Mountain Creek's King of the Mountain Enduro
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Mountain Creek Bike Park in Vernon, New Jersey has a longstanding history within the downhill and freeride scene for not just the East Coast, but much of America's mountain bike community. It's a well deserved reputation that they continue to cultivate and expand upon. But, as it turns out, you can bring your trail bike to the party and have yourself a damn good time here. The 2014 King of the Mountain Enduro took place on an amazingly perfect late summer afternoon and scores of riders from all over the country made the trip to this corner of northwest New Jersey for the halfway stop of the Triple Crown Eastern Enduro series and the second East Coast stop of the North American Enduro Tour. A deluge of rain the day prior made practice a sketchy affair and even took out a race favorite in Seamus Powell, but many riders still took the time to learn the lines and acquaint themselves with the difficult and technical course before Sunday's race, despite the slippery conditions. An overnight breeze coupled with brilliant sun in the morning left the five-stage course in much better shape than many had expected, and things got rowdy almost immediately after the race got underway.
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 Fast Line Racing pro Ryan Lee has made quite a name for himself this season on the east coast enduro circuit. He has had a season with consistent top 10 finishes and on Sunday he'd keep the streak going with an 8th overall. |
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| Mike Mader, pro rider out of East Burke, Vermont admitted to having raced stages 1 and 2 blindly, which set his time back a bit. But his times for 3 and 4 were right at the top and showed his true speed against what would prove to be a very fast field. A front flat on stage 5 essentially took him out of podium contention. He's going to be one of the favorites going into the 3rd and final race of the series later this month, which will be held in none other than East Burke, Vermont. |
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| Local and international legend Jeff Lenosky was quite at home on the course, as he functioned as a design liaison for this year's course and happens to live 20 minutes from the mountain. The trials and freeride star has spent the past few seasons racking up an impressive collection of enduro results as well. Add another to the list as he would finish 3rd on the day. |
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| Mountain Bike Hall of Famer Marla Streb was on hand to add an extra degree of street cred to the race and appeared to be well on her way to a victory when racing struck and she flatted on the 5th and final stage of the event. Still, 2nd place in a pro field that saw 3 different women take stage wins is nothing to shake a stick at. |
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| Marla would win 2 stages, take 2nd in one and 3rd in two others on her way to 2nd place by less than a second! |
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| The course featured a fun mix of bike park terrain... |
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| ...and as Lenosky will tell you, lots and lots of rocks. Bring lots of air and maybe a spare wheelset with you when you're racing here. |
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| Kimberly Quinlan kept the pro women's podium nice and tidy by finishing in 3rd overall and well within a minute of the winning pace. |
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| Jon Gabor is one of the hardest working athletes you will find anywhere. Hard work pays off and Jon has had himself one hell of a big season and would finish 5th on the day at Creek. |
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| Mountain Creek used several well known trails for the race but also managed to put some freshly shorn trails in as well, resulting in some surprisingly glorious dirt. |
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| Matt Sebas has been in top form all season long and has had plenty of top results to show for it. Sometimes luck just ain't on your side and on Sunday, luck seemed to work hard against the Vermont pro all day long. When he wasn't battling mechanicals, he was catching countless racers and an occasional course poacher throughout the afternoon. Matt's attitude is as impressive as his speed and he didn't let one day of bad luck get to him, as much as he wanted to style out this step up for the camera. |
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| Sans the squid in his sights, Sebas can shred with the swiftest. |
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| Yet another legend in our midsts, Kingdom Trails builder and freeride guru Knight Ide made the trip from East Burke to compete at Creek and showed that jumpers can pedal too! |
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| Knight would end up 7th overall by the day's end. With the series finale taking place on his home trails in 2 weeks time, all eyes will be on the man with the east coast's most famous backyard. |
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| This was quite literally the only smooth section of trail to be found on the 5th stage. |
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| Adam Snyder is in the middle of an east coast road trip and has been making the most of it, with podiums at every race he's entered. His current home in Durango may have some epic riding, but the Massachusetts native is more than happy to take a rip through the green tunnel every now and then. 4th place for the Niner pro rider and all around nice guy. |
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| The heckler crowd was a bit quiet this year. |
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| With Richie Rude absent, Chris Heath and Jason Memmelaar were tasked with flying the Yeti flag on Sunday and they certainly waved that thing hard. Chris had a triumphant return to the east coast and would finish 2nd overall by less than 5 seconds after almost 25 minutes of racing! |
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 | The tracks were good and it's just nice to be back here on the east coast. I love the rocks and it was really fun to get to test out the new 6C. It's nice to come from out west where the enduro scene is so good and see it growing here too. - 2nd place Pro Men, Chris Heath |
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| Chris clocked in the fastest stage 5 time despite having to deal with a few tape-ducking knuckleheads getting in his way. |
