Interview: Steve and Erik from California Enduro Series

Enduro has found itself in a rather awkward position in America in the last few years. While it was exploding in popularity in Europe and garnering extensive coverage in the media with the Enduro World Series, many people found themselves hearing much talk of something that simply didn't exist where they lived. Any successful discipline is built on grassroots participation - it's one of the big reasons that disciplines like 4X and XC Eliminator are no longer with us - for enduro to become a real thing on the lefthandside of the Atlantic it was always going to be the local series that make or break the long-term future of the discipline. So while it may exist away from the cameras and lights of the international stage, it is series like the California Enduro Series that are putting in the groundwork to truly establish enduro in America.

When you have riders as experienced as WTB's Jason Moeschler telling you that he rates the series because, "They really stretch themselves to get the riders on the best terrain possible. On top of that, they make sure that you get plenty of time on your bike, during, and outside of the race," it is clear they are doing something right. We caught up with series organisers Steve Gemelos and Erik Saunders to talk about how enduro is evolving in the US, how they are looking to develop their series and the challenges of running an enduro race in the US.


Can riders expect much of a change between this year and last years series?

Steve: California Enduro is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote mountain bike enduro racing and riding by establishing a race series, working with and fostering local and autonomous groups and clubs to create independent events, with California Enduro providing the guidance and support needed to create amazing enduro events. Through the California Enduro Series and individual events, we want to create a vibrant, inclusive, and diverse landscape of related events for riders of all abilities to enjoy with an emphasis placed on participation. The ultimate goal is to create world-class enduro events that everyone from pros to amateurs can enjoy and showcase the amazing locations that make the areas around California one of the best places to mountain bike on earth.

Entering our third year running the California Enduro Series, we are learning about what worked and what didn’t work last year - how to grow the sport - we listen to our riders and take their feedback - and we solicit advice from many of the California pro riders that race internationally about what is going on in the US and in Europe. We took all that input to plan for 2015 - we met with some of our riders during the winter to get their input on changes we were planning for 2015. We expect that our riders are going to be stoked with the 2015 California Enduro Series.

We are expanding the series for 2015, welcoming back popular venues from last year and adding two new events: the Wild Wood Adventure Enduro on the Mendocino coast and the Ashland Mountain Challenge. Mendocino is an awesome and less known area of riding for many mountain bikers, so it’s going to be exciting to introduce these trails to riders, and Ashland offering some of the best mountain biking on the west coast. Additionally, 2015 will introduce the first multi-day enduros to the California Enduro Series—with both Wild Wood and Northstar leading the way with back-to-back exciting days of racing.

With the expansion to seven events, the 2015 series points will be based on the top five results of the seven races. Sometimes things don’t work out at a race; a flat tire, a mechanical, or just an off day can ruin your series. We want to keep things fun and competitive. This season, a bad race won’t end your series. You get seven opportunities to post your five best results. This will make it much more competitive for the series overall standings, and more competition makes it more fun. Additionally, based on feedback from our riders, we expanded the categories for the series - adding a Junior Expert category, adding a Expert Men 50+ category, and adding more age categories in general - all in an effort to make the series competition more interesting. 2015 is going to be an awesome year for the California Enduro Series. We are really looking forward to seeing everyone out there again.


How do you see the development of the discipline going in the USA - in some peoples minds they still don't seem to see a huge difference between some enduro races and the Super D races that preceded them? Is this something you're conscious of when you are choosing your courses?

Erik: I am not really sure that I am going to have a smart answer to this one. I have a vision for the development of our organization, but overall for the USA things are moving around in different ways because of the local nature of the sport and all the current independent promoters. There is no central body developing enduro as a whole like you have in other sports. As a community of race promoters, sponsors, and other stakeholders we are not talking to each other that much, or sharing info. I dont know what the future development in the USA as a whole will look like honestly, I could guess, but so can anyone.

In the California Enduro Series our aim is to create a sustainable rider-driven scene. This is our focus. We are not out there to shape or drive the sport at the top level, we are here to scaffold around and to build up the bottom level. We don't promote the races, we are not a top-down organization. We gather financial resources and support local riders and clubs to put on their own races in true grass-roots fashion. So in this way the riders are getting what they want because the riders are putting on the events themselves with our support. That said, everyone has a little bit different idea of what they want and they have different terrain available to them and that's ok for me. We are aware of what the riders who race our series are expecting in the way of courses, and we are pushing the races in the series to do their best to deliver courses that make the riders happy and so far, we are feeling good about the evolution that is taking place in this area. There are enough events this year where riders can pick and choose and i think everyone is going to have fun and find a challenge.

