Race Report: 3Länder Enduro Race, Austria

Words / Nina Pongracz // Photography / Manfred Stromberg

If you call yourself enduro and have not been to Nauders (AUT) yet then you should probably change that - good thing I did the 3Länder Enduro Race last weekend then. Snugly nestled into a corner along the borders of Italy, Switzerland and Austria, the region of lake Reschen is a natural trail lovers delight. The descents are long and technical: the perfect location for an EWS Qualifier. A lot of big names turned up for the show, including the newly crowned German enduro champions.



This was to be my first race in a team - together with my friend Birgit Bless, also known as Bigi. What do you need to know about Bigi? She's a fellow Swissie Aand is fairly new to racing. The rather ridiculous-sounding team name indicates our level of seriousness and expectations in this game.


The skies stayed friendly for practice on Friday, allowing us to sample most of the stages ahead of the race. It did rain a bit, just in time for the prologue - but, oh, what a prologue it was. Right behind the event hub, the race tapes were drawn across the grass field next to the local castle, for a classic old-school, flat-out drift race across the green. Glorious.


On Saturday we reached stage one by chairlift and after a little warm-up dance dove straight into what this weekend would be about: rough and rooty trails with short steeps, great corners and seriously awful intermittent pedalling sections. Riding with a teammate made me realize how out of control my race speed is: I would fly into each stage until I ran out of energy at which point Bigi would catch up with me and have to shout at me to keep pedalling.


Stages one and two were both an absolute treat, with a few rocky bits offering a variety of lines, followed by long straights for warp speed. After a long, fairly flat liaison along lake Reschen we took another gondola to the top for pasta lunch.



The Haideralm trail was to be my Achilles heel: taking an inside line on a steep turn I got bucked off and fell onto my sore shoulder. Confidence could not be recovered for the rest of the trail. I will be back for that beautiful beast!

On we rode to stages four, five and six, getting rained on a lot, coupled with not-so-wonderful temperatures. Four and five were a true test of endurance, starting out steep and littered with roots, to be followed by several climbs - we were absolutely heaving here. To add to everything there were a lot more roots now and they were a lot wetter too. Did I mention the long liaison in-between all of this?


The final trail of the day was almost relaxing: quite flowy, with dry clothes and a warm shower in sight it almost felt like we were flying down, a wonderful sensation.

At the cozy dinner on the mountaintop, Bigi and I were surprised to learn we were in third place after the first day. The challenge for Sunday was set: keep it together!

Sunday was simply awesome, with everything finally falling into place. Stage seven was long, with a slippery gully at the end, but it was just so good - the perfect level of steepness, with some roots and boulders thrown in. Just like at the race in Paganella, the focus on day two was on descending, with very humane liaisons. Bigi and I decided to ride with music to stay relaxed - probably not the most professional thing to do, but we were here to have a good time.


The "flow trail", which had given me a good beating in practice with its tricky doubles, turned out to be such a great ride, especially as a team. Our final run down to the lake was a blast, adrenaline and happy music giving us the energy we needed to finish. The result? PONGI & BINGI RACING managed an amazing third place in the women's duo category! Still not sure what happened there, but it was fun...