Race Report: Wolf's Mountain Enduro - National Mexican Enduro Series

Mar 11, 2019
by Andres Ruiz  


After a 2 hour ride from my hometown San Luis Potosí and many setbacks, we managed to arrive in time to the location. The name "Sierra De Lobos" or Wolf's Mountains comes from the early days of the place in which the wildlife was thriving and many animals, including wolves, cougars, deers, boars and bobcats lived in said place. The "Wolf's Mountain" Enduro race is the second round of the National Mexican Enduro Series in the center of the country. The first race was held in San Luis Potosí (my hometown), second one here in León Guanajuato, third one in Morelia Michoacan and the last one in Querétaro. These 4 races form the superenduro bajío series and are a fraction of the huge, crescent and fastly developing Mexican Enduro scene here in the country.

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Wolf's Mountain contains a variety of terrain ranging from fast flow tracks to harsh rock gardens, off cambers and some gnarly jumps and drops

Hugo Balo Reyes is the name of the person behind the whole thing here in León and the person who thought: It may be a good idea to do an Enduro race here. Thanks to him and his partners in the center of the country we've been able to enjoy and race many wonderful places in the last 3 years or so. Even now, the assistance to these sort of events is growing and on each race, I see more and more new faces; it may bee seasoned XC riders jumping into the Enduro world, persons with zero involvement on any Mountain Bike related stuff and even families who are just interested in going as mere spectators.

The Enduro scene is growing fast thanks to the efforts of local groups all around the country. Small victories here and small achievements there result in the groundbreaking feat of organizing a race and have everything sorted out.

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Adrenaline at the 3rd stage of the race

A certain pleasant friend of mine told me: "I've been riding in Europe for years, you get tons of prizes, the logistics are close to perfect and the whole thing is organized smoothly but it lacks one big thing you guys have here in México". To which I replied: "What thing man? Tell me!"

"Family, it feels like a family when you race here in México."

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Gil Villareal shreds the first stage in his Cube Stereo C 160


Perhaps that's one of the reasons why people who supposedly pass by in Mexico end up staying here, there's a certain magic, an underlying colorful atmosphere that engulfs everything in México and soaks its visitors leaving them thirsty for more.

It was a wonderful pleasure to see so many faces I know, so many persons greeted me saying "Hey you're the dude who took the awesome photos at the last race" To which I nervously and happily replied: Hell yeah! that's me!" Tons of racers came to this stage and we had the joy to see people hailing from almost 20 States from México and people from all sorts of places like Czech Republic, Brazil, U.S.A., Canada, Japan, Colombia, and other planes and dimensions.


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First Stage was a sort of introduction of all features to come in the next stages.

Once you look behind the full face helmet, the goggles and the whole outfit you will see a father, a husband, a daughter, a brother, a friend and a lifelong partner in this sports. Racers here have a wide background and you'd be amazed to see how different and yet how similar they are from each other. Some of us are bachelors, engineers, medics, technics and yet the world of mountain biking brings us together as a big twisted and weirdly awesome family!!

Having said that, I'm amazed to take part in this race, I've been trying for years to get back on a bicycle but a myriad of setbacks has kept me from doing so, so the fact that I managed to found a way to entwine my profession as a Marketer and Multimedia Producer with my passion for MTB came as a perfect standpoint for me to jump into the madness. After the success of my photos in San Luis Potosí lots of people requested me to be here in León so I got my shit together and made a simple and quick call with the staff of the race and end up getting the contract and oh boy, did It pay off so so f*cking good. I initially thought I'd have like 200ish photos but ended up with almost 350! Ranging from the entire 4 stages of the race, the start and the podiums!!

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The stages flew in between many ranchlands and places with wildlife and cattle giving it quite the feel

After 5 hours I started to feel the ravages of sun and heat and the thirst got quite annoying but because of my focus being the photos I forgot about it and ended up feeling like a Walking Dead character. Time passed by and I looked at the screen of my simple and capable Nikon D3200 and glanced at the sight of almost 700 photos that I already had taken and had to edit! What a nightmare!!! After asking a few of the racers riding by I asked them if there were anymore left to which they told me: like 30ish! So I made the stupid choice to walk down the entire 4th and final stage of the race while taking some photos of the people riding beside me.

The 4th and final stage was my favourite one and while being a flow singletrack it contained certain features that made it quite interesting, off camber sections and huge boulders at the ridgeline that resulted in huge speed boosts or breaking points depending on how good you take 'em. I stumbled upon a pathway of ancient trees, present smell of dirt and no sound whatsoever but the noise of rubber scratching the trail with agressive and devious speed.

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Eric and Yuka from Youtube's BC POV prepare to shred down the mountain

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Monica Villalobos doing some rad air time on her On.One

So after the whole walking thing and almost 8Km with the help of the National Trek Enduro team I arrived at the podium ceremony surrounded by friends, beer, food, enduro bikes, cute girls, friendly folks and the soothing embrace of cold wind easing up the tiredness of us all, for a moment I was in heaven. Packed my stuff up, grabbed a couple of Mezcal (Tequila's big brother) cups, sat down and had a killer time with who it seemed to be a family that has always been there for me at the distance. Life is good, you just have to look to the right place at the right moment with the right people.


All in all, I thoroughly send my gratitude towards those who like, share and enjoy my photographs. It's the start of a more ambitious and great thing but If I keep focused I think I can achieve it. Now the next big thing for me is to get my shit together and prepare for the next Stage in Morelia Michoacán which also happens to be a night race. *shivers nervously*.

If you read this all the way down here thank you for your time. Share it if you liked it and don't forget to follow me on my social networks: @andy_razorblade @trailmexico on Facebook as @andresisdead.

Author Info:
trailmex avatar

Member since Jul 21, 2014
5 articles

2 Comments
  • 4 0
 Thanks for the write-up! Was a great race!
  • 2 0
 3 Sweet bby Yeezuz!!!







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