Enduro doesn’t need investment from governing bodies. Nor governing bodies at all, just people with bikes who want to ride a bunch of sick trails with...
Enduro doesn’t need investment from governing bodies. Nor governing bodies at all, just people with bikes who want to ride a bunch of sick trails with timers. Enduro is a mindset, professional enduro is dead but it was doomed from the start.
A “mindset” doesn’t make for a sustainable sport.Riding off-map loamers in the national forest with your friends and timing without permits isn’t enduro… That’s just riding...
A “mindset” doesn’t make for a sustainable sport.
Riding off-map loamers in the national forest with your friends and timing without permits isn’t enduro… That’s just riding bikes.
Sustainable is a broad term. Sustainable from a money perspective? Probably not. Sustainable from a participation standpoint, absolutely.
Its barrier of entry from a gear and fitness standpoint is arguably lower than any other form of bike racing. Who says timing your buddies in the woods doesn’t count as enduro? Will it get you UCI point? Hell no, but that’s not the point. Let me know next time youre in my neck of the woods and we’ll show you how alive enduro is
Our local Enduro scene is doing great. 12 rounds in 2024 and race registration is only for the month before each race.
Part of what I thought was weird about EWS is it had this weird reputation of being a series for retired downhill racers. That doesn’t sound very enticing from a sponsorship or big money coverage perspective.
I find it wild that they don’t have a dozen GoPros or whatever to hand out at each stage that get turned in at the end of each stage and swap cards and batteries for the next racer and stage.
Enduro is not dead. World Cup enduro is dead, enduro was and always will be for the common folk like us.
100%
You know what else is not covered like f1...tons of sports. And they are doing fine.
For unknown reasons, probably because he claims he invented it, Ball thought enduro needed to be covered like DH. It didn’t. But by saying it, he started looking for a solution to a problem that didn't exist. As a result, beget a problem.
You know what us doing just fine, marathon racing. You know what it's not doing, trying to be F1.
The downvotes on my post kinda show we are willing to talk about change but dont really want it.metadave, "I doubt you will...
The downvotes on my post kinda show we are willing to talk about change but dont really want it.
metadave, "I doubt you will see the general public that do enjoy following enduro care about timed up's or the bikes that come with it." See you missed the point completely. The bikes are already here, Enduro/super enduro that can have very good pedaling manners, look at the Gen 6 slash, The damn thing has better efficiency than their new top fuel, just doesn't have weight on its side & arguably a minimal amount of drivetrain drag. "They wanted untamed DH tracks on heavy hitting bikes where anyone could come out on top if they had it in them and for a while" Yes Dave, thats called DH racing - current EDR is basically multiple DH tracks timed on what DH racers call 'trail bikes' - Many DH racers(pros) say EDR is way more risky due to how its raced and the bikes for it.
Enduro Is called enduro because of the endurance stance of it, Do you have the fitness and energy over 6(?) or so stages and keep speed up?
the damn english meaning for the word enduro is..... you guessed it. 'endurance'
Enduro, Noun,
a long-distance race for motor vehicles or bicycles, typically over rough terrain, designed to test endurance.
We seem to want coverage but we have to change the Racing to make it have proper coverage.
"look at the Gen 6 slash, The damn thing has better efficiency than their new top fuel, just doesn't have weight on its side & arguably a minimal amount of drivetrain drag.""
what are you on about 😂 so untrue i coud dislike the comment twice
Enduro isn't meant to be multi stage Downhill - so that needs fixing right away. But look at motorcycle Enduro (which is the 2 wheeled version of special stage rallying). Enduro is hard to cover live; and both motorcycle Enduro World championships have very little live coverage (apart from Erzberg). It must also be said that the KTM issues are affecting the Hard Enduro series, as they own WESS, the promoters.
If the motorcycle Enduro series can't provide live coverage, then there's no chance MTB can - it needs to return to the old EWS style coverage from 3-4 years ago.
If it was up to me, I'd follow the EnduroGP/ WRC example and have 3 stages run in the morning, then back to the pits/ service area, then the same 3 stages repeated in the afternoon.
Sustainable is a broad term. Sustainable from a money perspective? Probably not. Sustainable from a participation standpoint, absolutely. Its barrier of entry from a gear and fitness...
