ASHLAND, OREGON Really fun couple of days here in Ashland! Unexpected too as I drove down just to be a part of the e.13 media camp, but was a little early and ended up racing the oregon enduro last minute with zero practice on these trails. Winged it to the max, but ended up riding pretty well and pedaling my ass of for 2nd. My carbon 650b Norco Sight was perfect here!! love that little rig:).
These stages were broken into 4 parts. They did have some shuttles to get to points as half the stages were on one mountain and the others on the other side of town, but still there were some 40 minute climbs and other transfer climbs to get point to pont. The timed sections had so much pedaling, holy crap. The grade is only slightly down, nothing steep or overly technical, but constantly turning the pedals over and pushing hard. There were a lot of high speed sections and some nice flowy bermed stuff once into meat of the stages. Would have been better to know what was ahead just to know how to strategize, but it was fun racing.
Stage 3 had a section of fire road that went on forever, probably 5 minutes on a fire road at maxed out gearing, then another 8 minutes of other stuff and a few pinches. Stage 2 was my favorite by far cause it had lots of natural gaps and water bars, plus was pretty ripping. Stage 4 had like a slalom course right at the end that was jumpy, berms, and blown out, but it took awhile to get into that part. The winner was Rosara who is damn fit + skills, so congrats to her! and the other ladies.
In the men's local hero Nathan Riddle took the victory with awesome riding and the wildest of tire choices. The trails here are dry and loose and super high speed, so he played it local knowledge and rolling speed with the Nano raptor WTB 29er tires (which have barely any tread) at 40 psi. Impressive, no chance I would ever run that set up.
Pic: Riddle's rig
This is the 3rd enduro I have done in oregon. Each event gets better and better with signage and timing. Wish the raffles and prizes would run faster, but overall nice work to the organizers and people who support the series. Enduro is not an easy spectator sport , but is really good for participating and the socializing after. So yeah, good times.
Now onto the e.13 media camp. Shuttles, sweet new products to learn about, media folks, and even more good times. :) c ya
New e.13 Carbon Lg1r guide.
Pro Women Enduro Podium
1. Rosara Joseph 2. Jill Kintner 3. Carolynn Romaine 4. Abby Hippely 5. JJ
Pro Men Enduro Podium
1. Nathan Riddle 2. matthew Slaven 3. Curtis Keene 4. Marco Osbourne 5. Tom Doran