Race Report: The Tennessee Enduro
Tennessee Enduro // Windrock Bike Park
June 17, 2018
In the mountains just West of Knoxville, Tennessee, Windrock Bike Park hosted the Tennessee Enduro, which was the 3rd EWS qualifier event of the year in the United States, and delivered with a five stage event descending over 6k vertical feet. The park is approaching its second anniversary and has already made a name for itself as one of the best places in the country for year-round lift (shuttle) access riding. Just this year alone, the park has attracted some of the top names, in both downhill and enduro, like Danny Hart, Myriam Nicole, Charlie Harrison, Sam Hill, and the entire Santa Cruz Syndicate & CRC/Nuke Proof teams. Park owners Sean Leader & Neko Mulally have continued to put their hands on everything in the park to make it the best possible place for both downhill and enduro alike - at the end of the day, they just wanna ride cool stuff too. The tracks chosen and built for this weekend were anything but short of a taste of what an EWS round would be like.
Rider's meeting at the crack of 9 AM.
Neko giving the rundown of what's to come.
Local ripper, Chris Grice, ready to throw down
Adam Robbins
The first stage shuttled riders to the top and sent them down the infamous Windmill, descending over 2,000 feet for breakfast.
Former US National DH Champ, Gerrit Beytagh, came out of retirement to get in the mix at The Rock
Gus Michaels
Despite being in the woods, the tracks were high speed.
Ride The Rock
The transfer to Stages 2 & 3 had an aid station to keep riders going in the 95 degree heat just before the final climb to the top.
Cornering ability was a big factor this weekend.
Richie Rude railing the berms just before the finish on Stage 4.
Cory Rimmer
Richie Rude hanging it out on the hip of Stage 4
The bottom part of Stage 4 fed into the flowy, fast, fun stuff. Easy access made this section the most popular spectating spot of the day.
The fifth and final stage of the day got a shuttle back to the very top of the mountain to ride something new.
By this point, there was no monkeying around. The Downhill Southeast's very own, Mickey Denoncourt, about to drop into Stage 5.
Industry Nine was a sponsor of the event. Wheel builder, Hiram Stelzig, couldn't pass up the opportunity to race.
Knoxville local and Wind Rock original, Doug Fergusson.
Stage five dropped elevation very quickly. To give you some perspective...
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Admiring the hard work he put in this spring, Sean Leader looks down the steepest section of the day that was purpose built and kept under wraps just for this event.
Richie Rollin Coal
Full drift into the corner after the chute.
Susan moments before getting taken out by the loose off-chamber roots
All smiles, even when things get sideways.
And then once you're through the off chamber roots...
You roll into this...
After the riders finished there were much needed popcicles at the finish area.
For full results visit The Downhill Southeast's page.
Proud parents getting the U21 podium shots. They probably got to see just how badass their kids are.
Doug Fergusson taking the Master's win on his home turf.
Pro Women's podium.
Pro Men's Podium
Another successful event at Windrock Bike Park. Huge thanks to everyone who was involved, especially Sean Leader & Neko Mulally for not only putting on this event but getting Windrock to where it is.
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