CES Finale Kamikaze Bike Games Enduro

Blasting through the rock gardens of stage 1 in my favorite flannel!

     The long awaited finale of the California Enduro Series brought racers to the staggering terrain of the Eastern Sierras on Mammoth Mountain for the Kamikaze Bike Games Enduro.  The riding at Mammoth was a great way to bring the long season of enduro racing to an end with breath taking mountain views as well as courses that pushed the technical capability and fitness of every rider to its limit complete with the infamous “kitty litter” dirt Mammoth Mountain is known for.

Enduro squad!

     Stage 1 of the Kamikaze Bike Games Enduro was the Bullet Downhill course, a rough and wild trail that is one of the mountain’s “Pro Lines” sending riders down large drop-offs, burly rock gardens, and a handful of manmade features.  From the start gate to the finish line racers had to battle to keep from hitting the ground through the deep pumice soil and maintain the strength to keep their bikes moving through challenging rock infested sections of trail and over terrifying drops that landed in another rock garden.  Starting the day with a real deal DH stage left competitors eager to tackle the other trails the mountain had to offer and challenge themselves mentally and physically for the rest of the day.

Starting the day on the Bullet DH course.

     After a short but steep climb racers rode chair 2 to the second stage of the day, a long and extremely physical course that ended with an almost vertical chute known as the “Elevator Shaft”.  The beginning of stage two consisted of a long undulating traverse that left riders to find how much pain they could tolerate in order to put down a good race time.  At the end of a few paver switchbacks the stage started to pick up speed, with a fast and loose portion of ski run into a split where competitors had a choice of going down a technical but faster line or wrapping around the section on a sweeping turn.  After a bit of rowdiness through the trees, racers were faced with the intimidating ladder drop on Flow trail which is much faster than the alternate route but comes with a high penalty for failure.  Once down the “Flow Drop” a thrust of acceleration propelled racers down the rest of the trail, onto a wall ride, over a little bit of flat ground, and finally down the “Elevator Shaft”.  Racers flailed down the slope slicing through a foot of dust and spraying lava rock everywhere as they crossed the finish line of stage 2.

Happy to have finished and all be in the top five of Junior Expert.

     If there was one stage out of all the races in the season that could be described as jaw-dropping it would be stage 3 of the Kamikaze Enduro.  Beginning close to the summit at 11,050ft in elevation the start of stage 3 resembled the terrain of the moon and was an amazing way to kick off the longest stage of the day.  At the top, Upper Skid Marks was fast and smooth but soon became incrusted with square edged rocks that made keeping tires inflated a problem for a lot of riders, tight switchbacks also provided a challenge to many racers.  After a few miles of physical high alpine singletrack stage 3 merged with the CAT 2/3 downhill race course making for a fun final section of trail to the end of stage 3 which finished on the dual slalom course.

Finishing stage 4 on Bullet.

     Stage 4 was another downhill orientated stage that started with a series of technical root drops and loose turns that kept riders on their toes.  After sprinting along a flat portion of singletrack the course descended a high speed section of fire-road that connected to the bottom of the Bullet DH course bringing competitors down part of the same action packed piece of trail as stage 1 for a satisfying finish to a great day of racing.

The overall Junior Expert podium for the California Enduro Series.

     I stayed smooth and consistent the entire day and finished 5th in the Junior Expert Category.  I also took 2nd in the Junior Expert Series Overall.  This season has been such a blast and I am so thankful for being able to make it to each of the California Enduro Series races.  I will be taking a little bit of time to rest off the bike but will soon begin training for the 2016 mountain bike season!

CES #4 Kamikaze Bike Games Enduro

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Devil's Postpile!!!