Race Report: Big Mountain Enduro, Crested Butte

The 2018 Yeti Cycles Big Mountain Enduro presented by Shimano returned to the birthplace of mountain biking in beautiful Crested Butte, Colorado for the second round of racing for the series. With two days of racing on tap, this stop featured a blend of high altitude backcountry racing mixed with some of the longest and most challenging descents in the area. As an added bonus it ran in collaboration with Crested Butte Bike Week and the official Shimano XTR product release. 275 racers took to the singletrack for four stages of racing that included over 10,000 feet of vert and two totally new stages on the second day.


Dropping in from 11,603 feet off Cement Mountain, Marco Osborne came out swinging and laid down the fastest time on stage 1. Unfortunately, a flat on stage two would send him way down in the overall, and Scott Countryman would capitalize on two 2nd places to slip into the overall after stage 2.


In the women's race, Crested Butte local, Cooper Ott built on her 2018 BME run by taking the win on the first two stages with Porsha Murdock close enough behind in second overall to make it a tight race going into the second day. Porsha was followed closely by her Juliana Free Agent teammates Alex Pavon, Kim Hardin and Clare Hamilton.















With a nod to the future, the youth fields were some of the biggest seen by the BME yet, and the on-site hot lunch at the race venue in town did well to keep the little rippers well fed. Tasty craft beers from Upslope Brewing were also much appreciated by the adults with a thirst to quench. While racers re-fueled from the big day of backcountry style enduro racing, tech support from Smart Cycling Service, Shimano and Fox worked away at keeping racers bikes tuned and fast.





Going into day 2, racers tackled a hefty climb up to Reno Pass for the third stage which dropped off of Reno Ridge to Deadmans Gulch and its relentless switchbacks. From there, racers took on another solid bit of bike riding and climbing to get to the start of stage 4. The transition included pristine tight singletrack on the seldom ridden Waterfall Cut-off Trail for possibly the best ever un-assisted transition in BME history. It would also serve as a final test of fitness that capped off a day with nearly 24 miles on the bike by the time racers finished stage 4.


The final two stages also provided a shake up of the pro results with Yeti's Shawn Neer coming out on top for the overall with Scott Countryman taking second, Jubal Davis climbing up into third, Nate Hills also climbing up into fourth and Crested Butte local Bartolomej Stuchlik claiming the last podium spot in fifth. In the pro women's race, Cooper Ott continued her run with another victory on stage three and a fourth on stage four to win by a nearly 2-minute margin over Porsha Murdock with Lia Westermann sealing third overall, Alex Pavon finishing in fourth and Kim Hardin claiming the final fifth podium spot.



















With Big Mountain Enduro returning to one of the rawest bike parks in the United States at Keystone Resort in a couple weeks, things will get exciting as the top racers take on some decidedly more technical stages to compete for the overall series victory.




Full Results Here/.