Wade's Excellent Adventure 2014 - Sea To Sky Enduro Series

The prestigious Fromme Cup was again up for grabs for riders with the strength, skill and gumption to survive the enduro format racing in this year's Wade's Excellent Adventure. Created by the legend himself Wade Simmons the race was conceived in 2009 as a way to showcase the North Shore trails and inject a level of fun into the mountain bike racing scene. Enduro before enduro was a thing, WEA has traditionally featured multiple timed stages and with transfers in between. After a one year hiatus the race was back and better than ever. This year the race was open to all levels of racers and featured five stages making up 21 kilometres of trails and 1200 metres of descending (gotta climb up first though) on Mount Fromme.



This year WEA was part of the Sea to Sky Enduro Series. The Series is a joint venture of NSMBA, WORCA, Squamish Enduro and the PVTA and includes races in Pemberton, Squamish, Whistler and the North Shore. The intent of WEA and the Sea To Sky Enduro series is a fun day of timed riding while raising money for the trails, proceeds from each race will go to each of the host trail associations.


In the true tradition of Wade's Excellent Adventure this year's race had lots of awesome racing action with a few trail side surprises, and lots of karma rewards for all who participated.


After signing in at the water towers racers climb the road to start the first timed stage descending Floppy Bunny, continued on to the flow of Roadside Attraction and finished the stage on Upper Griffin. The mist hung in the trees as racers rocketed through the jumps, twists and turns of stage one.



After a racers rode up the access road (the first time of several) Stage Two timed racing carried on descending down Leopard, Crinkum-Crankum finishing on Cedar Trail.


Stage three would start at Pile of Rocks and descend down Mountain Highway Access Road and plunge down onto Expresso. On the road above Expresso racers had their speed checked by a radar gun, with many racers topping out the biggest gear trying to post the fastest speed of the day.



In true Wade's fashion some new trail was thrown into the mix, with racers embracing the loam on the Skid Road re-route on their way to the Baden Powell on Liason 3. Despite the slog and a few bruises and bumps racers were still in high spirits.



Stage Four saw racers traversing the Baden Powell and descending onto Dreamweaver.



Stage Five was the final timed stage of the day with racers descending the Baden Powell and onto the finish at the water towers where it all started. At the finish there were many tired expressions but also a lot of smiles.








Full results from the race can be seen here.

The Sea to Sky Enduro Series continues with the next race in Whistler on June 28, more details here.

Despite some controversies over a few wrong turns made by some racers on Stage 4, at the end of the day the one thing I heard the most was how great they found the race to be, and while it was a hard race, that it was also fun. It seems that Wade and the rest of the crew of volunteers that put on the this latest edition of Wade's Excellent Adventure have put on yet another memorable and excellent race.