Video: Zach Mehuron and Frida Rønning On Top After The 2023 Tennessee National Enduro

The 2023 USA Cycling mountain bike season is upon us and it all starts at no other than Windrock Bike Park in Oliver Springs, Tennessee. In years past, the Tennessee National Enduro and Downhill took place in the same weekend. New to this year is a 7 stage enduro across 2 days of racing, all of which happened the weekend before Downhill and XC events take place.


165 racers loaded onto the shuttles and left the start area on Saturday, making their way up to mid mountain where they were dropped off and required to pedal the rest of the way to the top for stage 1. Per usual, we saw some big names show up for this year’s race. On the women’s side, you see names like Frida Rønning, Rachel Pageau, Caroline Edwards, and Ella Erickson. On the Men’s side, you see names like Shane Leslie, Jack Brown, Myles Morgan, Cameron Mader, Zach Mehuron, Ben Hobbs, and even Dakotah Norton. The 2023 Tennessee National was surely going to be a competitive race!


After 4 stages, the first day of racing here in Tennessee came to a close. Going into day 2, we saw Ella Erickson in 3rd, Rachel Pageau in 2nd, and Frida Rønning in 1st for the Elite Women’s field. On the Men’s Elite side, Zach Mehuron was sitting in 3rd, Myles Morgan in 2nd, and Cameron Mader in 1st.


In typical Windrock fashion, conditions were less than ideal for the second day of racing. Temperatures dropped overnight, snowflakes were falling by morning, and racers were left puzzling with bike setup for the final day of racing. Aside from warmer clothes, suspension setup, tire choice, and tire psi were all things they had to consider before heading up the mountain for stage 5.


With sub 20 degree temps at the top of the mountain, racers wasted no time before dropping into their first stage of the day. The weather has always liked to humble riders here at Windrock Bike Park, and it was no different this year. An ice patch near the top of stage 5 was an unexpected surprise as riders raced their way to the bottom. Aside from that, the rest of the trails were in better shape than expected with frozen dirt providing more grip than usual in some spots.


After better than expected conditions on stage 5, racers made their way back up for a rather unpleasant surprise on stage 6… By now, the ground had thawed just enough to turn the fresh cut “Cooper’s Trail” into a classic Windrock slop fest. Nearly every racer struggled for grip in this section, many ended up off the bike in the mud, and the frustration was becoming very apparent. Zach Mehuron was one of the few to clean this whole section with nothing more than a quick dab of the foot, taking the stage win and bumping him from 3rd up to 1st on the leaderboard.


The Elite Women finished the weekend with Cindy Abbott in 5th, Caroline Edwards in 4th, Ella Erickson in 3rd, Rachel Pageau in 2nd, and Frida Ronning taking the win by an astounding 3:30 over Rachel Pageau. The Elite mens top 5 was separated by less than one minute after more than 38 minutes of racing with Shane Leslie in 5th, Ben Hobbs in 4th, Cameron Mader in 3rd, Myles Morgan in 2nd, and Zac Mehuron taking the win by a slim 2.7 seconds.

Video & photos by: Blake and Chase Cherubini
Written by: Blake Cherubini
IG: https://www.instagram.com/blake_cherubini/

Windrock Bike Park

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