California Enduro Series Round 1: Battle Born Enduro

[Teddy Hayden]

This year the California Enduro Series held it's inaugural race just over the state border on Peavine Mountain in Reno, NV. You may think its odd to have a California Enduro Series race in any state other than CALIFORNIA, but just as the Tour de France occasionally starts in Belgium, the CES started in Nevada. Peavine mountain is hot, dry, dusty venue that is 4600' above sea level. Not exactly what I usually ride in Marin, but it sure was challenging. I arrived at Peavine Friday and decided to preride the course. Starting a preride on a 30 mile course with 4000' of climbing at 4:00pm is not necessarily the best idea on the day before a race, but it was tons of fun and we rode well into the evening. We finished at around 8:00pm and hustled back to the hotel for showers, dinner, and sleep.

We woke up bright and early the next morning after a night of being in the room next to a group of Reno "Woo Girls" at the Silver Legacy. Groggy and cranky, we got breakfast and left for the 8:00 start at Peavine. We arrived to an astonishing amount of people, almost 300 racers and hundreds of volunteers, family, friends, and race organizers. I had a bit of time to socialize with racing friends, but then realized that Juniors could start with the pros, so I took advantage of this opportunity and got on the course with minimal traffic. 

After the 7 mile climb to the start of stage one, I was greeted by a line of at least 100 people waiting to start. I waited in line and made some new friends, but once there was about 20 people ahead of me, the butterflies set in and it was time to focus. Those 20 became 10 and 10 became 3 and suddenly it was 30 seconds until my start. This stage went by like a blur. The first few corners were off camber, blown out, and sandy and I am VERY glad I prerode this section. I had a good run and ended up passing 2 people in the 5 minute stage. 

Stage 2 was my favorite stage and I felt very fast in practice, but in my race I couldn't find the flow and link up the lines that I was able to the evening before. The end of this stage is an all-out swooping single track with an average speed of 40+. Fun. 

Stage 3 started out with very tight, loose, and off-camber switchbacks in front of a 50 person crowd of other racers waiting in line. This is the one part where you want to look good and not mess up. Sadly, I did not do that and ended up dabbing around 1 of the switchbacks. The rest of the stage was very physical and wide-open. Super fun, loose berms and g-outs. 

Stage 4 was the most physical and the most technical stage. It stated with an awkward jump-berm sort of trail, which you hit with way too much speed to enjoy. This then went up a technical climb that dropped into a steep, fontana-like section. After this was the final, long, rolling flat of the race and I gave it my all. 

I was very pleased with second place out of nearly 40 juniors. I was about 24 seconds off the leader, and looking back at my race I know I could have shaved it. Next race I will use what I learned at this awesome event and use it to gun for the win!