2023 Big Mountain Enduro Season Opener Recap

May 9, 2023 at 17:12
by Big Mountain Enduro  
Dardanelle AR - May 5 Big Mountain Enduro race at Mount Nebo State Park in Dardanelle AR on May 5 2023. Photo by Will Newton ADPHT
Mt. Nebo State Park Arkansas photo by Will Newton

Words: Big Mountain Enduro

Big Mountain Enduro started the week by mapping out a course for our racers on trails that felt like they were built with BME in mind. From stunning views to wild life Mt. Nebo has it all and should be on the bucket list of everyone who is passionate about mountain biking.

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This weekend was one for the record books, despite the weather giving us its best shot the riders took to the course on Saturday morning and had the time of their lives! Seeing everyone covered in mud from head to toe with grins on their faces made the fog and 100% humidity 100% worth it. With over 200 riders, 8 stages in 2 days, and vendors from the community the BME season opener was a huge success.

At the end of day one we saw that in our pro category it was anyone's race, but in the end we saw Porsha Murdock, Kate Lawrence, and Lia Westermann on the podium for the Pro Women's category with Porsha's total time being an incredible 36 minutes and 37 seconds, Kate had second place in the bag with only a 12 second difference between her and Lia.

Photo by Logan Gallagher
Photo by Logan Gallager

For the Pro Men's category we had last year's champ here to defend his title and even though we saw Colton Peterson on the podium this round he was in second place with 32 minutes to fall just behind Nikolas Nestoroff who had a time of 31 minutes and 52 seconds. Jake Keller came in right behind Colton with a time of 32 minutes and 8 seconds. All results from this weekend can be found on the Big Mountain Enduros website linked below.

Photo by Logan Gallagher
Photo by Logan Gallager

We ended the weekend the same way we started with a one of a kind Live stream to show all our winners and chat with the pros about their experience this weekend. If you didn't catch the live you can watch it on our YouTube where you can also watch the Pre-show we hosted on Thursday night with Rich Cramer the host of Beyond The Ride Podcast at any time!

Photo by Logan Gallagher
Photo by Logan Gallager

The team here at Big Mountain Enduro was extremely grateful for the hospitality of Mt. Nebo and the entire state of Arkansas. We are extremely grateful for the help and hospitality of Jackalope Cycling who had the most incredible aid station at the transfer place near the overlook where they served quesadillas, doughnuts, watermelon, and so much more to help take care of our amazing racers. You can find their shop in Russellville, Arkansas where the owner Johnny and his beautiful family are dedicated to promoting the world of cycling through their small business. Thank you again guys!

Photo by Logan Gallagher
Dardanelle AR - May 7 Big Mountain Enduro race at Mount Nebo State Park in Dardanelle AR on May 7 2023. Photo by Will Newton ADPHT
Johnny Brazil owner of Jackalope Cycling and daughter with Rich Cramer and Johnny flipping doughnuts for racers. Photos by Logan Gallager and Will Newton

We had a fantastic time in Arkansas and who knows, maybe we will be back next year!

More photos will be available on our Instagram and Facebook so make sure you are following along there. You can find the links to Big Mountain Enduro's social and YouTube below!

https://www.youtube.com/@BigMountainEnduro
https://www.instagram.com/bigmountainenduro/
https://www.facebook.com/BigMountainEnduro

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Member since Mar 26, 2013
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21 Comments
  • 50 0
 This write up sounds like it was written by AI
  • 4 0
 Honestly super suspicious
  • 15 0
 We are extremely grateful for Chat BME
  • 2 0
 Too funny, I was going to make the same comment.
  • 1 0
 Tortoise? What's that?
  • 10 0
 @Brahma 's comment made me go back up and double check the fingers and hands in the photos...who's to say any of this actually happened Wink
  • 2 0
 I hate it when people use AI generated photos for filler content….
  • 1 0
 @americandentalassociation: I see what you did there, Krentist.
  • 1 0
 Congrats to Nik and Porsha for winning the Pro Mens and Pro Female classes. Nik is as core as they come, dedicated to his craft and one hell of nice guy to boot. I have known Porsha for many years and it so amazing to see her growth and passion for racing. Huge win and confident boost for her and i hope that she carries this momentum into the rest of the race season. She makes that Specialized Enduro look good!
  • 2 0
 Here's a link to the actual results:
zone4.ca/race/2023-05-06/81a19968/results
  • 2 0
 1k climb for each stage? watched video of a guy practicing. looked flat and smooth compared to shepherd mountain last year
  • 2 0
 Fun stages. Thanks for having a BME in Arkansas.
  • 6 1
 Little mountain Enduro?
Big hill Enduro?
But I agree Arkansas riding can be fun.
  • 1 0
 @sspiff: Nebo has 1000'. Couple other 1000 footers in the state (that aren't fully realized for MTB).

Rest of state...small baby hills.
  • 3 0
 @greenblur: I’ve honestly found that 1k descending in 1 mile has always been the gnarliest trails. Like sure you can get an awesome super long “Big Mountain” descent with some wild sections, but all the gnarliest dh trails I know work with about 1k of elevation. (CA, NV, AZ, UT, NM). I’ve always thought I came from the biggest and baddest mountains, which maybe I have, but I’ve always been super impressed with those types of trails and tend to seek them out if they’re available in those states.
  • 1 0
 I can attest. Day 1 weather was just gross.
  • 3 0
 We had a house on top of the mountain with a covered and screened in porch. I went out on Saturday morning, and it looked like it had rained inside the porch. Moisture was just like forming in the air spontaneously. I had to turn over the seat cushions on the porch furniture in order to sit down. Humidity was as advertised.
  • 2 3
 These stages had potential instead we just raced beginner flow trails which is not "premier enduro series" material. It was garbage.
  • 1 0
 that is to bad =/ did you race shepherd last year/been there?
  • 1 0
 @zachblair: I rode both courses and am familiar with both areas. Shepherd was gnarlier in a different way for sure. The main "complaint" that most people had about Nebo is that they cut out some of the gnarlier stuff that some people were really looking forward to riding. I wouldn't call what they raced "flow trail," but a lot of it is pretty pedally. But quite a bit of Ironton is pedally as well.
  • 2 0
 JOHNNNNY IS THE MAN!!!





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