Sustainable is a broad term. Sustainable from a money perspective? Probably not. Sustainable from a participation standpoint, absolutely.
Its barrier of entry from a gear and fitness standpoint is arguably lower than any other form of bike racing. Who says timing your buddies in the woods doesn’t count as enduro? Will it get you UCI point? Hell no, but that’s not the point. Let me know next time youre in my neck of the woods and we’ll show you how alive enduro is
Max,
Sometimes people forget that I look at the results from pretty much every bicycle race in America.
What I see is that you are one of the people that “loves enduro” but only raced once, 4 years ago. To me, that means that to you, Enduro is in fact, dead?
My guess is, you find it hard to justify the time and money to pay to race on trails you can already ride for free or with an existing season’s pass, and I don’t blame you one bit for that.
If there were more enduros in your region that were blind, on fresh cut trails, would you open up your wallet?
Sustainable is a broad term. Sustainable from a money perspective? Probably not. Sustainable from a participation standpoint, absolutely. Its barrier of entry from a gear and fitness...
Sustainable is a broad term. Sustainable from a money perspective? Probably not. Sustainable from a participation standpoint, absolutely.
Its barrier of entry from a gear and fitness standpoint is arguably lower than any other form of bike racing. Who says timing your buddies in the woods doesn’t count as enduro? Will it get you UCI point? Hell no, but that’s not the point. Let me know next time youre in my neck of the woods and we’ll show you how alive enduro is
Max,Sometimes people forget that I look at the results from pretty much every bicycle race in America.What I see is that you are one of the...
Max,
Sometimes people forget that I look at the results from pretty much every bicycle race in America.
What I see is that you are one of the people that “loves enduro” but only raced once, 4 years ago. To me, that means that to you, Enduro is in fact, dead?
My guess is, you find it hard to justify the time and money to pay to race on trails you can already ride for free or with an existing season’s pass, and I don’t blame you one bit for that.
If there were more enduros in your region that were blind, on fresh cut trails, would you open up your wallet?
I can’t speak for Max, but, now that I can actually afford to race a local series I just don’t have the time. Both my kids are school age now and I help coach the older kids basketball team. That’s before we get into the risk management side of things, I’m super competitive with myself and would probably get hurt during the season and I just don’t have time for that rehab process either. I say that as I’m 6 months in on a meniscus repair rehab process that can take up to 18 months for a guy my age to make a full recovery. Closer to 6-9 months for the young guns out there.
At least here in the US, DH is getting better and better by the year. In my corner of the world (southeast US) I've witnessed many of my buddies I used to race enduros with buy downhill bikes and swap disciplines in the past few years, including myself. I'll always have a soft spot for enduros, (I trained for years and raced dozens of them, and still do), but it's undeniable that the energy and vibe at downhill events is unmatched.
What I've noticed over the past few years at the local, regional, and international levels, is that the pointy end of enduro became extremely pointy. The top EDR racers are terrifyingly good at racing enduro. So much so, that to make it as an enduro racer it requires a lot of support from a team, from coaches, and a lot of dedication to a very niche skill. Since the format is fundamentally flawed from a viewership standpoint, the support systems and teams that enable the top athletes to be top athletes are rapidly disappearing. With no support and the UCI removing the previously easy (maybe too easy) EWS qualification process, being a successful enduro racer is not very possible these days. So these top athletes start riding downhill bikes because the competition and support is there. In my personal experience it's been significantly easier to gain rider support after I switched to DH last year. I had more team and financial support this season racing DHSE than I did 2 years ago racing EWS as a junior.
I don't think the racing should be reformatted, it works well as it is. EWS was rad in 2016-2021 because it was an emerging discipline with exciting new riders and cool locations with rad companies supporting it. The professional level of the sport matured too much and that has a direct effect on regional level racing. I don't see many that complain about the death of enduro organizing and/or participating in races. At the end of the day I'm still going to rip my trail bike on fun trails with my buddies, so who cares.
Problem with Enduro racing is the guys/gals who show up weeks early and practice the course while the rest have to risk it for the biscuit after maybe one run through.
At least with DH you get a day or two of practice on the course. I personally never enjoyed enduro racing but I got into mountain biking through racing DH (Mountain States Cup).
At least here in the US, DH is getting better and better by the year. In my corner of the world (southeast US) I've witnessed many...
