Sunshine Coast Enduro Race Recap

Wow what a weekend. It's fully a biker's heaven over there on the SSC. The goal of this race was to get riders off the normal SSC trails and on to some new stuff - and new it was! The Off the Edge Sunshine Coast Enduro was the first one on the coast and it went off with a bang. With Rod, Sue and all the amazing volunteers that we pulled together it was a super, fun weekend for all riders that attended.

FULL RESULTS HERE

Morne Van Der Watt with enough time to smile for the camera!

Day 1 started off on the West Sechelt trails with a hard, lung busting, long 6min+ stage that was flow and pedal and not so much flow for others that missed corners or went over the bars. But this was just the warm up lap for the toughest stage of the weekend. Stage 2 took riders onto a newer trail called Sniper that lead into Dogtown. Chris, the builder of this trail was marshalling the top of this stage and as riders got spat out the bottom of the trail to the food station it was nothing but smiles and comment after comment of "that was the best trail I have ever ridden"! THANKS Chris, your work was truly appreciate by so many riders this weekend.

Brendan Light taking on the corner of doom into the skinny.

We even had the kids out watching the corner of doom into the skinny!

Alix Ius showing us how's it done! Nice work!

Darren Chan showing us how to eject in style!

This then lead to a long climb and a 15min hike a bike (or was I under-estimating this time? - sorry maybe it was more then that). Stage 3 was No Modifications (the newer version) and as the name says, no modifications were made to this trail which made for a tough, awkward, technical descent and really made the riders with the right skills shine through in style!

Rider Alex Cooke who's home base is Queenstown NZ, taking the opportunity to explore some trails in BC.

The final stage of Day 1 (stage 4) was down VFR and Addernack and this was a 6min+, super fast, fun trail to end the day with. First riders starting coming in after 3hrs and most were over 4hrs, so that made for a long, but fulfilling day on the bikes!




Not sure what this is....maybe too many beers after day 1 and someone running over their helmet?

What's in stall for day 2?


DAY 2 bought riders over to Roberts Creek. We started the day up at Guy's Gulch/103 parking area and riders headed up the road and up above 103 for Stage 5 of the weekend on a new trail called Built to Spill. Wow. I personally went up to put the timers out on Saturday night ready for Sunday and I was on the biggest high the whole way down this trail. This was probably one of the most diverse, fun stages of the series, it had absolutely everything in it linking 4 trails into 1 stage. It started with a steep chute drop in to nothing but loam and dirt surfing that put riders out onto 103, but the ride wasn't over yet, this lead into 2001 and Pacheko, and across the road to Janet's Jungle, and DNZ where all jumps and gaps were left open for the big boys and girls to hit or choose to ride around for those playing it safe!

Kelly Jones doing her best "Spirit of Enduro" impression.

Meg Bichard taking the win for the ladies.

The day continued over to Charlie Brown and Pumpkin Patch for stage 6, then a good climb up 103 to Viper, then it was over to 102 for Stage 7 to really get the legs burning. A final 15-20min climb up to Pressure Drop to finish the last stage of the weekend (# 9) into the Sprockids network of nothing but descending and everything a trail can throw at you.



From there? Well it was a 3min coast down the road to Persephone's Beer Farm for the finish. No better way to finish a hard weekend of riding then at the local beer farm surrounded by beer and hops growing all around you! Um yes we under estimated the times again today and riders were out there for 4hrs for the leaders and up to 5hrs+ for everyone else! Nice work everyone.

The sun was out in full force and tired bodies rehydrated themselves with the line up of Goddess Golden Ale, Rum Runner American Red Ale, and APA, all on tap for the choosing.



So who made it to the podium?


Pro/Elite Men
Forrest Riesco 0:48:18 $400 CASH (Local young rider took the win!)
William Cadham 0:49:31 $300 CASH
Jamie Biluk 0:49:56 $200 CASH Bondtraining/Suspensionwerx


Open Women
Meggie Bichard 0:57:39 $300 CASH
Georgia Astle 0:59:27 $200 CASH
Laura Battista 1:03:58 $100 CASH


Open Men
Curtis Bennett 0:52:11 Prize - Fouriers Bikes Carbon Bars and Stem
Ed Kerly 0:52:12 Prize - Fouriers Bikes Carbon Bars
Stephen Scrivener 0:53:24 Prize - Fouriers Bikes Narrow Wide Chainring


Master 40+ Men
Graham Tutti 0:55:16 Red Truck Racing Team (Prize - Fouriers Carbon Bars)
Jason Bond 0:57:14 BONDtraining - GIANT Vancouver (Prize - Fouriers Narrow Wide Chainring)
Perry Schebel 0:58:03 (Prize - Fouriers Chainguide)


Junior U19 Men
Spencer Wight 0:52:47 Team Summit Whistler (Prize - Fouriers Handlebars)
Conrad Murdoch 0:55:33 (Prize - Fouriers Tool)
Noah Van Der Watt 0:57:58 (Prize - Fouriers Mudguard)


BC Enduro Series Leaders
Women: Georgia Astle
Men: William Cadham

FULL RESULTS HERE

The random prize draw for everyone else is still a big hit with the $200 X-Fusion Dropper post from Renegade Cycle Solutions and the $220 Pivlock Sunglasses and $100 Lowdown Sunglasses from Smith Optics, and the $100 Oneup Component chainring on the table with many other sweet prizes - it was a race to the table for the choosing....



Tyler Maine from Pinkbike was also out on trail for the weekend rockin' his Pink Xprezo.

The weekend didn't end well for all as Alix Lus who popped her shoulder out at the end of the final stage for the weekend and still managed to have nothing but smiles as the EMS got her out safely! She would have been close to taking 3rd place in the Open Women as well. Happy recovery Alix.

THANKS to Scott Robarts for all the fantastic photo's. You can view the rest of his photo's HERE

Thanks again to all the volunteers and locals for your support and making the weekend such a success!

Thanks to all our sponsors for their ongoing support:

NORCO BICYCLES

Kazoom Cycling Apparel
Fouriers Bike products
Renegade Cycling Solutions
Smith Optics
Off the Edge Adventure Sports
Bond Training
Pinkbike
Solestar
Persephone Brewing
Steam Donkey Coffee
OneUp Components

Connect with us!

If you've got questions, we've got answers, feel free to email, call, facebook etc, and we'll do our best to get back to you in 24hrs!
Email: megan@ridingbc.com
Website: www.bcenduro.com

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