With six stages, ranging from the World Cup course to a backcountry stage, the Big Mountain Enduro at Purgatory tested riders’ skill to the max on Saturday and Sunday.
“I think everyone from amateurs to the pros was challenged,” said Alex Vidal of Durango.
Vidal, who grew up on the Front Range and raced for the University of Colorado, got his pro card when he was 21.
After a hiatus from racing, he started riding recreationally a couple of years ago and then, after moving to Durango in 2020, began feeling his competitive fire start to grow again.
“It’s a lot more fun for me now than in my early 20s,” he said.
Vidal also said he prefers the enduro format over downhill races. For downhill, he said, riders show up a week before the race and ride the course over and over again. And then they race once, and that’s it.
Enduros, on the other hand, typically involve four to eight stages, and the riders have to pedal to the top a majority of the time.
“They’re cool because you show up and get to do a lot of riding,” Vidal said. “It’s more of a vacation than some of the gravity events. And if you crash in one stage, you can still have a decent event.”
In the pro field, Vidal placed 13th out of the 34 riders who started the competition.
“I thought it went pretty well,” Vidal said. “It’s a national level event, so anything in the top 15 is pretty good.”
Mitch Ropelato won the pro event with a combined time of 29 minutes, 6.7 seconds. Cody Kelly (29:23.3) placed second, and Shane Leslie (30:01.2) finished third.
Vidal (31:39.3) said he might have cracked the top 10 if he hadn’t crashed on the fifth stage. “It seems like most of the riders had trouble on that stage,” Vidal said. He was within 18 seconds of five riders ahead of him.
In the women’s pro category, Durango’s Fiona Dougherty finished fourth. Jill Kinter placed first in 33:57.4, followed by Kera Linn (35:17.8), Essence Jasperse (35:21.0) and Dougherty (35:22.2).
Durango Devo also had a strong contingent competing in the race. Asa Vermette won the “Groms” 10-16 division. Nainoa Love placed seventh, and Streater Nickell placed 11th.
In the under-21 division, Simon Donnaway placed fifth, Ben MacKenzie finished sixth, Shaw Kessay finished 12th and Gunnar Ensign placed 19th.
“I thought it was cool because of how challenging the trails were,” Vidal said. “I’ve done five enduros, and I thought that was the coolest by far.”
Vidal next plans to race in the BME at Bryan’s Head, Utah.
Complete results are available at https://zone4.ca/race/2021-08-28/790c226a/results/.