At least here in the US, DH is getting better and better by the year. In my corner of the world (southeast US) I've witnessed many of my buddies I used to race enduros with buy downhill bikes and swap disciplines in the past few years, including myself. I'll always have a soft spot for enduros, (I trained for years and raced dozens of them, and still do), but it's undeniable that the energy and vibe at downhill events is unmatched.
What I've noticed over the past few years at the local, regional, and international levels, is that the pointy end of enduro became extremely pointy. The top EDR racers are terrifyingly good at racing enduro. So much so, that to make it as an enduro racer it requires a lot of support from a team, from coaches, and a lot of dedication to a very niche skill. Since the format is fundamentally flawed from a viewership standpoint, the support systems and teams that enable the top athletes to be top athletes are rapidly disappearing. With no support and the UCI removing the previously easy (maybe too easy) EWS qualification process, being a successful enduro racer is not very possible these days. So these top athletes start riding downhill bikes because the competition and support is there. In my personal experience it's been significantly easier to gain rider support after I switched to DH last year. I had more team and financial support this season racing DHSE than I did 2 years ago racing EWS as a junior.
I don't think the racing should be reformatted, it works well as it is. EWS was rad in 2016-2021 because it was an emerging discipline with exciting new riders and cool locations with rad companies supporting it. The professional level of the sport matured too much and that has a direct effect on regional level racing. I don't see many that complain about the death of enduro organizing and/or participating in races. At the end of the day I'm still going to rip my trail bike on fun trails with my buddies, so who cares.
A friend of mine that lives in CO raced Enduro for a few years on the state level, had some good results. Switched to racing his Enduro bike at DH races in 2024 and got some good results there too. Got himself a frame deal within 6 months. Kinda crazy the difference in the amount of support companies are willing to put out there.
Sustainable is a broad term. Sustainable from a money perspective? Probably not. Sustainable from a participation standpoint, absolutely. Its barrier of entry from a gear and fitness...
Sustainable is a broad term. Sustainable from a money perspective? Probably not. Sustainable from a participation standpoint, absolutely.
Its barrier of entry from a gear and fitness standpoint is arguably lower than any other form of bike racing. Who says timing your buddies in the woods doesn’t count as enduro? Will it get you UCI point? Hell no, but that’s not the point. Let me know next time youre in my neck of the woods and we’ll show you how alive enduro is
Max,Sometimes people forget that I look at the results from pretty much every bicycle race in America.What I see is that you are one of the...
Max,
Sometimes people forget that I look at the results from pretty much every bicycle race in America.
What I see is that you are one of the people that “loves enduro” but only raced once, 4 years ago. To me, that means that to you, Enduro is in fact, dead?
My guess is, you find it hard to justify the time and money to pay to race on trails you can already ride for free or with an existing season’s pass, and I don’t blame you one bit for that.
If there were more enduros in your region that were blind, on fresh cut trails, would you open up your wallet?
I'd race an enduro that was all blind freshy loamers.... If I wasn't chunky and too out of shape to hang. But otherwise that'd be cool!
There are 2 fundamental flaws to the enduro concept (as a commercially viable professional sport for the at home fan) that are difficult or impossible to overcome.
1 - the terrain, at least in europe and north america - the requirement for a substantial hill, one in which all the land owners are agreeable to the race and trails limits the potential venues; and a key thing for televising the event is that they are almost always forested/covered in vegetation. tight singletrack in the trees makes filming far more difficult than the car rally or hard enduro equivilent.
2 - multiple stages and multiple riders on stage simultaneously - even if you magically covered every stage with DH WC level camera coverage, there is still an impossible task for the broadcaster to actually show the racing in a way that makes sense rather than a series of random corners and random riders. and even if that did happen, there is still the issue that for most of the race, you dont know who is winning because everything is happening at different times in different places. In XC it is very clear who is winning. In DH it is clear for each person as they come down whether they have won or lost. And in both if you are getting substantial TV time, you are in with a shot of winning. How do you televise stage 5 and 6 of an enduro in a way thats fun to watch when there's only 3 or 4 potential winners remaining with a chance and one of those has a 15 second lead that they realistically will only lose with a huge mistake or mechanical?
