What most of us see of racing mountain bikes in South America are the quite frankly mental street races. Steep, dangerous tracks plummeting through narrow streets, flanked by screaming fans and wild dogs. The enduro scene is nothing like that. Sitting an hour's drive and 2,500 vertical metres above the Chillean capital, Santiago, La Parva is a world away from those brutal, urban races. The quiet ski resort starts at 2,500, climbing up to 3,700m at the top of the main lift. It's quiet, breathtakingly beautiful, but utterly punishing terrain to race mountain bikes on. Axle-deep in powder in places, there is a good reason why the locals describe the terrain as "anti-grip." Chileans love mountain bike tracks with long, flat-out straights where you test the limits of your bravery for high speeds. Yet what is even more surprising is how healthy the sport of enduro is down here. Race entries this weekend had to be limited to 400 places, one racer joked that if they didn't it would need to be a two day race just to get everyone to the startline. While Europe may be the spiritual home of enduro, the Chileans have taken it to heart in a huge way.
www.montenbaik.com
Awesome race!