For the fourth stop in the California Enduro Series 300 racers descended upon three stages of loose kitty litter root laden trails on Mammoth Mountain that proved to be both fun and challenging. This race was part of a bigger weekend of fun at Mammoth, the Kamikaze Bike Games, which included the infamous Kamikaze Downhill, Dual Slalom, Pro GRT Downhill, Cross-Country, Speed and Style, as well as a Best Trick contest. The Enduro race was on Sunday and there was an awesome array of booths in the expo area all weekend. Originally there was going to be four stages with stage 2 being part of the Kamikaze Downhill course, starting at 11,058 feet. This fast, scary and loose fire road is rich in mountain bike history as it was home to some of the first downhill races in the 1990's.
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| Pre-Ride at 11,000ft. |
However, come race day rain moved in, making the lower trails on the mountain tacky but at the top of the Kamikaze course a dusting of snow and sub freezing temperatures forced the cancelation of stage 2.
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| Pre-Race bike check! |
The rain on Sunday postponed the race for a few hours but made trail conditions perfect. After a short chair lift ride to Stage 1 it was time to race, only 20 seconds between racers made for a bunch of sketchy passes on the mainly singletrack technical stages. Stage 1 started with a tricky root drop section then got more physical especially at high elevation with some flat stretches, at the bottom it included part of the Pro GRT course on Bullet Trail with a few fun rock gardens and a high speed finish.
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| Stage 1 finish on Bullet! |
Another lift ride and a short but lung busting climb brought racers to Stage 2, this was my favorite stage of the day and started with rolling high alpine singletrack that wrapped around to the CAT 2/3 Downhill course from the day before and included fast root sections with occasional ladder bridges and wallrides. For the transfer to stage 3 racers had a several mile pedal and then a quick gondola ride to the top of the stage. Stage 3 was the most physical of the day but still had a few technical sections and some bike park terrain. Starting on traversing singletrack stage 3 then turned into a fast Downhill trail with a few jumps and wooden features that meet the bottom of Stage 1 for a fun finish down to expo area.
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| End of Stage 3. |
I finished 8th in Junior Open a strong result that brought me up to 4th in overall standings with the finale being held in Santa Cruz in a few weeks!
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| Devil's Postpile!!! |
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