Preview Video: SCOTT Enduro Cup - Canyons

 We filmed this July 31st...so yeah.. the trails have been much improved by Mother Nature since then.

 And more rain in the forecast! The trails should be prime!

 Eh, I was riding the Canyons all day on Saturday and it was still really dusty.

 I rode the crest last saturday and it was soup

 @hamncheez was it in the morning that you rode? Canyons still had mud and whatnot early in the day, but it dried up as the day went on, and by the time we left we were pretty dusty.

 Yeah, I'm waiting for the course to be released, as it was supposed to be announced yesterday.

 It was released to my buddy because we were supposed to film a promo for it as well. I'm back in NH so missing out this week and the race (first missed Enduro Cup race ever ) Its going to be pretty much the same as previous years. No big changes by the looks of it... aka its gonna be a fun time, you lucky friggers.

 So after pre-riding the course and seeing the routes tonight, I'm out.

There is one small climb and a ton of gondola. Might was well just take a dh bike and walk it up the one climb.

I'm an intermediate/advanced rider and had to walk a ton of that on my wussy 5" travel AM bike.

The gravel road that bypasses the top section of the DH track is almost unrideable.

The DH track is gnarly with a ton of blind drops and I'd never want to ride it on anything less than a near dh bike.

Last year was fun, my only complaints were not timing the ups at all. (Even though there were supposed to be max transfer times) and the wait times between gates (hours)

I just feel like this is a DH race called an enduro

 ^ Hi, welcome to how enduro should be. I'll be your guide...

and yeah, if you think that about the trails up at the Canyons, maybe you shouldn't ride because you'll end up hurting yourself. For anyone else that is pretty confident on a bike and hasn't only ridden smooth, bike park trails, you'll be fine. Its not bad at all, even their new DH trail which has some sick steep and rutty bits. For comparison, if you can ride Devo, you can negotiate the new DH trail just fine but I do suggest checking out some sections just to get the correct line... if they're even racing that part.

Plus there is always the state level super d races you can stick to instead. Those are on much easier trails... well for the most part

 btw pretty friggen bummed I'll be missing this since they're gonna be going down that new trail... ahhh that is awesome.

 I have yet to ride the DH trail, but I'm sure it'll be a blast!

 @UtahBikeMike We're bummed to hear you might not be joining us this year. Thanks for your input and we will take it into consideration for next year's course. The reason the course is more technical this year is based on all of the input our riders gave us. The additions we made this year will make the Canyons the most challenging and rewarding of our series. I would like to clarify the course a bit, because there seems to be some confusion. In terms of climbs, racers will be pedaling the Mid Mountain trail to Ambush, then Mid Mountain to Red Coat, next the short version of Mid Mountain, and the last climb is up all of Upper Holly's. The blind drops you refer to on the Downhill trail are on the upper section, and only Pro Men/Women and Expert Men will be riding that section. All other categories will be dropping the lower section of the DH trail and the fire road is not part of the downhill stage. I hope some of this information helped clarify the course for you, and do not hesitant to ask us any questions regarding the course.

 ^ Dang, not a bad way to rope people into signing up for the Pro cat kinda like what you did during the Moab race. Thank you for the changes and I hope it keeps moving in that direction. One of the most fun stages was the DH trail at Sundance so its awesome to see another legit DH specific trail being included.

 @scott-townes

Sorry dude, my career depends on me not huring myself. If i go down and break something i loose money, not just from the bills but because i can't fix cars.

Yeah, I'm not super hardcore and insurgent is about the limit of my skillset on my current bike. Not afraid to admit that, since my kids are my full time hobby and i can only bike twice a week for a couple hours due to freetime.

The vibe was super cool at the last race and everyone in my group were in a similar situation so we weren't trying to balls out everything.

It was more fun in respect to hanging out with a bunch of similar aged people with the same hobby as me and we got to bomb down some empty trails.

I'm just dissapointed that the "novice" class is running on the hardest trails. Im sure i could clear the dh track if i could lap it for a day, but i don't have that luxury. So I'm not going to risk hurting myself and my family.

This year, I'll just pick up a longer travel bike and try to up my weenie skillset so i can try to stay alive in the baby class. I'm ok with that.

 @endurocup

Thanks for the clarification, still seems not like a lot of climbimg compared to last year.

Good to see you're listening to racers, even if I'm in the minoroty

 ^ Haha, relax man. Its all good. The very idea of enduro was pedaling up to DH trails to race down but that was lost in translation a while ago. I'm just stoked to see the Enduro Cup trying to bring that core idea back to the format.