Enduro is a diverse discipline - it means different things to different people, and takes on the character of the terrain you are riding. California has a very diverse landscape, with swoopy loamy trails among the coastal redwoods, dry loose rocky terrain in the alpine deserts in areas, and big mountain terrain in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range. As a series, our choices are focused on what we feel will provide the best experience for the riders, and highlight the diversity of terrain around California.

I also wear a race promoter hat when I put on the VP Endurofest at China Peak, and over the three years that i have been organizing enduro races I have definitely evolved the courses as I have learned more about how to put on the races and learned more about the desires and ability levels of the riders. This year, our course will be one of the more challenging ones in the series, and I believe, it will be on par with events nationally from a technical and physical difficulty standpoint. Like I said, CES is by and for the riders, and as a rider, this is what I want, so the CES is supporting my vision, and the visions of the other clubs and promoters. We encourage everyone to get out and create the races that they want to ride.


In California you have some of America’s most successful enduro racers - Curtis Keene, Ben Cruz, Marco Osborne, Mark Weir, etc - what do you think it is in Cali that has helped to nurture these kind of talents?

Erik: I am not a native Californian. I came from Richmond, VA to Santa Barbara, CA chasing good weather for winter training and early season prep during my road racing days. I can speak from experience when I say that California provides the perfect conditions and abundant opportunities to ride your bike pretty much all the time. There are a lot of people here, so there is a large base of potential riders that can join the sport. There are a lot of mountains here, and the population centers are all actually quite close to great terrain. Finally, the spirit of the bike industry still resides here. The international bike industry is keenly aware of and continues to draw inspiration from California bike culture. Through the CES I would love to be a part of making sure that there are even more top level riders from the state by giving more opportunities for Californians to race.

Steve: This is an interesting question - wondering why Curtis, Ben, Mark, and Marco are doing so well internationally is probably best answered by the riders themselves. From my perspective, the enduro racer has three pillars to build to be competitive - endurance to handle a long day in the saddle covering mileage and feet of climbing, power to be able to make speed, and technical skill to maintain speed over the gnarliest of terrain. To be the ultimate enduro racer you need to have those three pillars -- and be able to excel in all types of terrain - rocky, loose, steep, tight, loamy. There are many ways to build the first two pillars, endurance and power - the third pillar, technical skill over diverse terrain, comes with experience and exposure to riding diverse terrain. California is a state with very diverse riding zones, providing the enduro athlete the opportunity to ride, train, and excel in varying terrain and conditions.

There is a lot of debate currently in the international enduro community about just how tough an enduro race should be, both in terms of technicality and physicality, which is interconnected with the question of accessibility for amateur racers - where do you stand in that spectrum?

Erik: Personally, I love that there is a movement to make the racing harder on all fronts. The fact that the Whistler EWS was apparently a major soul-crusher gets me excited about the future of the sport and the evolution of the athletes. At the top level, the sport is best served by a greater difficulty level. The idea that there can be pro enduro riders who don’t need to achieve a world class level of fitness and endurance is bothersome to me. I would love to see our athletes recognized alongside of and respected with the same awe as triathletes. My non-cycling friends are so impressed and amazed by anyone who is an "Ironman"—it’s impressive how they have been able to build that respect among the public. But like I said earlier, I am not involved at the top level, and it’s up to the EWS to decide how they want to position themselves.

Right now, the sport is small and there are not that many riders, and there are not that many events. I think the debate between pro and amateur difficulty levels is going to change as the sport grows. Top level development is likely to follow a traditional path and get harder and limit participation to a certain level which will end up excluding amateurs as the number of pro and high level riders increases. I don’t see being able to have top level events that allow amateur participation in the way that they currently do. In this circumstance, only the top pros and top age group athletes would be involved in the word-level and national level events.

Ultimately, there needs to be more events, and those events need to be stratified. In California things are growing in that direction with a few opportunities to race enduro at a different levels. We have obviously the California Enduro Series, but we also have this year the Socal Enduro Series which I think will provide a great opportunity for people to try enduro on some less demanding and non-scary courses. Team Big Bear will also be putting on enduros at US Cup events which will be another positive for riders in California. I think enduro in our area in 2015 is going to be exposed to a lot more riders than before. Its important to mention that at the CES we do not want to own enduro in the state, we just want to get more people on bikes, and more people working together to promote and attend events, and more people involved with land managers in their area. So any race added to the calendar is fantastic in our view.


What is the current relationship between your races and USAC? What do you see as the trajectory for this relationship in the future, if indeed there is one?

