Woodstock Enduro Race Report

Sometimes I write race reports for B2C2 Slack that are long enough and fun enough I decide to archive them here.  This is one of those.

 Woodstock Enduro Race Report

I am trying to race at least one enduro per year to keep my bike racing experiences DIVERSE. After doing an XC ride at Woodstock a few years back I knew the trails were steep and fun, so I was easily convinced to register for Woodstock when Alex Jospe applied the "gonna race my first enduro, you should come" peer pressure.  Stoke was HIGH but much to my chagrin @Harry Gordenstein and @Kevin Langer had legit reasons to not join me on the B2C2 Enduro Squad.  I ended up riding with some women I know from the XC ski scene who were doing their first enduro on XC bikes, and one of them was even on an Intense Sniper so she was like a less hairy Harry which made me feel very comfortable.I did not preride the course for the first time ever so I was curious to see how racing blind would feel.

Enduro has a lot of waiting in lines before you get to go wicked hard.  Great for snacking.

Stage 1
After a LONG pedal from the start to the top of Mt Peg we raced the flattest and longest stage.  I couldn't figure out how my new bike worked, or remember how to enduro, and I kept coming out of my left pedal for some reason (?).  I got wicked arm pump and my feet hurt because my shoes were too tight and blah blah blah excuses but it's enduro so everyone is fucking up all the time (except the pro class) so despite this I was 5th/24 in the 40+ category, I can only assume because most 40+ enduro dudes dislike pedaling even more than I do.  Cuz this stage felt BAD.  I was lowkey not excited about the rest of the event after this one.Stage 2
The beta was that this one was off camber and covered in greasy roots.  The beta was right.  I spent most of the stage wondering how I ended up on the low line AGAIN and losing all my momentum.  But it turns out that EVERYONE was apparently doing this because it turned out to be my best stage, placing 3rd just 2 seconds back from the leader.  Given that I dumped a solid 3-4 seconds by stalling in a rock garden and having to scooter out, I feel like this is probably the one I could have won if I'd preridden and raced tidier.  Most enjoyably though, I loosened my shoes and thus my feet didn't hurt when the adrenaline subsided which was swell.  I was lowkey excited about the rest of the event after this one.Stage 3
The stages continued to get steeper and funner as the race progressed.  This one was steep and bermy and a lot of fun.  The girls warned me that that there was a gap jump with a B-line midway down and I lack the experience/cojones to send gaps blind so I took the B-line.  The gap didn't look THAT big as I went by so now obviously I think if I had just YOLOed it without prior knowledge I would have been fine.  But also I like being not injured and a few seconds is just a few seconds.  Gonna assume skipping the gap was why this was my worst stage of the day down in 7th.  I didn't know it was my worst stage, and the track was rad as hell, so I was highkey excited for the rest of the event from this point onward.Stage 4
We rode all the way back to Saskadena 6 for stage 4, 5 miles false flat uphill into a strong headwind.  Luckily we had a former professional nordic skier on an XC bike pulling for us so we SMASHED downhill bros on the transfer, it was great.  Obviously I just sat in because no one has ever paid me to do sports.  Then we had to ride 600 feet up a mountain when we got there, so by the time stage 4 started I was feeling pretty worked, and my feet cramping (?!) mid run backed that up.  What is going on with my feet?  I blame these high arches.Stage 4 was another fun one, but had a lot of off-cambers and tight turns that I perpetually felt like I was not setting up well for.  There was a huge berm at the bottom with a photographer and I went into it so hard I slid my front wheel, that was terrifying but also very cool once I got grip and stayed up.  6th on this one.Stage 5
Stage 5 was another pedal back up 600 feet to what ended up being the funnest stage of the day, it started out with another round of tight technical off cambery stuff that I did not exactly get right, but then the bottom half was STRAIGHT DOWN THE DAMN FALL LINE on a LOAM RIVER with TONS OF SPECTATORS and it was fucking AWESOME.  Hanging on to the ragged edge of control with your ass getting buzzed by your back tire with people screaming and blowing horns is kind of thing you can ONLY ever do with a race number on and it's the kind of life-affirming shit that keeps me coming back to bike racing year after year.  5th on this one.Overall
6th/24 in 40-49.  I was 40 seconds out of the win and 21 seconds off the podium, and I don't think preriding these stages would have made me 21 seconds faster, so I have no regrets about skipping preride day.  Racing blind makes you slightly less aggressive all the time, but it's still super fun and honestly probably a bit safer riding with that mindset.  I re
ally liked doing an enduro without lifts, it makes the runs shorter so my lack of DH specific strength isn't punished as much, and having road/mtb/xc fitness to pedal all day (3.5 hours moving, 22 miles) probably helps vs the people live at the bike park.  And you don't feel as suicidal without a full face helmet.  I will absolutely cheerlead getting the enduro squad back to this one next year if it doesn't conflict with a big cx race!!

My lone non-terrible action photo