California Enduro Race #3-China Peak Mtn Resort

[Ryan Gibson]

Where to begin...this was really one of my all time most fun bike weekends. Ever. Not because of the result, which was okay, but because of the people and trails and location. Boom.

 

Much of "the crew" decided to drive up mid-day Friday to get a jump on the weekend. I had prior commitments, so drove up early Saturday morning with Matt Erbentraut. This turned out to be a good call, as Aaron, Ethan, Christian, and Jordan got stranded about 15 miles out from China Peak when the van tranny crapped out. They ended up getting it towed, but didn’t get to sleep until after midnight.

 

The drive out from Novato took about 4.5 hours and wasn’t bad at all. Registration was smooth and the lift was running for practice. The base camp, which includes a lodge with bar/restaurant, hotel, and pro shop/rental building, is pretty high up at around 7000'. The peak was around 9500'. Needless to say, the thin air was noticeable. While it did not seem to affect the downhill runs, it did mess up my sleep both nights. 

 

The race consisted of four stages all funneling down to the same general base area. Unfortunately, the course was not fully taped for practice-something that seems to be pretty common and a disappointment. Regardless, we did around 10 runs, practicing each stage at least once. The soil was VERY different from the north bay, being mostly sand and pulverized rock-extremely loose. Not a surprise given the lift assist, it was pretty steep in some sections, and had a few technical rock gardens. Overall it was natural terrain and had little air time. Very fun course, save the mickey mouse switch back section that was part of two stages. With the unfamiliar terrain, soil, gnar, etc., it seemed like everyone was crashing in practice. No major get offs, but still, it was shaping up to be a very physical and demanding race. Despite going OTB twice in practice (landed on my feet both times:), I felt pretty good going into the race on Sunday. I rode with my full face Urge Archi Enduro helmet and G-form elbow and knee pads in practice, but opted for my open face Urge Enduromatic helmet during the race. It was hot, the first climb was long, and while gnarly, the crash potential was more slow speed that major devastation. Thankfully I didn’t have to test whether this was a good decision.

 

After practice Saturday we gathered up 12 north bay huckers and all headed into Lakeshore for dinner outside at a neat general store/restaurant. Good times ensued, and after about 10 IPAs we found ourselves wrenching in the parking lot and generally clowning hard. A few of us went full tard (especially Aaron, who lost all knowledge and ability to work on his bike, but decided it was a good idea to switch from 3x10 to 2x10 in the parking lot at 9pm), but given the race format and late-ish start time, no worries. Seriously some of the funniest sh*t ever.

 

The six core guys from Novato/San Rafael (Aaron Bartling, Ethan Hirschfeld, Matt Erbentraut, Christian Ferrone, me, Jordan Smoke) all shared two "bunk rooms" in the lodge, which was ok. For the price it was good, but the close quarters and shared bathroom down the hall left a lot to be desired. A few other friends got the more expensive private rooms and enjoyed them. Others camped out and said it was fine. The bar and restaurant at the lodge was pretty good considering this is an old school salt of the earth ski resort far from everything. All in all a cool place. Also, it is next to two really nice alpine lakes that have water sports and fishing. A cool place to come during the summer, and I am going to come back with my family next year.

 

So Sunday morning is upon us and the riders meeting is pretty standard. This race was a little different that other enduros I have done in that there were not many/any opportunities for cheater lines. It was natural terrain and pretty harsh off line, so it was going to neutralized and come down to who can get through the same stuff the fastest....not who can get away with finding the best short-cut, as some of the other courses have included.

 

All the stages were pretty similar in terrain and conditions, with stage four being the longest and most technical. My Santa Cruz Tallboy LTc is set up pretty AM, with wide bars, short stem, dropper, slacked head angle and beefy Specialized Butcher tires-it felt like a great weapon for this course. About 2/3 of the way through stage two my chain dropped into the chainstay and locked up the bike. I lost about 10 seconds trying to get it sorted. Luckily Shimano was on-site with neutral support, and SteveO helped get me sorted. Other than a few blown turns and one very minor crash, I had pretty clean runs on all stages. It felt good and I was hoping for a top 10 spot to maintain or improve upon my overall 4th place in the open Cat 1 category for the series.

 

After the race I pedaled out to a sweet swimming hole called Indian Wells off the back of the back camping lot with several friends. It was a huge naturally dammed creek fed hole with a waterfall and ~15' rock jump surrounded by pines. We took a few IPAs and took the plunge. This was one of those moments so amazing that you immediately start taking a life inventory and feeling grateful for everything you have. I can’t wait to come back here next summer with my family to camp, swim the hole, use the lake, ride bikes, etc.

 

After the swimming we headed over for the raffle and podiums. Beer was being sold in the proshop/base building and people were having a good time. It was clear that folks enjoyed the terrain and stages. Unfortunately, yet another major timing problem. It seems as this is pretty common, as there has been some sort of timing issue at every enduro I have raced. This was by far the worst. The organizer used smartphones and the webscorer app system for timing, and NO backup timing redundancy. He is a really nice guy and I know he tried very hard. It was a good event, but not having a timing redundancy is unacceptable, especially given that timing has been a common problem at enduros. We were told that a bug or glitch in the software or phones being used caused them to crash and lose ALL data for stages 1 and 3-the race was being scored on only half the stages, 2 and 4. Bummer, as I had pretty clean runs on all stages and know several people that ended up finishing ahead of me that had major mechanicals, major crashes, or didn’t finish stage 1 or 3.

 

In the end I finished 13th out of 40 in Cat 1 Open Men, and am still 4th overall in the series. Better yet, out of my group of good friends from the north bay, we had Marco Osborne 3rd in Pro, Matt Erbentraut 5th in Pro (he is 17!), Jordan Smoke 1st in Cat 1, Christian Ferrone 3rd in Cat 1, Aaron Bartling 4th in Cat 2 35+, Jordan Kushner 5th in Cat 3, and April Spooner 2nd in Cat 3. While I didn’t get on the podium, I am super happy for my friends that did, and feel like my good group of riding friends really made a strong showing. Following the race a few friends stuck around for round two of the frat party that had ensued the night before. Good times!

 

Shout out to Santa Cruz, Urge Helmets, Summit Bikes-San Rafael, and Stevo from Shimano (also, thanks again for shooting the great video through the gnarly rock staircase).

[Adam Nuyens]

Nice write up, Ryan, and good result, but too bad about the timing issues. Grrrr!
Glad to hear about the great camaraderie, the most important part!