I promoted the first Enduro in New England in 2013, ran the first VA state enduro championship races in 2017, 2018, 2019 and was involved with running all the EWS qualifiers that happened at Windrock, timing the Enduro Southeast Series, running Cranksgiving, etc.
It was just obvious from the very beginning that enduro would struggle as a format in America because of the way we manage our public lands and trails. From the bike industry end, Enduro was treated as a lateral replacement for DS and 4x by the teams- two disciplines that also suffered from how hard it is to build out good bike racing venues in the USA.
The industry pushing out all these bikes with so few decent places to ride them was never going to work out well.
To make it very clear, I am not anti-enduro;I promoted the first Enduro in New England in 2013, ran the first VA state enduro championship races...
To make it very clear, I am not anti-enduro;
I promoted the first Enduro in New England in 2013, ran the first VA state enduro championship races in 2017, 2018, 2019 and was involved with running all the EWS qualifiers that happened at Windrock, timing the Enduro Southeast Series, running Cranksgiving, etc.
It was just obvious from the very beginning that enduro would struggle as a format in America because of the way we manage our public lands and trails. From the bike industry end, Enduro was treated as a lateral replacement for DS and 4x by the teams- two disciplines that also suffered from how hard it is to build out good bike racing venues in the USA.
The industry pushing out all these bikes with so few decent places to ride them was never going to work out well.
Mickey, you’re absolutely spot-on with your last paragraph. I started mountain biking in 2015, and back then, every bike company and magazine I followed—mostly Mountain Bike Action—were pushing the same design mantra: “longer, lower, and slacker.” For three or so years, that’s all we heard. Suddenly, I found myself riding with 810 mm handlebars, a bottom bracket so low it practically scraped the ground, and a head tube and wheelbase so stretched that the bike resembled a canoe.
From boutique brands like Pivot and Mondraker to mainstream ones like Specialized, everyone jumped on the trend. But once I began riding with more experienced people, I realized these setups weren’t necessarily kid-friendly. In fact, there was hardly anywhere for them to ride such bikes. And for the average family, a DH bike—expensive and heavily specialized—isn’t really cost-effective. I was a newcomer myself, riding a 170 mm travel bike on trails with barely 300 feet of descent spread over a mile.
That said, I do disagree with the opening point of your paragraph. There are plenty of places suitable for enduro, especially just below the EWS level. All along the East Coast—Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee—and out West in Colorado, Utah, the Pacific Northwest, New Mexico, and Arizona, you’ll find excellent terrain. California, Texas, and Oklahoma also host decent enduro series. If land management improved, these areas could be even better. Carvin’s Cove, for example, could easily be a national-level enduro venue; the trails there are amazing (and it’s where I got my first win).
However, I just don’t think enduro is particularly good for TV. Even on a downhill track, watching a single-crown bike descend at enduro speed doesn’t compare to the pace of a dual-crown downhill bike over extended coverage. On-screen, it can appear slow and flat, regardless of how challenging the course actually is. Enduro is a fantastic race format, but it’s simply not a made-for-TV sport in the way downhill can be.
Mickey, you’re absolutely spot-on with your last paragraph. I started mountain biking in 2015, and back then, every bike company and magazine I followed—mostly Mountain Bike...
Mickey, you’re absolutely spot-on with your last paragraph. I started mountain biking in 2015, and back then, every bike company and magazine I followed—mostly Mountain Bike Action—were pushing the same design mantra: “longer, lower, and slacker.” For three or so years, that’s all we heard. Suddenly, I found myself riding with 810 mm handlebars, a bottom bracket so low it practically scraped the ground, and a head tube and wheelbase so stretched that the bike resembled a canoe.
From boutique brands like Pivot and Mondraker to mainstream ones like Specialized, everyone jumped on the trend. But once I began riding with more experienced people, I realized these setups weren’t necessarily kid-friendly. In fact, there was hardly anywhere for them to ride such bikes. And for the average family, a DH bike—expensive and heavily specialized—isn’t really cost-effective. I was a newcomer myself, riding a 170 mm travel bike on trails with barely 300 feet of descent spread over a mile.
That said, I do disagree with the opening point of your paragraph. There are plenty of places suitable for enduro, especially just below the EWS level. All along the East Coast—Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee—and out West in Colorado, Utah, the Pacific Northwest, New Mexico, and Arizona, you’ll find excellent terrain. California, Texas, and Oklahoma also host decent enduro series. If land management improved, these areas could be even better. Carvin’s Cove, for example, could easily be a national-level enduro venue; the trails there are amazing (and it’s where I got my first win).
