Windrock Enduro - Southeast Triple Crown
Windrock Enduro, stop two of Southeast Triple Crown went off this past weekend. Riders were challenged by five stages throughout the Coal Creek OHV park in Oliver Springs, Tennessee. The course featured three shuttles assisted stages inside of Windrock Bike Park, and a pedal transfer to two stages at the cross country trail system. With a dry week leading into the race and so many tires on the dirt throughout the weekend, riders were challenged with loose, dusty conditions on trails with a steep average gradient.
Neko and Sean of Windrock Bike Park gave the trails a lot of love leading into the race and built some new sections of trail designed with the enduro race in mind. Racers found Windrock's gnarly reputation to be revamped in many ways to accommodate modern bikes and participants while keeping the core aspects that make these trails unique. The Windrock Enduro proved to be a true test for man and machine.
Riders began the day with a shuttle to the top of the Windmill Trail, where they would descend 2200 vertical feet to the base of the mountain. Windmill was the stage that received the most love leading into the race. Finding routes around some of the gnarliest downhill features on the mountain to make a stage that suited an enduro bike brought a lot of fresh dirt and added length to a trail that is so well known at Windrock.
Cory Rimmer finished the day 2nd
Logan Mullaly making a casual appearance
As they dropped in on Windmill, Stages 2 and 3 at the Windrock Camp Ground could be seen off in the distance from the mountain range where the bike park is located. Mix Tape and South Side are two trails that posed more of a physical than a technical challenge to the race. Riders would pedal a short transfer between the Bike Park and Campground along an ATV trail, then climb up singletrack to stages two and three.
Kyle Grau 4th by 0.1
A.J. Brown had a better day after this
Vance Nonno
Chris Grice pinned to win the junior category and finish 6th overall
Robert Monjure rode his DH rig to 10th
Ben Richter out to tear tires off
Back to the bike park for the final stages of the day, both Drop Out and Reach Around are blue level downhill trails that are a pleasure to ride on a trail bike. At the bottom of Drop Out, riders merged onto the bike park's main flow trail; Talladega. This section was completely rerouted over the past month to lengthen the trail and avoid the merge with the black diamond trails before the base of the mountain. Fresh berms, jumps, and a new trail crossing bridge were finished just in time for riders to practice on Saturday morning, and burned in to ride awesome by race time.
Adam Newsom
Glory hole of light on the Reach Around trail
Burke Saunders charging through fresh trails
Dan Ennis finished the day in 3rd by 0.1 seconds
Alex Ohman enjoying someone else hosting an event here
Seamus Powell made it down and pushed hard to take the win
The full course made for a long day out on the bike and represented the spirit of enduro very well. With over 100 participants and no timing issues, the first shot at an enduro by Windrock Bike Park was a successful event.
All of the trail work that was driven by this event brings the park into the fall season with some well-running trails. Work continues for the bike park crew with a full schedule of trail building over the next few months. As many parks close for the season, Windrock Bike Park enters its busiest season running shuttles year round.
A huge thank you to all of the volunteers who made this event possible.
Results
Windrock Bike Park Website
Southeast Enduro Website
Photos By Sean Leader
Author Info:
Member since May 29, 2013
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Enduro Southeast Series gives timely results, they offer very well stocked aid stations, zero timing issues, shuttles included in your entry fee at the same price, no late reg fees, real water proof number plates, and free quality photos for racers.
No one is stopping 3rd Coast from being successful besides 3rd Coast.
I don't care who puts on the races, you can tell who is in it to make money and who is in it to provide top quality races.
No, their social media activity isn't perfect, but they aren't a bunch of PR professionals. They are just a family as in love with bikes as we are.
Yes, they women's podium confusion could have been handled better, but they have since tried to right their wrongs.
Overall, they aren't some star-studded group of race organizers, but they are some very nice people who always know my name and where I'm from, and who give me the opportunity to hang out with my buddies and race down some of the best-kept secrets in the Southeast.
I want 3rd Coast to be successful because I love having races to go to and I enjoy going to successful races.
The devil is in the details and that's what separates one series from another. No race is perfect, but 3rd Coast seems to have issues that other don't.
For anyone to say " it's only popular because Neko" is just a slap in the face to not only Neko, but the crew who make these races flawless as well. If Neko attached his name to crappy races, no one would return.
It would have been much easier for them to use someone else's trails instead of logging in hundreds of hours of trail work to make these stages perfect for enduro racing, but that's the easy way out and was not what they have envisioned. And guess who will be fixing the damage to the trails?
Like I said I hope the best for 3rd Coast, but racers are consumers and will spend their hard earn money were they feel like they are getting the best value.