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Enduro puts downhillers to the test

Through mud, crashes and gondolas, Jones perseveres for win Although a week of rain kept the numbers down for the third annual WORCA Max Vert Enduro, the 13 riders that did participate had an eventful morning.
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Through mud, crashes and gondolas, Jones perseveres for win

Although a week of rain kept the numbers down for the third annual WORCA Max Vert Enduro, the 13 riders that did participate had an eventful morning.

The event got underway an hour late on Monday morning, which meant that the time limit had to be cut down from three hours to two-and-a-half. The object was to complete as many laps of the Whistler Mountain Bike Park as possible in the given time limit.

By the end of the day, the competitors were exhausted and coated in mud and dirt. One rider lost his pants and another lost four of his spokes.

Canadian downhill champion Mike Jones, a Norco pro team rider who moved to Whistler this summer to train, hung in to win the race after almost losing everything on his first lap.

Riding in a pack with Mike Steward and Todd Hollings on the top of the course, Jones bumped into Hollings while attempting a pass, and got a pedal in his spokes.

"I crashed pretty hard, and went right off the trail into the trees. I had to fiddle with my other spokes for a bit to get the tire straight, and lost a whole lot of time," said Jones.

"I was playing a tentative race at first, happy to just sit in and ride with the guys, but then Stewart just went for it and broke away. I didn’t want to get left behind so I chased and probably tried to pass somewhere I shouldn’t have."

Jones was ready to go again in a few minutes, and within the next few laps he had caught up to the leaders. After that point Jones and Stewart were never very far apart, leading to a foot race to the gondola station at the base of Whistler heading into their 10th laps. Jones got there a second earlier than Stewart, just as the doors to a gondola were closing.

Shut out, Stewart had to grab the next gondola with space, which happened to be three gondolas back. That secured the race for a tired but happy Jones.

"I’m so punched right now it’s crazy," he said. "I was pretty much astounded by how much pedalling there was. From the top of the gondola to Dirt Merchant it’s pretty much flat, and riding a downhill bike through the mud, slipping around, was too much. Today we probably covered about six kilometres sprinting through that section."

Jones finished his 10th lap in two hours, 17 minutes and 43 seconds. He attempted to complete an 11 th lap before the cut-off, but missed out by about a minute.

Stewart was a close second with 10 laps in 2:19:08.

"The gondola was huge today. If you could run straight on at the bottom, and put a few cabins between you and everybody else, then you’re going to win. The course wasn’t that technical, so the gondola was huge for making up time," he said.

"It was actually a pretty exciting race. I tried to keep Jones in my sights, and I almost caught up to him a couple of times,"

Fred Mase was third with 10 laps in 12:28:37.

In the Under 15 category, Alex Prochazka was the top rider with nine laps in 12:18:22. Although he is only 12 he is already sponsored by Gyro, Oakley and Rocky Mountain.

"It was a lot of pedalling and it was super muddy, so I’m more tired than I thought I would be," he said. "It was also a new course for me. I never ride those trails, so I didn’t know the lines until after I had a few laps."

Prochazka practically lives in the park during the summer, but said he had a few days off park riding recently to relax before the Enduro – three days to be exact.

Tyler Allison and Daniel Crowe-Holden were second and third in the category with nine laps each in 2:25:04 and 12:25:06 respectively.

Jordan Bailey raced alone in the men’s 16 to 18 race, but still pushed it to finish nine laps in 12:18:39.

Vanessa Stark was the top woman, finishing fifth overall with nine laps in 12:16:30. She missed out on completing her 10th lap by less than 30 seconds.

For her, the hardest run was the first when her goggles fogged up.

"When I dropped onto the trail, I couldn’t see a thing. I kept wiping them and they kept fogging up on me. I just pointed my bike downhill, tried to stay on somebody’s tail, and hoped for the best. Her last three laps of the park were her fastest, as she got used to the line and solved the goggle issue.

"I wouldn’t have minded a few more laps, actually. It’s too bad the race had to get cut from three hours," she said.

Stark came close to finishing fourth overall, after chasing a racer down to the bottom of the course. He took a slightly different route to the very bottom, and made it to the gondola station seconds earlier than Stark. A broken gondola cabin put Stark two gondolas back, which made it impossible for her to catch up.

Erin Bertouski was the only other woman in the race, completing nine laps in 12:22:55.

All of the winners in each category received bike park passes for next season. Whistler-Blackcomb also provided enough prizes that everyone in the race went home with something, including bike tires, a downhill seat, pads, jerseys and more.

The Max Vert Enduro is a fundraiser for the Whistler Off Road Cycling Association.