However, I just don’t think enduro is particularly good for TV. Even on a downhill track, watching a single-crown bike descend at enduro speed doesn’t compare to the pace of a dual-crown downhill bike over extended coverage. On-screen, it can appear slow and flat, regardless of how challenging the course actually is. Enduro is a fantastic race format, but it’s simply not a made-for-TV sport in the way downhill can be.
An analogy to further agree with you:
I used to play a fair bit of online poker. I also watched a lot of poker coverage on TV when it was popular.
Downhill is poker-on-TV. Enduro is watching poker live. The entirety of a poker broadcast is edited to show only the 44-minutes-worth of most exciting hands from a 10-hour day of 5,000 competitors. Most of those hands are "boring" to a viewer and might have "nothing happen." Those "nothing" hands play out over and over constantly manipulating the moods and attitudes at tables and changing how the game is played. You can see it if you're sitting there. But it's not exciting enough to make the broadcast.
Downhill is exciting poker hands all the time due to the easier-to-cover nature (easier to get more angles/full coverage, essentially only one competitor on course, such close and dramatic times differences, always have a comparison-against-the-leader) and how absolutely wild the actual racing is. It's truly bonkers and most people can see it and appreciate it. Some people get lucky and are dealt pocket aces. Some people are the only competitor to get rained on when still in the running to win the overall (Tahnee really did get dealt a bad hand).
Enduro is the entire poker tournament. Lots of little things here-and-there that add up to a lot. If Jack Moir has a bad beat early in the day and has a small crash on stage 1 he can crawl it back, ride well, ride smart, make a decision to play a little less safe at times, and still finish well in the tournament. You might not see some sort of BIG CHANGE but it's a subtlety that adds up over a long day.
I hope to find myself in some locations where I can compete in some enduro races - there's nothing where I am.
If Enduro is going to be broadcast, it'll have to be significantly edited and storylines made/highlighted through the editing. Voiceover added afterwards for context and play-by-play. A live broadcast would be dull to all but the most dedicated viewers...but you can't rely on those viewers to watch live because they might be out riding already!
Sustainable is a broad term. Sustainable from a money perspective? Probably not. Sustainable from a participation standpoint, absolutely.
Its barrier of entry from a gear and fitness standpoint is arguably lower than any other form of bike racing. Who says timing your buddies in the woods doesn’t count as enduro? Will it get you UCI point? Hell no, but that’s not the point. Let me know next time youre in my neck of the woods and we’ll show you how alive enduro is
Our local Enduro scene is doing great. 12 rounds in 2024 and race registration is only for the month before each race.
Part of what I thought was weird about EWS is it had this weird reputation of being a series for retired downhill racers. That doesn’t sound very enticing from a sponsorship or big money coverage perspective.
I find it wild that they don’t have a dozen GoPros or whatever to hand out at each stage that get turned in at the end of each stage and swap cards and batteries for the next racer and stage.
100%
You know what else is not covered like f1...tons of sports. And they are doing fine.
For unknown reasons, probably because he claims he invented it, Ball thought enduro needed to be covered like DH. It didn’t. But by saying it, he started looking for a solution to a problem that didn't exist. As a result, beget a problem.
You know what us doing just fine, marathon racing. You know what it's not doing, trying to be F1.
"look at the Gen 6 slash, The damn thing has better efficiency than their new top fuel, just doesn't have weight on its side & arguably a minimal amount of drivetrain drag.""
what are you on about 😂 so untrue i coud dislike the comment twice
Enduro isn't meant to be multi stage Downhill - so that needs fixing right away. But look at motorcycle Enduro (which is the 2 wheeled version of special stage rallying). Enduro is hard to cover live; and both motorcycle Enduro World championships have very little live coverage (apart from Erzberg). It must also be said that the KTM issues are affecting the Hard Enduro series, as they own WESS, the promoters.
If the motorcycle Enduro series can't provide live coverage, then there's no chance MTB can - it needs to return to the old EWS style coverage from 3-4 years ago.
