With six stages over two days, some accessed by Purgatory Resort’s chairlift, and two by climbing roughly 5,000 feet to reach on Day 1, the Big Mountain Enduro series once again sought out to find the best all-around mountain bikers.
“The terrain (at Purgatory) is very steep and very technical while the backcountry is textbook Colorado,” said Dave Elkan, BME business manager. “It can be smooth, but also rocky; it has everything and showcases the best of the best for the all-around rider.”
Elkan said enduros are battle of attrition and compared the BME to playing four rounds of golf. “If you shoot a 62 on Day 1, you’re not going to win if you then shoot some 82s,” he said. “It’s about riding six stages smooth and consistent.”
This year, many of the competitors were up to the challenge. Only 20 seconds separated the top five pro men, while the ninth-place finisher was only 1:02 back after a little under 45 minutes of racing. In the pro women’s division, less than 10 seconds separated the top three finishers, with each of the three winning two stages.
Jake Keller of Specialized finished eighth on Stage 1 in the pro men’s division, but he came back and won Stage 2 by 8 seconds in 7:06:09. Keller didn’t win another stage on the second day, but two second places, a fourth and a fifth helped him finish first overall in a combined 43:36.62.
Colton Peterson of Maxxis Factory Racing won Stage 1 in 16:06.14 and finished in the top five on four other stages. On Stage 5, however, he finished 18th, losing 14 seconds to Keller, and finished second overall in 43:41.76.
Aiden Chapin of Trek/Fasthouse won Stage 5 in 3:52.10 and finished third in 43:43,15.
Evan Geankoplis of DVO finished fourth in 43:55.28, finishing second, seventh, fourth, fifth, 10th and ninth on the stages.
Mitch Ropelato of Cannondale won Stage 3 in 6:04.97 and Stage 4 in 4:11.89 to finish fifth overall in 43:56.87.
Todd Renwick of Forbidden Bikes/MDW Sports won Stage 6 in 4:42.32, but finished 15th (45:41.38).
Alex Vidal of Durango finished 16th out of 52 riders in the pro men’s competition in 45:45.17. Vidal had his best results on Day 1, when the competitors had to ride about 44 miles in total to access the trails and then race. Vidal placed 11th in 16:48.85 on Stage 1 and 16th in 7:28.53 on Stage 2. On the stages accessed by the chairlift on Day 2, Vidal’s best result was a 24th-place finish on Stage 3.
In the pro women’s competition, Kate Lawrence of Yeti/Fox National Team edged Specialized’s Porsha Murdock by less than three seconds to win in 49:48.96.
Lawrence won Stage 4 (4:42.39) and Stage 5 (4:40.88) and finished second on the other four stages.
Murdock, meanwhile, won Stage 3 (7:02.73) and then won the final stage in 6:27.90, but was unable to catch Lawrence.
Julie Duvert of Theory Racing won Stage 1 (18:35.92) and Stage 2 (8:02.54) and finished third on the other four stages to finish third (49:58.27).
Durangoan Ben Mackenzie was the top all-around rider in the men’s U21 division. Mackenzie won the first stage in 16:32.16, the second stage in 7:25.46 and then won Stage 4 on Sunday in 4:19.57. Jakob Snow won the last two stages, but Mackenzie crossed fourth and second to win in 44:47.99, 14.09 ahead of Snow. Carter Kawell finished third (45:51.58).
Fellow Durangoan Maddy Glotfelty also had a strong performance to finish second overall in the women’s U21 division in 54:55.01. Glotfelty won Stage 4 in 4:52.51 and finished second on stages 1, 3, 5 and 6. Erin Bixler won five of the six stages to take first (51:52.03) while Pella Ward finished third (54:55.01).
In the expert men division, Ethan Wright won the last four stages to finish first in 47:07.23. Joey Slat won Stage 1 and finished second overall in 47:20.64 while Sam Kemp finished third in 47:45.34 after winning Stage 2.
Michael West won the first three stages and also the sixth stage to place first in the master men’s 40-49 division (48:27.20). Jason Hawkins (49:50.12) finished second, Pete Anderson (49:59.89) and Travis Grey, who won stages 4 and 5, finished fourth (50:15.33).
Cary Smith won four stages and the master men’s 50-plus division in 52:07.12. Tracy Hackney won Stage 2 and finished second (53:59.53). Aaron McDowell won Stage 4 and placed third (56:19.40).
In the amateur women’s division, Hailey Clark won the first five stages, but did not finish the competition. Lucy Miller ended up finishing first in 1:01:33.50 after winning Stage 6. Hannah Russert (1:01:58.52) finished second and Kelly Biscombe (1:04:10.77) placed third.
Brooks Nablo won stages 1, 2, 3 and 5 to finish first overall in the amateur men’s competition in 50:03.00. Bailey Matthews won the other two stages to finish second (52:10.17) while Joshua Mesward placed third (52:22.51).
In the youth groms division, for riders ages 10-16, Henry Rapinz won the last four stages to finish first in 46:42.67. Max Clark won Stage 1 and finished second (47:02.22) while Nainoa Love finished third (48:31.24).
The competitors all raced the same stages, but the amateurs were allowed to skip a stage if they weren’t up to it.
“We don’t want to disqualify people for making smart decisions,” Elkan said. If the competitors did skip a stage, they received the last-place time in their division, plus one minute.
“The beauty of enduro is it’s not one performance, it’s about completing the adventure,” Elkan said. “Kudos to everyone who completed it; it was the real deal. It was very well balanced test of backcountry skills while the bike park had some pucker-up riding.”
When the Big Mountain Enduro rolled into Purgatory Resort last year, it was to replace an event in Glorietta, New Mexico, that had to be canceled due to COVID.
When it came back this year over the weekend, bikers showed up in droves to compete on the mountain’s varying terrain.
“It was amazing: the turnout, the corporate attendance, the participants, the tourists, the mountain; all of the support was fantastic,” Elkan said, adding that the BME plans to return to Purgatory again next year.
Complete results at https://bit.ly/3PEcivq