Erik: Right now, there is no relationship between the CES and USAC. In the past I have been in contact with Jan Luke (the former regional rep) but she has been let go somehow and so there is really at this point no contact at all between our organizations. Although I started racing off-road in the Norba days before suspension was common, my real racing background is on the road and I have a lot of experience with USAC as an amateur club rider, a pro rider, a national level race director, and as a UCI team manager and owner. Reading the article about the PRO GRT, really made me realize how much i know and understand about how they think and how they operate. I even know Micah Rice from his early days as an athlete and team manager. So I think I have broad experience and depth of understanding when it comes to USAC, but not the same MTB experience that others have, which seems to be quite bad for many.

That said, I don't see that the USAC is really in any position to impact enduro in a significant way right now. The horse is out of the barn and they don't have the staff or resources to seriously bring enduro into the USAC fold, nor do I think that they have the desire to get very active. They will put on a national championships this year, and I hope it goes well, i never want to see a race fail, but if they really want to be in enduro, their best bet is to work with existing USAC clubs to support any enduro events that they would put on. The USAC works best from the bottom up, with the push coming from their membership, they won't do so well at top-down, and right now their membership isn’t really into mtb like they are into cross and road so thats going to limit them. I said to Jan Luke, you know if the riders find value in USAC and having the license, then of course we would support it because we are all about supporting the riders and best options for a sustainable sport, but it’s up the USAC to build that value for their organization. Maybe they will build it in DH through the PRO GRT and some of that can trickle over. Who knows really?

If enduro ended up under the USAC and it looked like the National Racing Calendar, or National Criterium Calendar, then that would be an improvement. There would be lots of races, lots of sponsors, lots of clubs and teams, strong local and regional scenes to feed riders to the biggest events, and a viable professional side where riders can make a small living- all things fans and athletes would want to see. We might also have to deal with the same problems I have seen in that system, but they seem to work through them and keep everyone reasonably satisfied and working for the future.

However, back to the point, to require a USAC license is a barrier to entry for the riders at a time when our goal is to lower barriers, not to add them, so its incompatible for the moment. If one of our events wanted to sanction with USAC, i would advise them to consider the potential negative impact to registrations, but i would not feel the need pull our support. I don’t feel it’s my place to set conditions regarding the USAC. The riders will choose, and thats that.

One interesting thing to keep an eye on is the possibility of any rapprochement between the UCI and the EWS. In the event that this happens I think things will shift more quickly in the USA toward aligning with the USAC and the UCI. In theory, there could also be the creation of a UCI top level series growing out of europe through the acceptance of enduro by the UCI aligned national federations there. I don’t know anything about this or the history and relationship between the UCI and EWS, all this is purely academic, but I do find it interesting to postulate on these kinds of things. I am as interested to see what develops at the top level as much as anyone else.


It's a well-established fact that in DH all but a handful of US riders have struggled to be competitive on the international stage, and that is in no small part down to the difficulties national-level DH racing faces in the US. Right now there is undeniably a huge gap in terms of physicality and technical challenge between the top level European enduro races and many American races - as one of the premier American series is this something you're mindful of closing to try and avoid a similar situation developing in enduro?

Erik: I have no experience in DH, and my opinions are formed only by analyzing info we all can find and by talking to a few athletes here and there with the goal of understanding the obvious failures in order to not repeat them in our own efforts. So, yes, we are mindful of the issues you brush across here. Personally I am interested in athlete development and I would like the CES to be a stepping stone to greater things for the riders who want to take that route. This leads us into the first part of your question, the lack of US performers in DH. It seems like USAC and a group of DH promoters are working on this right now and it seems like they are addressing a central issue- UCI points. If you look at Cyclocross in the USA a while back, there was a time when the stakeholders (riders and promoters) decided that they wanted to be competitive and they wanted to have UCI points that could benefit US riders. So they basically went out and made it happen on their own- not actually waiting for USAC. They built it, and the riders, fans, media, and sponsors all came. In a few short years you had UCI points for US events and US riders scoring those points allowing them to get better start positions in europe and better results. You had europeans coming here to earn points in US races which brought the level of the races up and the courses were forced to evolve to meet european standards, making the US riders even better riders on average. So after a while, being a top ten US rider made you also a top 25 rider at the word level and we went from one or two americans who could crack the top 20 to a solid group of US riders who could crack the top ten in a UCI race in europe. Things have changed since then, but this example shows what is possible when people really want to do something and they communicate and support each other in a common goal. I hope that we can see that same progression in DH with the recent changes to the PRO GRT. But it doesn't only have to do with races and points. The biggest part of that story is the people in the US cyclocross scene and the energy that they put into creating what they wanted to see, and what they continue to put into their sport despite a down economy for sponsorship. I think it stands in contrast to what i have noticed in the DH community (which the past PB article touches on and which may be starting to change) and this is what is important to keep in mind for enduro.