If it was up to me, I'd follow the EnduroGP/ WRC example and have 3 stages run in the morning, then back to the pits/ service area, then the same 3 stages repeated in the afternoon.
Max,
Sometimes people forget that I look at the results from pretty much every bicycle race in America.
What I see is that you are one of the people that “loves enduro” but only raced once, 4 years ago. To me, that means that to you, Enduro is in fact, dead?
My guess is, you find it hard to justify the time and money to pay to race on trails you can already ride for free or with an existing season’s pass, and I don’t blame you one bit for that.
If there were more enduros in your region that were blind, on fresh cut trails, would you open up your wallet?
I can’t speak for Max, but, now that I can actually afford to race a local series I just don’t have the time. Both my kids are school age now and I help coach the older kids basketball team. That’s before we get into the risk management side of things, I’m super competitive with myself and would probably get hurt during the season and I just don’t have time for that rehab process either. I say that as I’m 6 months in on a meniscus repair rehab process that can take up to 18 months for a guy my age to make a full recovery. Closer to 6-9 months for the young guns out there.
At least here in the US, DH is getting better and better by the year. In my corner of the world (southeast US) I've witnessed many of my buddies I used to race enduros with buy downhill bikes and swap disciplines in the past few years, including myself. I'll always have a soft spot for enduros, (I trained for years and raced dozens of them, and still do), but it's undeniable that the energy and vibe at downhill events is unmatched.
What I've noticed over the past few years at the local, regional, and international levels, is that the pointy end of enduro became extremely pointy. The top EDR racers are terrifyingly good at racing enduro. So much so, that to make it as an enduro racer it requires a lot of support from a team, from coaches, and a lot of dedication to a very niche skill. Since the format is fundamentally flawed from a viewership standpoint, the support systems and teams that enable the top athletes to be top athletes are rapidly disappearing. With no support and the UCI removing the previously easy (maybe too easy) EWS qualification process, being a successful enduro racer is not very possible these days. So these top athletes start riding downhill bikes because the competition and support is there. In my personal experience it's been significantly easier to gain rider support after I switched to DH last year. I had more team and financial support this season racing DHSE than I did 2 years ago racing EWS as a junior.
I don't think the racing should be reformatted, it works well as it is. EWS was rad in 2016-2021 because it was an emerging discipline with exciting new riders and cool locations with rad companies supporting it. The professional level of the sport matured too much and that has a direct effect on regional level racing. I don't see many that complain about the death of enduro organizing and/or participating in races. At the end of the day I'm still going to rip my trail bike on fun trails with my buddies, so who cares.
Problem with Enduro racing is the guys/gals who show up weeks early and practice the course while the rest have to risk it for the biscuit after maybe one run through.
At least with DH you get a day or two of practice on the course. I personally never enjoyed enduro racing but I got into mountain biking through racing DH (Mountain States Cup).
A friend of mine that lives in CO raced Enduro for a few years on the state level, had some good results. Switched to racing his Enduro bike at DH races in 2024 and got some good results there too. Got himself a frame deal within 6 months. Kinda crazy the difference in the amount of support companies are willing to put out there.
I'd race an enduro that was all blind freshy loamers.... If I wasn't chunky and too out of shape to hang. But otherwise that'd be cool!
Give Enduro to Redbull and let them have a go at it.
Having anyone else be successful with the EWS is absolutely NOT what WBD want's or would allow.
There are 2 fundamental flaws to the enduro concept (as a commercially viable professional sport for the at home fan) that are difficult or impossible to overcome.
1 - the terrain, at least in europe and north america - the requirement for a substantial hill, one in which all the land owners are agreeable to the race and trails limits the potential venues; and a key thing for televising the event is that they are almost always forested/covered in vegetation. tight singletrack in the trees makes filming far more difficult than the car rally or hard enduro equivilent.
2 - multiple stages and multiple riders on stage simultaneously - even if you magically covered every stage with DH WC level camera coverage, there is still an impossible task for the broadcaster to actually show the racing in a way that makes sense rather than a series of random corners and random riders. and even if that did happen, there is still the issue that for most of the race, you dont know who is winning because everything is happening at different times in different places. In XC it is very clear who is winning. In DH it is clear for each person as they come down whether they have won or lost. And in both if you are getting substantial TV time, you are in with a shot of winning. How do you televise stage 5 and 6 of an enduro in a way thats fun to watch when there's only 3 or 4 potential winners remaining with a chance and one of those has a 15 second lead that they realistically will only lose with a huge mistake or mechanical?
