Your Essential Guide to EWS Aspen-Snowmass 2017

This weekend we move from the rugged mountains of Millau, South West France, to the high peaks of western Colorado, USA, for Round 6 of the Enduro World Series 2017… and when we say high peaks, we mean really high peaks.

Aspen-Snowmass is the only EWS round in the USA this year, and it’s a bit of a stalwart on the racing calendar, having first hosted the EWS back in 2013—going 15 years further back, the area welcomed riders competing in NORBA races.

This weekend we’ll see two days of competition (Saturday the 29th and Sunday the 30th of July) in Snowmass Bike Park, making enduro racing readily accessible to spectators wanting to cheer on their favourite rider or team as they cover the six stages. Last year, riders climbed 519m and descended a total of 4,572m.

With Aspen and Snowmass Village located at 2,400m and 2,500m above sea level respectively, such high altitudes mean oxygen is considerably more sparse than at sea level, so riders are going to have their bike, skills, and lungs tested to their limits. Aside from combating potential altitude sickness, riders will be out under the baking sun all day long, so slap on that sunscreen!

Last year we saw riders tackling freshly cut loam sections and some tricky steeps, while the rest of the stages incorporated miles of blue-graded flowing trails which sound delightful for a lazy ride… but when you’re against the clock and your lungs are screaming for oxygen, they definitely aren’t.

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The area now known as Aspen was founded by the Ute people thousands of years ago and back then the most prominent peaks overlooking the area (now collectively known as Aspen Mountain), were called Shining Mountain. The rush for silver and gold in the late 19th Century meant that the original caretakers of the land were eventually forced out, mostly at gunpoint, and banished to reservations.

Named Ute City, the mining town was renamed Aspen in 1880 and was a popular place for speculators and traders wanting to make their fortune from the treasures embedded in the surrounding rocks. After the boom came the bust at the turn of the century, with Aspen becoming a relatively sparsely-populated town until after World War II when Friedl Pfeifer returned from active duty with a dream of making a world class ski resort. Pfeifer couldn’t fulfill his dream on his own, so he teamed up with the prominent industrialist and philanthropist Walter Paepcke and wife Elizabeth, who together founded the Aspen Skiing Corporation in 1946. With a ski lift in place and only a few years later in 1950, Aspen hosted its first F.I.S. World Championships, putting the resort firmly on the map as one of the most famous places for world class sports.

Four ski/snowboarding/biking areas—Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk, and Snowmass—on four adjacent mountains, collectively form Aspen-Snowmass. The Snowmass mountain area is the largest of the four and is bigger than the other three combined, so the playground for this weekend’s EWS is going to be pretty epic.

Aside from mountain biking, there are plenty of other activities on offer, including horse riding, golf, rodeo, paragliding, white water rafting, and hiking to name but a few. Being a famously wealthy resort with great transport links (especially if you have a private jet) you’re also in for a treat in the winter months, particularly if Hollywood celebrity-spotting is your thing. It’s a billionaire’s playground in winter months, but expect things to be a little quieter in the summer.

One notable former resident was the acclaimed journalist and author, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, who in the 1960s decided to put himself forward as sheriff. In his radical manifesto, he promised to “…rip up the city streets…[so that] all public movement would be by foot and a fleet of bicycles”, to lay down new rules for hunting and fishing to make people more personally responsible for protecting the wildlife, and to rename the city ‘Fat City’ to “...prevent greedheads, land-rapers and other human jackals from capitalizing on the name ‘Aspen’”. Thompson was unsuccessful in his candidacy but if you happen to sit on one of the memorial benches in Aspen you might notice one of his famous quotes etched into it. You’ll see fleets of bicycles too, although maybe not exactly how he’d planned!

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Round 5 in Millau saw steep, slick clay tracks, and thanks to torrential rain, conditions got trickier by the minute, with bikes and riders coming undone. After 88km of grueling racing, the French contingent rose to the top despite the likes of Sam Hill and Greg Callaghan doing their best to take advantage of their competitors having falls and mechanicals. Callaghan ended up relinquishing his overall lead to Adrien Dailly, who came home in first place on Sunday, with Alexandre Cure in second (achieving his first EWS podium) and Damien Oton third, making it a clean sweep on the podium for France. Sam Hill is now second in the overall race, with Callaghan dropping to third.

Cécile Ravanel continued to dominate the women’s field—despite having a crash in the last stage of the first day and injuring her ankle—taking the win ahead of Isabeau Courdurier and Anita Gehrig in second and third respectively. Katy Winton suffered a mechanical and dropped to sixth at the end of the weekend’s racing. With Ravanel still in the lead in the Pro Women’s standings, Ines Thoma and Katy Winton remain in second and third respectively.

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Last year we saw Jared Graves and Cécile Ravanel win under the blazing Colorado skies, both making it look like a walk in the park.

Having put substantial time between themselves and their respective closest rivals, the hottest action was in the fight for the remaining places. In the Pro Women’s, Anita Gehrig secured her first EWS podium, finishing second, with Isabeau Courdurier in third.

Meanwhile in the Pro Men’s race, the then series leader Richie Rude struggled with injury, meaning it was Nico Lau chasing Graves’ dust into second place with Jerome Clementz hanging on in third after clawing back time in the final stages.

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Pinkbike will be providing you with the best daily coverage from our photographic nug-harvesters, as well as the video team in Aspen-Snowmass this week.

There’ll be content coming in from training on Thursday the 27th and Friday the 28th of July, and race action on Saturday the 29th (Stages 1–3) and Sunday the 30th of July (Stages 4–6), with the final rider crossing the line at around 15:00 DST (Mountain Daylight Time). You can also catch the riders’ times as they progress through the stages on both days via the EWS live timing feature.

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MENTIONS: @fraktiv / @EnduroWorldSeries / @mattwragg / @davetrumpore / @mdelorme

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