In the USA, we have the NAET and we have the Big Mountain Series, which have the biggest reputations at the elite level. I think a good number of elite riders will continue to prefer to follow those events this season and most likely into the future. To your question, if there is a perceived gap that the elites want filled, BME and NAET can do the most to get us there quickly since they occupy that space. In the CES we would like to take some time to cover our bases and create a stable and motivated ridership who are taking part in organizing events on their own, and evolve the events in a way where we can meet, or get close to, an international standard for some of them. I think it’s a mistake to attribute the lack of success in US DH events and riders with soft courses, I think the real issue has been a lack of community support and togetherness, and for the CES this has to be the first thing that we build.

Now, ok, we still need to actually get the level of courses up as our community develops the riders who need those courses. One of the directions we are thinking in is to have progressive courses where the lower categories don’t ride all stages and the pros end with stages of greater difficulty (and along with this is a longer race distance and more climbing). At the VP Endurofest we experimented with this in 2014 and it worked out well, so we will expand that concept with additional stages of greater technical difficulty in 2015 that should meet the needs of elites and preserve the togetherness of all the riders that everyone enjoys about the format so far. There is also the possibility for beyond 2015 that we stick with a one day format and run lower categories on one day and top categories on the next. Another area that we will explore in the 2015 CES is the Junior X category that will ride the same courses as the expert and Pro categories.

We have limited resources, and trails, and hours in the day so its going to take some real innovative thinking to meet the needs of all riders while we expand to host 300+ per event, but we are committed to doing it. This means, implicitly, that we can’t have in the current CES structure an EWS Whistler that would cater only to elites. As our community and race calendar grows, and we have more hands on deck, we can conceivably have the kind of race calendar where all needs are met in the future though. Like I said earlier, I think the events need to be stratified. There are even more options… and i am thinking out loud here… when i raced in France every race didn’t have every category. Each category had their own race in a different town… and even in elites, the Division 3 teams had their race, and the Dn2 teams had their races, and the Dn1 teams had their race, and the women had their race- all in different towns with each a format which suited the riders who attended. It would have been an impossible nightmare to try to race all those categories in the same place at the same time, and in this system each category got 100% of the attention and focus on quality that they deserved and the local infrastructure and populations were not stressed by having their roads tied up all day long. It would be a success for enduro to have races that are “lame” with 300+ riders catering to beginner and sport, while maybe the elites and experts had their own “rad” race someplace else with 300+riders. There are lots of ways to do this, and its going to take some thought on how to manage things when the sport gets more popular.

As we work to bring the riders’ levels up along with the course levels we can't forget two big important factors: increased racing and financial reward and support. There is a big benefit in just having more available events to go to learn the mental side of racing for a developing athlete. If we can provide these events in closer vicinity, and help control entry fees, then we can help riders get more racing at lower costs. I would like to see better prize money for the races and i personally understand the impact that this can have for the top level guys. If we look at it honestly we have to admit that "pro" enduro racing is not financially viable for most riders who are racing nationally in the pro class. A decent cat. 2 roadie is getting better support than your median “pro” category enduro racer. i don't see that there is any reason that we should not build the same opportunity for our athletes in enduro. It all starts with community.


One of the big issues that American enduro racers cite as a limiting factor in US enduro racing is land access, what trails can be built and raced on is much more heavily regulated than in Europe - how are you tackling this issue?

Steve: This is a big issue in California, we have many land managers to work with - City and County, California State Parks, Cal Fire, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and a variety of land conservation groups. With all these different land management organizations, mountain biking in general and especially putting on any kind of event requires having a good relationship with the local land managers. Many of the organizations that create events that are part of the California Enduro Series are locals in their area and have such relationships, supporting their local land managers with trailwork and stewardship of the land. At this time, even having these events take a lot of work and partnerships with the land managers. California Enduro works with local clubs as race promoters to help these clubs create amazing events that they can use to fund raise to support their local trailwork projects -- without the local clubs and their relationships with local land managers, it would be very difficult to create a California Enduro Series.

When it comes to building new trails, California has a few hurdles. Building a new trail on land that already has trails open to mountain bikes can take 1-2 years to get approvals and go through environmental review. Coming up with a whole new trail network on land that already has trails open to mountain biking could require developing and approving a Master Plan, a process which can take approximately 3-5 years to complete. That said, support of the local land managers is critical.

