Written by Syd:
The Crested Butte Ultra Enduro was an incredible adventure – four days of backcountry racing followed up by one day of downhill runs in the Evolution Bike Park. It was gnarly, beautiful and badass. For the first two days, we were out on the bike for over six hours. Staying hydrated and well fueled for that much time out on the trail was definitely the biggest challenge. (Okay, staying upright while careening at 40 miles per hour down Doctor Park Trail was also a challenge.) We filled up our hydration packs whenever possible, drank multiple bottles of Osmo Active Hydration and consumed at least five Taos Mountain Energy Bars a day. For the first few days, we finished around 5pm and then proceeded to eat whatever we could get our hands on for the rest of the day. If nothing else, stage racing is an excellent excuse to eat 5,000 calorie dinners.
Macky had a stellar race, battling it out for a podium place with big names like Jerome Clementz, Nate Hills, Curtis Keene, Ross Schnell and others. He had multiple fourth place stage finishes, and was sitting in fifth place for most of the race. Unfortunately a nasty crash on the second to last run of the last day lost him the podium spot (and resulted in a sprained ankle). He ended up in sixth place, outside of fifth by only 13 seconds. Definitely a bummer, but still a great race for Macky.
This was Syd’s first stage race, and after a completely miserable showing on the first day, she felt better and better each day, and ended up finishing 8th overall. After the first day, she was considering swearing off bikes altogether – by day five, she was toying with the idea of racing Trans-Provence next year. Hmmm… Like Macky, Syd also went down on the last day, sacrificing a large area of skin to the dirt gods. But hey, this is what mountain biking is all about, right? Right.
Because we’re experts in overcommitting ourselves, we finished the race and immediately headed to the Durango airport to fly to Las Vegas for Interbike. We met up with Sean and a spent an exhausting, but fruitful, five days meeting up with our awesome sponsors and spending obscene amounts of money on bad food. While it was awesome to meet up with a lot of you guys and discuss exciting plans for next year, we were officially Vegas-ed out by Friday, and so relieved to make it back to the cool, green New Mexico mountains. (Do any bike people actually LIKE Vegas? Can we please mutiny and move it to Colorado?)
Now we have four days to unpack and then repack for a month in Europe. Syd will be attending a writing conference in Italy and Macky will be racing Trans-Provence in France and hopefully the EWS Finals in Italy. Like we mentioned, experts in overcommitting.
Feel free to use the attached photos and thanks for all your support!
Syd, Macky and Sean