Back to the USA - Racing the EWS in Colorado!

July in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado

Private jets devoured the silence, shrieking overhead with church bell regularity as another VIP commutes home for a round of golf or to check in on their Aspen resort property. 

Once you’ve battle your way through traffic, found a place to pay eight dollars to leave the car and can get off into the woods it’s more clear what all the fuss is all about!  The outdoors here are massive, full of spectacular natural beauty and an underutilized number of incredible shreddable trails amongst the 14.000 foot peaks of the Rocky Mountains. 

The summer climate is tough to beat in the high elevations of Colorado with star filled forty degree nights separating lovely humidity free days. monsoon season thunder storms regularly interrupt the impossible blue skyline with a dazzling performance before they roll through leaving behind a coating of fragrant mountain freshness.   Here change is always in the wind and that is as likely to blast the hat off your head at the top of the ridge as leaving you still and sweltering on the back side of the next exposed passing. 

In a word the riding we encountered in Aspen/ Snowmass was fast.  We riders were treated to the reddish black loam in it’s summer perfection and it offered the chance for us all to really push the limit.  The benched out berms and bike park flow were secondary to the excitement of the natural terrain throughout the  maze of aspen and high alpine meadows lined with scree.  

Mary and I arrived early enough to at least partially adapt to the 8,000 foot base elevation, coming from sea level this is quite a process and makes everything just that little bit harder… Throw in jet lag from arriving from Europe and it makes for a pretty uncomfortable week or more of getting adjusted.  

We definitely hit up our share of Jim’s Organic coffee in the mornings and Guayaki Yerba mate in the afternoon to ensure that we stayed sharp on our trips to the bike park.  Jumping is not a particular strength for either Mary or I but after a few runs we were getting our flow on and feeling good enough to connect many of the fun trail features.   

After a few more days it became less about the air and more about carrying speed into and through the features by absorbing them, keeping some sort of composure in the air and pumping the exit.  Or something like that anyway!

Mary tripods through a tight corner .

Really amazing what you can do on a well tuned trail bike!!!

I've switched to riding  Crankbrother's STAMP flat pedals (without clips) for the 2017 season.   I really enjoy the  more natural feel and having the ability to drag a foot when necessary. 

The steep open characteristic of the terrain made for some fast riding!  Coming off  a record five in a row of wet “ride to survive” type of races it felt amazing to open things up in the near perfect conditions.

Lovely riding above Snowmass

Six stages over two days may not sound like much in a sentence but it added up to something on the order of an hour of extremely physical descending over the race weekend.  We also had some long transfers that ensured that we had a look around the area as we pedaled from Snowmass to Aspen Mountain and back again.  

women lined up to start  on course on day one. 

Mary’s (along with the first 50 or so riders) got the short end of the stick on Day 1 as they were tasked (by their early start) to clear the slick skim of mud off the track that had accumulated from the previous night’s thunder storm.   An hour later things were fast and tacky so from all of us that followed after the pile of women who skidded out of control down the chutes on stage one -Thanks! 

There were loads of Legends, National Champions and at least one professional Formula One driver in the Masters field at this round of the Enduro World Series. Amongst the talent and experience there was the almost giddy feeling of getting to go out for a big adventure with a solid bunch of enthusiastic bros who love to shred!  Can’t say enough about how stoked we have been to meet and ride with the the quality folks that come out to compete at each and every of the EWS events!

I managed a couple of especially solid runs and held my own for the majority of the specials but some miscalculations and a crash allowed me no better than an eventual 4th on the weekend.  It’s really tough to stay consistent and safe and fast over a two day Enduro and I was happy to do just that even if my effort brought me just a bit shy of the podium. 

So glad to have been wearing these Awesome new knee pads from TSG! 

pix - Again big respect to all who came out for the good time!

The spirit of Enduro! 

Mary got caught out in an uncharacteristic crash in the morning slickness on the first stage.   Always a bummer but it allowed her to tap into the true spirit of Enduro as she was helped out by friends to make some mid ride repairs and was able to continue on to finish an eventual second in the masters women.  

Mary and Amber heading out for day one 

Mary was all smiles after the racing because to her Enduro is the best excuse yet to get out for a big natural experience on two wheels!

Enduro World Series Leader's Podium after Aspen - u23 Killian, Pro open -Sam Hill and Cecile Ravanel, Masters - Karim and Mary

It was awesome to return to ride bikes in Aspen!  It brought back old memories of competing in cross country here at a some sort of NORBA or national series race in the early 2000’s. Now just a distant blur of huge mountains white aspen groves and blue sky intertwined with the deep seated dread of racing on fire roads at high elevation.

Mary and I crossed a spectacular section of the "rim trail" on our post race ride and it brought back vivid memories of the post race shred that we had a decade back on the same trail with a spirited group of adventurous XC racers.  I remembered us all railing this very same high speed exposed section getting rowdy on our hard tail 26” bikes. No less stoked without the dropper posts, proper suspension, or sticky rubber tires. Thankfully It doesn't seem like that much has changed here  - but WHAT a difference a decade makes!! 

THEN:

Going for an 18th place finish at the Mont Ste Anne World Cup back in 2005.

Here is Mary on her 26" Sola (Seven Cycles) back in 2005 Mont Ste Anne World Cup - She finished 5th! 

 Enduro World Series 2017 Aspen Colorado

Hope you're making time to get out and enjoy some good times this summer!

Ride on!
Mike and Mary

Getting together with old and new friends for a Really fun MTB Ride! Huge Thanks to our hosts, Dr Mark and Dr Glenn of USA CycIing for putting us up!  or more like Putting up with us? 😜

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