To put things in perspective, let’s talk about Santa Cruz - an area I know very well from my local involvement with the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBoSC.org). Santa Cruz is an area with many of the top companies in mountain biking, an area with many top professional riders, an area which many would say is a mecca for mountain biking, and an area with few trails legal for mountain biking. With this mountain bike scene happening in Santa Cruz you may be surprised to know that prior to the recently opened multi-use Emma McCrary Trail in 2013, the last trail built that was legal for mountain biking in Santa Cruz was in 1999.

Local clubs, like the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz, are changing things - after a 14 year drought, they have opened the Emma McCrary Trail, are finishing The Flow Trail in the famous Soquel Demonstration State Forest (a.k.a. Demo), and have more projects coming online in the next couple years that can really change the landscape for mountain biking in Santa Cruz County. To make these gains, the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz have fostered relationships with local land managers and land conservation groups. Through local clubs and groups like the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz, legal places to ride mountain bikes and host events will grow.

Another big opportunity on the horizon is the new law passed by the Obama Administration increasing the opportunities for ski resorts, many of which operate on federal land, to offer summer recreation. We may see more ski resorts in California opening up as mountain bike parks during the summer, providing more venues to create amazing enduro events.

Erik: Steve makes it clear that this is a long term thing, and depends on local groups involved with their local trails and land managers. Last year, we started a team competition to start the process. The idea is that we could get riders to self-identify as distinct groups. From there we hope that they can start to think independently about how to organize a race, or get involved in their local trail group or IMBA chapter which will start them in the right direction. We have a point A and a point B but the actions to take along the path to the end isn't exactly clear or even within our control but we think its still valuable to get the ideas out there. The next group of local leaders can come from the enduro community, and we want our system to facilitate that.

The top team in the 2014 series, Larkspur Bike & Bean/Giant is a good example of this potential. These guys raced hard all year, and also put on a lot of work to help create and fund the Stafford Lake Bike Park. The CES partnered with them to help their fundraising and we all together had a big impact on the bottom line for the project. If in 5 years we can have just one or two more groups like this creating new, legal, places to ride and race then we will be fulfilling a big part of our mission.

In the CES we will have a new race in Mendocino put on by the Mendocino Bike Sprites. This follows the exact model of our organization supporting local groups to put on races in their area that can further support the growth of mountain biking and trails locally. Last year, we brought on the Battle Born Enduro in Reno put on by the Poedunks, another local group, who used the race to get people out in support of one of the most popular riding spots in the area. The event raised a solid 50% of the yearly trail build/maintenance budget for the club to continue their relationship with the land managers and keep the trails in riding condition for everyone. What is also special is to note that this race had over 40 juniors! So we can see already that our concept is successful, and that we are not just racing and taking, we are racing and giving back and giving local riders something to leverage that can help them build something new. Even if you aren't a part of a club, just your participation at the races is giving back to the community.


In the UK enduro with the withdrawal of the federation from supporting enduro, insuring an enduro race has become much harder with the many insurers expecting DH levels of marshalls, tape and infrastructure, stipulations that put enduro race organisers in an almost impossible situation - how difficult is it for you to insure an enduro race in the US?

Erik: It's honestly not that hard to insure the races in our case, but we are in a different situation than what i hear has gone on in the UK. There are some hassles and some moments where you have to jump through hoops because they don't understand exactly what you are doing, or because the land managers want more insurance than the event insurance industry is comfortable offering but really in the end it just costs you, and you pay, and thats the end of it. The rates we are getting in the CES are higher than we could get through the national federation, but its not insurmountable. Enduro is so small that we are not yet really on the radar as far as liability goes, but at some point we may show up as a blip that needs attention.

You mention this vis-a-vis the national federation, and its been put out there that enduro was forced out in the UK because of liability. Maybe we have a turn of events that makes enduro all of a sudden uninsurable. Maybe in the USA this is something that has the opposite effect, and we can only insure a race if its USAC because nobody will touch us. In criterium and road racing people die, i would go so far as to say that its accepted that it could happen because it has happened. When i was racing we would lose riders we knew and raced with so its very real and personal to me so i dont mention this lightly… and i think at times people are not truly in touch with the real risks in sports.. but anyway, they havent yet shut it down, USAC doesnt ditch road racing, so i am sure that on the road the risks are known and have been managed in a way to make the insurance industry comfortable so i dont see why that wouldnt be available to us if we needed it. In US enduro, we havent had the same level of experience with liability and injury as other areas of cycling so we cant be sure about where we will end up in the USA until we have a big test. Then we will know how the insurance side of our sport shakes out.

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