Spectators at Red Mountain were treated to an exciting Sunday as mountain bike riders of all ages ripped it up in Rossland’s Rubberhead Enduro Race.
With $1,000 in cash and a plethora of prizes up for grabs, riders strapped on their helmets, mounted their mountain bikes, and took off down Larch Ridge trail to reach the first of five stages in the Enduro Race, which is in its seventh year of the Kootenay-Rockies and BC Enduro Series.
The racers plunged down five different stages of the race that were primarily downhill. However, the transition stages took some time, as the top racers finished with times just over 20 minutes, it took three-to-five hours to get through the entire course.
The challenging aspect of the enduro is to avoid depleting the gas tank peddling up between stages to a point that it affects your time and performance coming down.
“It’s an exciting format,” said Ryan Kuhn, the race’s director. “It’s really, really popular. It’s a very social format of racing. So people ride up with their friends in between stages.”
Spectators enjoyed a barbeque and performance by the Foggy Goggle Boys on the Red Mountain Resort deck, where they watched as the racers came flying in to finish the last stage of the course.
Results:
When the dust settled Stu Dickson won the Pro/Elite Men’s division in a time of 20:21, improving on a sixth place finish in last year’s race. David Harder and Dustin Adams tied for second finishing just two seconds behind Dickson, while James Rennie finished third in 20:29.
In the Men’s Open Craig Wilson claimed first in 21:20, while Josh Solman, 21:33, and Quentin Emerlau, 21:41, captured second and third respectively.
Leonie Picton took top spot in the Women’s Open category in a time of 23:57, followed by Kylie Morin, 25:11, and Amy Pryse-Phillips, 25:22.
Frith Murray topped the podium in the Master 40+ Men class in 21:48, with Leon May coming second, 21:56, and Kuhn third, 21:59.
In Junior U19 Men, Evan Wall had a combined time of 21:11 to take top spot, with Carter Krasny, 23:10, racing to second and Noah Van Der Watt, 23:32, third. In U15 Junior Men, Ruben Guibert nabbed top spot in 21:34, while Seven Summits Gravity rider Keegan Fry claimed second in 21:42 and Felix Abraham captured third spot in 21:46.
In the Short Course U19, Jeremy Helly blasted to a first place finish in 16:39, Blaise Swain claimed second in 18:16, and Jaelinn Farmer came third in 21:19.
Kate Nesbitt took top honours in Short Course Open Women racing to a time of 18:46, while Jaya Gulbert finished second in 19:35, and Lindsau Harrison third in 21:10. In the Short Course open Men Josh Swain took top spot in 17:13.
With files from Chelsea Novak Rossland News.