This past weekend Chris and I head a couple of hours inland from Brisbane to Toowoomba QLD, hometown of overall amazing cyclist and now Enduro specialist Jared Graves, to give this Enduro racing thing a go. Jared didn’t race, apparently he was off doing some road gig, but there were plenty of legitimately fast XC, DH and Enduro experienced racers out with an overall turn out of 140 plus participants. Not bad for a club race.

Start of Stage 1 and top of Transitions 1, 3 and 5 which were straight up an exposed, steep and loose fire road that had very little shade throughout the day.

I’ll start off by saying that it was hot. Understatement. More like trying not to melt. The weather man said that it was around 38 degrees C but apparently it was more like 45 and some people were reading 51 degrees on their little bike computers but those were just being baked in the sun, much like us. Regardless, it was the hottest conditions I have ever been in, let alone ridden a 5 stage Enduro in.

I had tried a little 3 stage local Whistler Enduro race last summer but I was told it wasn’t a true Enduro, more like a DH on little bikes. Even though it did have sprints and pedal sections, the uphills were very minimal. I’m still kind of confused as to what an Enduro is, I guess they vary. Because this one in Toowoomba was not very technical at all and very pedally, almost constant, and despite a few downhills, quite flat overall because the tracks had so many switchbacks across the fall line. But I only have Whistler to compare to so…Either way, it was fun and challenging!

A drop! Woo. Nearing the end of stage 5. Few more corners and it’s all over. Photo by Jason Kelly.

I thought that there would be more girls at an event like this and apparently there usually are, but there were only 2 girls in A grade on Sunday. A shame because I wanted to see how I stacked up as I’m feeling pretty fit right now. So it was myself and XC racer Kylie Maduna. We are both relatively new to Enduro racing with totally different backgrounds. It was going to be cool to see how we went against each other. In the end, it was Kylie who came out on top but I definitely held my own, beat out by 9 seconds overall. Decently close racing in the scheme of things. Good on you Kylie!

Chris. Well he’s just a bit of a genetic freak. He had plenty of real competition and managed to come out on top! Not by much, 6 seconds, but his ability to produce power and feel pain is pretty impressive. And annoying. Ha! Only cuz I have to work so hard at it! 🙂

Chris on the same drop with clearly more speed but bow legged haha! Photo by Jason Kelly.

Overall a pretty cool experience, new crowd, chill atmosphere. Liked it and think we’ll be back for more.

Thanks to everyone involved for a great event and special shout out to Greg at Zelvy Carbon, Jason at Podium Lube and For The Riders for the local support.

Yay!