 401, I engaged Millennium Falcon warp speed (sorry for the constant Star Wars references) – everything became a blur, a wall of flowers, trees, single-track and switchbacks.
So far, my Crested Butte experience had been wonderful, and I hadn’t even started yet! I was ready. Ready to take on the EWS and felt confident on the type of riding ahead…I guess.
In the pre-race meeting I met a group of fellow riders from Mexico who raced last year. One of them, Eduardo Soto, National Master Enduro champion had unfortunately crashed at the famous Roaring Judy trail, and this year was returning for revenge. As I learnt about the 2, possibly 3 hours going up on each transfer stage and the 15 plus minutes of downhill riding on technical fast trails, my level of anxiety raised. To make things more challenging, I learnt that there was a start list with the exact time each rider has to be at every stage start. Welcome to the rules of the Enduro World Series!
Oh Oohh! This meant that every rider needed to focus not only on the downhills but being on time to every start to avoid time penalties or even a DQF, rules of which I have never seen in the Enduro races I have participated in.
You’ve inevitably found this one time or another; the night before big days always leading to nervous sweating, anxiety and obviously, no sleep. Typical. Everything prepared. Shame you can’t prepare sleep…
The start of day 1, I, and every rider, encountered the hour long climb to the start of Doctor Park. Although the climb wasn’t that steep, keep in mind that I needed to follow start times and not knowing the transfer times for stage one, I pushed harder than I should have, despite reminding myself to take it one step at a time.
Doctor Park should be in your list of trails to ride with your buddies. The trail starts in an open field that seems flat, however, I required few pedalling to get speed thanks to its consistent grade that helps you to take great speed as you slalom in the field then in the forest full of aspens, rock gardens and finally a set of switchbacks down to the finish line. I was happy to clear the first run without any problems on the first run of the day.
There’s not much time between stages in the EWS. A 3 hour ride up to stage 2 was ahead of us, of which 80% of it took around an hour, then I hit the wall. A hard time ensued with steep climbing and a lot of hike-a-bike. My 26 tooth chain ring helped me most of the time, until the worst came. “Noooooo!” rolled through the harrowing hills of Crested Butte, my free wheel hub broke! It was the first day of the race and this could not be happening…after all my training and excitement, my dream could be over after the first stage.
It took me more than 90 minutes to push the bike to the start line. I was not going to get a DQF in my first EWS, but luckily, much like the triumphant entrance from which professionals cruise up to, the staff called my name, I rallied my friend gravity and I cruised down Roaring Judy. Possibly the most difficult trail I’ve ever ridden.
Washed out narrow single track with a high crash potential if you don’t focus on your front tire direction, following with some beautiful flow in the woods and then…a short climb, which made me seem more like a cyclocross racer than EWS rider. As soon as the climb ended I was facing a narrow cliffside trail, of which I thanked my lucky stars the pedals didn’t work, so I safely walked this section. Most people rode it without looking down…I am definitely not most people.
Finally, a very sandy and loose downhill trail where pain sears through your fingers and the smell of burning break pads engulfs your nostrils. Who cared what happened on day one, I was back in town and just happy to finish the day without a DSQ or any penalties, but most importantly, without any accidents after I knew the cause of my free-hub problem. Kenny from Stan’s No Tubes replaced the hub and found that my thru axle counter bolt was…well, gone, which caused the free hub to go loose and break. I was seriously lucky.
After experiencing day 1 and having possibly the worst mechanical up and out the way early on, I felt fresh and confident for day 2. We started the day with a long climb on single-track and after a few hours, we were at 12,000ft enjoying some of the most beautiful landscape of the ride; a single-track embedded in a field of wild flowers under a blue sky. I took a picture just to make sure I was not hallucinating with the lack of oxygen.
Finally, I made it to the top of Star Pass and I was ready to hit Bush Creek Trail (Trail 400). This trail was one of my favourites. I shows the different ecosystems of the region. Starting miles above the treeline where the crowd can see up to 4 riders at once, it enters the forest, offering a nice combo of rocky, rooty and fast sections until you hit a hidden rock drop after a curve, a few yards before the finish line,
After “high fives” with guys at the finish line of this stage, we started to climb for 5 miles until we got to the start line of Stage 4, The Waterfall Creek Trail (Trail 555). There, we were told about an accident in Stage 3 and the decision to cancel Stage 4 because of no paramedic available to cover Stage 4.
All riders understood the decision and started going downhill on the trail I considered as one of the best I have ever ridden. Trail 555 offered many technical rooty sections, just what I love. Also, just riding it for fun behind fellow riders gave it a cool and relaxing mood. However, I thought of the fellow rider who had the accident back on the previous stage.
Back in town, we found that the fellow rider Will Olson, a talented rider from Colorado, suffered a fatal accident. The mood of the group and Crested Butte people changed to grief but at the same time the spirit of solidarity raised. At that moment I felt not only sad but at the same time proud to be part of this human and passionate community of mountain bikers as I learned that the EWS round was cancelled and instead, the third day was going to be dedicated to Will.
About 200 riders gathered to pay tribute to Will on a bike ride as he or any of us would have liked. It didn’t matter if you were a pro, amateur or just someone who loves biking. All together went for a ride and playtime on some of the favorite trails around town: Lupine and Gunsight. As I followed Joe Barnes on Lupine, it just reminded me of how great it was to be part of this passionate Enduro family who will keep on doing what Will loved to do: “enjoying life surfing trails on a bike”.
Words: Daniel Rodriguez Photos: Mike Albright
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