To make it very clear, I am not anti-enduro;
I promoted the first Enduro in New England in 2013, ran the first VA state enduro championship races in 2017, 2018, 2019 and was involved with running all the EWS qualifiers that happened at Windrock, timing the Enduro Southeast Series, running Cranksgiving, etc.
It was just obvious from the very beginning that enduro would struggle as a format in America because of the way we manage our public lands and trails. From the bike industry end, Enduro was treated as a lateral replacement for DS and 4x by the teams- two disciplines that also suffered from how hard it is to build out good bike racing venues in the USA.
The industry pushing out all these bikes with so few decent places to ride them was never going to work out well.
Mickey, you’re absolutely spot-on with your last paragraph. I started mountain biking in 2015, and back then, every bike company and magazine I followed—mostly Mountain Bike Action—were pushing the same design mantra: “longer, lower, and slacker.” For three or so years, that’s all we heard. Suddenly, I found myself riding with 810 mm handlebars, a bottom bracket so low it practically scraped the ground, and a head tube and wheelbase so stretched that the bike resembled a canoe.
From boutique brands like Pivot and Mondraker to mainstream ones like Specialized, everyone jumped on the trend. But once I began riding with more experienced people, I realized these setups weren’t necessarily kid-friendly. In fact, there was hardly anywhere for them to ride such bikes. And for the average family, a DH bike—expensive and heavily specialized—isn’t really cost-effective. I was a newcomer myself, riding a 170 mm travel bike on trails with barely 300 feet of descent spread over a mile.
That said, I do disagree with the opening point of your paragraph. There are plenty of places suitable for enduro, especially just below the EWS level. All along the East Coast—Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee—and out West in Colorado, Utah, the Pacific Northwest, New Mexico, and Arizona, you’ll find excellent terrain. California, Texas, and Oklahoma also host decent enduro series. If land management improved, these areas could be even better. Carvin’s Cove, for example, could easily be a national-level enduro venue; the trails there are amazing (and it’s where I got my first win).
However, I just don’t think enduro is particularly good for TV. Even on a downhill track, watching a single-crown bike descend at enduro speed doesn’t compare to the pace of a dual-crown downhill bike over extended coverage. On-screen, it can appear slow and flat, regardless of how challenging the course actually is. Enduro is a fantastic race format, but it’s simply not a made-for-TV sport in the way downhill can be.
An analogy to further agree with you:
I used to play a fair bit of online poker. I also watched a lot of poker coverage on TV when it was popular.
Downhill is poker-on-TV. Enduro is watching poker live. The entirety of a poker broadcast is edited to show only the 44-minutes-worth of most exciting hands from a 10-hour day of 5,000 competitors. Most of those hands are "boring" to a viewer and might have "nothing happen." Those "nothing" hands play out over and over constantly manipulating the moods and attitudes at tables and changing how the game is played. You can see it if you're sitting there. But it's not exciting enough to make the broadcast.
Downhill is exciting poker hands all the time due to the easier-to-cover nature (easier to get more angles/full coverage, essentially only one competitor on course, such close and dramatic times differences, always have a comparison-against-the-leader) and how absolutely wild the actual racing is. It's truly bonkers and most people can see it and appreciate it. Some people get lucky and are dealt pocket aces. Some people are the only competitor to get rained on when still in the running to win the overall (Tahnee really did get dealt a bad hand).
Enduro is the entire poker tournament. Lots of little things here-and-there that add up to a lot. If Jack Moir has a bad beat early in the day and has a small crash on stage 1 he can crawl it back, ride well, ride smart, make a decision to play a little less safe at times, and still finish well in the tournament. You might not see some sort of BIG CHANGE but it's a subtlety that adds up over a long day.
I hope to find myself in some locations where I can compete in some enduro races - there's nothing where I am.
If Enduro is going to be broadcast, it'll have to be significantly edited and storylines made/highlighted through the editing. Voiceover added afterwards for context and play-by-play. A live broadcast would be dull to all but the most dedicated viewers...but you can't rely on those viewers to watch live because they might be out riding already!
Post a reply to: Enduro is Dead, how would you revive it?