Closing the Circle - Enduro World Series, Round 6 - Whistler
Track choice for the Whistler round of the Enduro World Series is undoubtedly one of the most interesting this year. While a similar process goes on for every race, there is an extra significance here, and it completes a circle that started with Wade Simmons and friends some time in the early 90s. What many North American freeriders maybe never understood is what happened when freeride crossed the Atlantic. In Wade's words, the original freeriding was about interpreting the terrain in creative ways. Yet in Europe, that never happened, instead the word was misappropriated and applied to any descent that didn't qualify as a downhill run. So it could mean anything from badly-made woodwork and hucks, through to long, natural descents. It's that second set of trails that are important to enduro - they are where the sport was born. Enduro was born out of that misinterpretation of freeriding. With the growth of enduro as a discipline, the circle of influence has gone all the way round, and now the sport that grew out of freeriding is returning to the home of freeriding and adopting its trails. Riding the course recon with Richie Schley, he could remember pioneering some of the steeps that are included this year as part of the race course. Trails that were once mainstays of that nascent scene some decade and a half ago, are being reawaken and adjusted to be raced.
Trailforks.com
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 Seb Kemp has been instrumental in turning this race into what it is today. Up until 2012 it had never quite worked for one reason or another, but for 2013 he persuaded Crankworx to open the race up to using the valley trails around the town, a move that instantly transformed the race into a riders' favourite. After last years race there were some people left unhappy about the race using their trails, about the damage it caused. Over the winter Crankworx received a $10,000 grant for community development from SRAM, which was put into maintaining and developing the valley network. So for this year's race the emphasis on the trails has been on re-opening and re-awakening trails that had fallen into disuse over the years - names like Crazy Train should be instantly familiar to the freeride crowd. With the grant and the work that has gone into the trails, and will go into them again once racing is done, the hope is that the race will leave the valley trail network in a better condition than it was before. Seb was very keen to stress that he deserves little credit for the work on the trails though, it has been a community effort, with more people involved than we could possibly list on a Pinkbike photo caption. He also wanted to stress that he was holding the mattock like that to be gentle, he does know what he's doing with the tools... |
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| Lying discarded at the side of Crazy Train was this ladder bridge from the original lines. It felt very symbolic to see the remains of the pure freeride lines put aside for trail that while still gnarly is more accessible to more people. |
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| On Thursday stage one to four were still closed for riding, but Florian Nicolai and a broken Isabeau Courdurier went for a hike on stage two to get their eyes in. |
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| After last years controversy about Fabien Barel shuttling in practice, virtually all the top riders attended the riders' briefing on Friday morning to get the low down on the rules of racing this weekend. |
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| The transitions up to the four valley stages are tough going, there's little of the European-style fireroad cruising, it's singletrack where you can't sit back ad spin your smallest gear. |
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| Stage two is set to be a challenge for the whole field, with even the top riders taking time to eye up some of the sections before attempting them. |
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| Thomas Lapeyrie launches onto one of the steeps. It's a pity with this section, as the taping means the lower, easier line is faster, so we doubt we'll get to see anyone attempt this section at race pace. |
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| Jared Graves was charging through stage two yesterday. |
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| James Shirley is always good value to watch if there's a huck to be had. You can't really tell from this angle, but he was launching off this rock farther and faster than anyone else we saw. That said, it dod cost him a pivot axle in his suspension, he snapped clean through it going back to this for a photo. Cheers man! |
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| Reigning 4X world champion, Joost Wichman is getting his enduro on this weekend. |
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| Liam Moyniham from the Dudes of Hazard taking one of the awkward rock drops on the lower part of stage two. |
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| Alex Cure is a clever man. While most riders pedalled up the transfers, he hiked up the stages as he reckons it was shorter. That and it meant he could scope every line before he rode it. |
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| Kary Winton taking the high line into a chute on the lower part of stage two. |
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| One to watch this weekend is local rider, Jesse Melamed. While he admits that he doesn't know many of the trails they are using for this race, he knows the terrain here better than almost anyone, so expect him to be flying tomorrow. |
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| Loam, glorious loam. There's plenty of dirt to be cut up by tyres in these woods. |
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| If you've ever wondered why you see Iago Garay in the media reports from the EWS so often, the simple answer is that he's got great style on a bike and is almost always happy to go up and hit lines a couple of times in practice to get the shot. |
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| Rising Kiwi slopestyler, Connor Macfarlane, was showing that he's a good all-round rider, using practice as an excuse to get some laps in with the racers, although he said we won't be seeing him on track for race day unfortunately. |
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| While Casey Brown is racing Windham, her dog was out following a local rider whose name I didn't get through practice. |
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| Yoann Barelli was coming in hot to one of the steepest sections of stage two - below this corner is a straight chute for about 30 vertical feet. |
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| Coming off his incredible result in Winter Park, Richie Rude was again charging hard in practice. |
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| This is a clever little idea from Curtis Keene - a tyre plug strapped to his toptube. This was if he slashes a tyre on course he can repair it and keep rolling, meaning he loses a minute rather than five minutes riding out with a flat. |
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| Florian Nicolai has a keen eye for lines. Most people were taking the corner to his left here, but he spotted a straight line at the tree above, meaning he could carry more speed into the chute below. |
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| While Nico Lau may be one of the top racers in the series, he's got no ego, being one of the few top racers we've seen washing his own bike. He also took the chance to get some extra hydration... |
Trailforks.com
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Not too sure "free riding" was born there, but it def is most welcomed there, hence it being the mecca of said riding type.