Things got a little rowdy last weekend at the Golden Enduro supported by
Higher Ground Mountain Sports but all riders managed to come away unscathed and totally pumped by the more challenging course. This was round # 3 of the KR Enduro Series presented by
Norco Bikes and at each race the scale of technicality is slowly increasing and seems to be the direction that racers want to see it go!
Day 1 was the biggest day of the series so far with Elite riders coming in after about 3.5hrs and most riders between 3-4hrs for the 40+km course that took them throughout the Moonraker/CBT trail network with the big climb to the top of LSD.
Day 2 (after a big down pour of rain overnight) took the riders to Kicking Horse that put all riders on their limits with rugged rough trails on little bikes. Almost every rider crossed the finish line looking completely worked but the same words came out of every riders mouth once they caught their breath back "that was sketchy but soooo much fun" and "thank you for keeping the last stage as it is", which meant, it was tough and we were looking to make some detours after the rain but decided to keep it in and the riders where all excited about that decision.
It really shows the ability and level of what most riders can handle out there - very exciting to see!
FULL RESULTSDAY 1 - MOONRAKER/CBTTwo riders were sent off every minute from Cedar Lake as stage 1 was just a few minutes into the first trail and we needed to keep the flow moving throughout all riders.
Higher Ground Mountain Sports were set up at the start line to do any last minutes tweaks to the racers bikes to have them 100% ready to go.
Stage 1 was a short little pedal warm up to get the body ready for the rest of the day
Stage 2 was longer, smooth, and flowy if you knew how to keep momentum and corner well, but with a tough little climb in the middle of it and really woke up some of the riders that weren't ready for it! They then made their way up the biggest climb for the day - uneventful and not that exciting but what awaited them at the top was by far the most perfect all round enduro stage you can find!
Stage 3 was LSD into Canyon Creek - this was a 13+min for elite and 15-20min stage for the rest of the field. It has absolutely everything - steep, tech, burms, flow, pedal, and some epic views if riders dared to look out over the canyon as they come bombing around some of the corners that if they blew would end to sure disaster! A big thanks to Jon at
Derailed for all his hard work and leading the crew to making sure that LSD trail was ready for all the riders come race day. It was a busy few weeks getting it ready and it rode so incredibly well on race day.
Stage 4 was Gold Rush into Take it Easy, which was the perfect way to finish a long day in the saddle. This 4+min stage was just smooth, fun, jumps and burms to leave all riders with a smile while they rode back into town to finish at the
Rockwater Grill and Bar roof top patio for some well deserved beers and to chat about their day!
DAY 2 - KICKING HORSEKicking Horse is known for its more challenging and rough trails and we made sure we chose a course here to match its reputation. Of course there are always easier trails and easier options, but this day was about upping the anti for the riders. A shorter day but more challenging where the full faces came out but the little bikes remained since riders had to use the same bike for both days.
Riders uploaded from 9am and the sky finally was cleared of all the bush fire smoke from the last week and the views were spectacular and the rain held out. Our first rider down Ted Morton who was out being lead rider to check the course and make sure everything was in place and ready for the rest of the riders and was sitting 3rd in the Elite after day 1 - he got to the finish line and smiled and said "that was nuts but so fun"!! At that stage I was a little concerned for the rest of the field and other categories but was truly impressed at the end of the day that everyone handled it just fine. A lot of riders out there don't realize that enduro's aren't about going mach speed down a trail like downhill races, they are more about reading the trail, riding to the ability of your own skills, staying on your bike, and just having fun. Today proved that everyone used their best judgement and rode to the speed of just getting down the trails safely! Most don't really ride any faster then what you would if you were out riding with your buddies on the weekend!
Stage 5 - Northern Lights to Dirt Devil to Time Machine. They then pedaled (or push) back up to Stage 2
Stage 6 - Pipestone to Chute to View. This trail was mostly purely on rock where riders had to pay attention to navigate their way to stay on trail.
Stage 7 - Showdown brought out the smoother flowier trail version of the bike park with big berms and flow but with the slick conditions it still kept the riders on their toes!
Stage 8 - Blaster to Pioneer to Claim Jumper - was where this day was really to be won or lost. This 7-10min stage was steep, rocky, slick, and rooty with a sprint flat finish back to the base of the resort to finish right in front of Peaks Grill where finished riders where hanging out on the patio watching the rest of the riders come in.
What a weekend! Thanks everyone for coming out and all the great support. So who won?
Pro/Elite Men (walked away with 1st: $400, 2nd $300, 3rd $200)1 Stu Dickson 0:41:17 Specialzed Canada
2 David Harder 0:41:34 Raceface, Opsrey, Chromag
3 Nate Briggs 0:43:13
Open Women (walked away with 1st: $300, 2nd $200, 3rd $100)1 Tara Walmsley 0:53:04 Endurosaurus Rex: RaceFace/Ibis/Osprey
2 Jill Cody 0:57:01
3 Aubrey Demchuk 1:07:09
Master 40+ Men (walked away with some Fouriers Bikes carbon bars, and chainrings and chainguides)1 Rich Marshall 0:41:56 Derailed ** Note that local rider Rich actually finish 3rd overall in the Pro/Elite times!
2 Andy Bostock 0:41:59 Higher Ground ** Note that local rider Andy finished 4th overall in the Pro/Elite times!
3 Ryan Kuhn 0:43:44
Open Men (walked away with some Fouriers Bikes carbon bars, stems, and chainrings)1 Shane Kroeger 0:42:50 Derailed
2 Cameron Belisle-O'Donnell 0:43:33
3 Jay Balabas 0:43:56 Bicycle Cafe
Junior U19 Men (walked away with some Fouriers Bikes handlebars, tools and mudguards) 1 Evan Wall 0:42:38 ** Note that 15 year old Evan finished 5th overall and that's after riding out a flat on the last stage - amazing effort!
2 David Silverthorne 0:50:41
3 Ross Parker 1:03:51
Tara Walmsley and David Harder take on the Leaders jersey's for the series!
FULL RESULTSA massive thank you to Chris Pilling for all these fantastic images - nice work Chris. The rest can be found
HEREThanks to all those that supported the Golden Enduro:
Norco Bicycles for the support throughout the entire series
Higher Ground Mountain Sports for the local support and having your mechanic crew on hand each day for the riders!
Kicking Horse Mountain Resort for their amazing support leading up to and over the race weekend, for setting up the course on day 2 and general assistance to making sure day 2 ran smoothly and Ryan for being out there for 5hrs on the Saturday being course sweep.
Fouriers Bike for providing all the carbon and bike parts for all podium prizes throughout the series
Kazoom Custom Cycling Apparel for their on going support with the series!
Steam Donkey Coffee for providing all the podium winners with a fresh bag of Coffee
Renegade Cycle Solutions for providing the X-Fusion Dropper post for the random prize draw and the finale prize in Revelstoke
Pinkbike for their ongoing support through the series and getting you all the updates on time every time!
Solestar for the footbeds that are up for grabs at every race in the series
Smith Optics for some great prize draws (Pivlock and Lowdown sunglasses and coming out for the weekend)
Oneup Components for the narrow wide chainrings that are up for grabs at every race in the series!
Chris Pilling for all the photo's provided here today for the Golden Enduro
Thanks to all the volunteers for coming out - We truly appreciate your help and support.
Connect with us!If you've got questions, we've got answers, feel free to email, call, facebook etc, and we'll do our best to get back to you in 24hrs!
Email: megan@ridingbc.com
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