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| 'Breaking Rad' star Anne Galyean took a brief respite from her PhD studies to race and win on Sunday, edging out Marla Streb by less than 1 second by the day's end! |
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| After a 5th place stage 1 finish, Anne would absolutely smash the course to bits, finishing in 2nd on the next 3 stages before taking the 5th and gnarliest stage by 20 seconds on the next rider. |
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| Having such an experienced and brilliant racer like Marla to compete with really elevated my riding. I'm still building confidence racing little bikes, and don't feel like I've found my flow yet, but MCBP included some steep, rocky, and technical terrain in Stages 4 and 5 that really played to my DH strengths. My favorite part of this racing format is being able to ride bikes with your friends, and having great company while you're suffering makes it all fun in the end. -1st place Pro Women, Anne Galyean |
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| When you watch a rider like Jason Memmelaar go by, it's hard to not put down your camera, grab your bike and go ride with him. The guy just always seems to be having more fun on his bike than everyone else. When you're winning races the way he did on Sunday, it's just icing on the cake. |
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| Jason has had a bit of a distinguished career that seems to still be evolving despite having been at it for over a decade now. Memmelaar would win 3 of the 5 stages and would see a margin of victory by just under 5 seconds over good friend and teammate, Chris Heath. |
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| It's Mountain Creek, so it's going to be rocky and freaking rough. -1st place Pro Men, Jason Memmelaar |
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| Rocky and freaking rough. Case in point, Jason Memmelaar. |
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| After a long day of racing, nothing beats clean clothes and a voucher for a free mug of beer. |
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| War stories from Creek often end in either slings or smiles. |
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| Seamus Powell took a nasty crash on his final practice run on Saturday, resulting in a hole in his knee, a hematoma on his hip and a broken finger. He and Lenosky discussing what might have been had he been able to race. It's quite likely that podium would look very different. Heal up quickly Seamus! |
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| Which came first for Yeti, fast bikes or fast riders? Your fastest dudes on the day, Chris Heath and Jason Memmelaar have every reason to be all smiles post-race. |
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| The pro women's podium was closely contested, with just 45 seconds separating 1st place finisher Anne Galyean from 3rd place rider Kimberly Quinlan. Marla Streb was less than a second off of Galyean's pace. All 3 women had themselves a good time on the trails. |
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| You may notice the absence of a pro men's podium picture and for the sake of full disclosure, it's worth noting some timing related issues did take place in calculating the overall results. Mountain Creek's Hugh Reynolds handled the setback with grace and humor, accepting responsibility and apologizing profusely for the delay in official results. After some post-race calculations, Memmelaar's victory had been confirmed with Chris Heath taking 2nd and Jeff Lenosky finishing 3rd. |
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| Timing issues aside, the event brought together friendly and familiar faces and everyone seemed to relish the opportunity to ride together before the race season begins to wind down. The King of the Mountain Enduro is another example of the strong all-mountain community found on the east coast and of the good times that can be found over here. The cool and crisp late afternoon air also reminded us that even though the race season may soon be coming to an end, the best time of the year for riding is just around the corner. |
Full results can be found here.
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Initially I was really stoked to move here due to the mythos that has been built up about riding in the southwest... All I have to say is, the stuff out here is weaksauce compared to Mountain Creek. The trail systems in the surrounding area (NJ, NY, CT) are waaaaay nicer than anything I've found out here.
Perhaps one day, the Northeast will get the credit its due. Until then, keep killing it Creek!
Besides! here in the northeast..we gear up for snowboarding and skiing.. Don't know about you! but I get bored doing the same thing thru out the year.. My friend moved to SoCal and all I hear about are the epic rides..."we climbed 10,000 feet today" kind of shit..but when I see the pics, it's always on flat smooth trails with no pitch, roots, rocks, or gets this! even frickin trees...and the groups are filled with fat people that have no problem doing the rides..
So yeah if that's your idea of mountain biking, have at it..and have yourself a Starbucks when you get to the top.
the riding here in SoCal, well... sucks.
Literally 99% of "trails" here are blown-out, rutted, flat and boring. All of them are just co-opted hiking trails with horrible conditions. It doesn't help that the tree hugger hippies are in super over-drive out here and they won't allow a single purpose built trail to be cut... because that would ruin the freakin' massive natural landscape.
The typical Southern California ride:
Step 1) Shuttle to the top (pain in the ass, costly, and defeats the true purpose of riding) or climb a mind-numbingly boring fire road for an hour and a half.
Step 2) Ride down the blown-out, featureless, super-exposed, cat litter box condition trail for 20 minutes.
It's quite strange actually when I discuss how amazing the trails back East are with SoCal riders. I describe all the fun, technical, big, rocky features... dynamic elevation... amazing dirt... NO FIREROADS!!! But something doesn't translate for them.
Maybe it's because they mistakenly assume that if the Northeast were really that sick, why isn't it in all the magazines and videos and websites?
Or maybe it's just hard for them to accept that riding here in SoCal is actually pretty crappy.
Sorry, California, I love everything else about you.
she gave me a ton of tips the day before the race on how to handle one of the tough rock gardens (i raced the AM women category)
kept catching the guy in front of me too and he wouldn't let me pass . either way if you a weekend warrior you're a amateur . if you hold any form of sponsorship you're not . either way next year im doing it again lol