Highland Mountain OverMountain Enduro Race

[Highland MTN]

NORTHFIELD, NH—Highland Mountain Bike Park, America’s Premier Bike Park has teamed up with the leader in innovation and technology, Cannondale Bicycles to bring the OverMountain Enduro to the East Coast on Saturday October 22, 2011.
Highland has brought in the big guns in the enduro world to design this course; with input from Cannondale’s top riders and racers, Mark Weir, Ben Cruz and Aaron Chase; Dave Smutok and the Highland Trail Crew are delivering what is set to be a top-notch event.
“This event has caused me many sleepless nights trying to design the perfect event. After a great talk with Mark Weir, we made the decision to update the course and format; the new structure will make for a fun, challenging, and progressive event,” explains Dave Smutok, VP of Business Development at Highland.

Updated Format:
The race will be made up of 3 timed “Specials” which will be added into one combined time. Athletes will have start times for each Special and once a Special is complete riders will have a extended time limit to make their way to the next stage.

1st Special: Start at the top of the mountain and head down ODB to Threshold. Come down a new section of trail through the base area and into our XC loop.
Estimated 1st Special time is 6-7min.
After 1st Special you will have a short break to allow yourself to make your way to the 2nd Special.

2nd Special: You will continue on the XC loop.
Estimated 2nd Special time is 5-6min.
On completion of 2nd Special riders will have to ride the XC trail up to Easy Rider and continue to Highland’s summit for the 3rd Special.

3rd Special: You will start at the summit and race down a new section of trail/glade linking pieces of existing trails to the bottom finish.
Estimated 3rd Special time 4-5min.
Results will be based on the 3 Special’s times combined.
Climber’s prime – Riders who want to race to the summit can continue racing through the finish of the 2nd Special and to the summit. The fastest rider from the start of 2nd Special to the summit will win the climber’s prime.

For additional details on format and registration visit Highlandmountain.com.

[NoUseForAName]

Great format

[6thElement]

Sounds great, wish I could participate.

[bigh]

Wow way to take what sounded like a fun race and ruin it. What part about this new format is "enduro". 45 minutes to get to the top of the mountain? I could walk a DH bike up to the top in half that time. The Whiteface 5k requires more endurance than this race.

[Banshee Rider]

Bummed about the format change. Why not just ride a downhill bike? You've only got to pedal the thing for 5 minutes, and there's enough time to practically walk it back up. The format makes sense in Europe with long descents, and would maybe work if there were 2 circuts back up, but 15 minutes of timed racing? It sounded like a much more proper challenge before.

[Horror Business]

This format change sounds like a bad idea. Isn't the challenge of an enduro race about the ups and the downs (all in a timed format)?

[Jester]

This format change sounds like a bad idea. Isn't the challenge of an enduro race about the ups and the downs (all in a timed format)?

Agreed

[Pegboy]

Without disclosing too much, I will say the format change was not entirely Dave's, or Highland's, idea. That being said, everbody is really focused on making it a fun event, as most things at Highland are. There will be trails, or at least sections, that are new for this event only, that have never been riden before.

Lets face it, everybody knows that you can put more time into someone on a climb than you can on a Downhill. Highland is small (winning course time this weekend was 2:22) which makes it even more difficult to make any gains on the DH. We'll see, I'm sure they'll make the necessary adjustments now and in the future to make it successful.

[epic]

I like the format change. Like Pegboy said, there needs to be a balance. Gain 10 seconds on teh DH and lose a couple minutes on the climb, you could have a roadie win the thing.

[Matchew]

Also keep in mind the original format had a wave start, If you were not in the first wave you would have a serious disadvantage before you even started. Ill take the changes as It does level the playing field more and make a bit more sense. Think of it as more of a MTB rally, gotta be quick but consistent and there isn't much time in between to fix any flats/mechanicals due to the time cutoff to get to the next stage.

[wiscodh]

hrmp,
session88 or fuel ex??? im sure i could get to the top in 45min with the session, but the flat part will suck with a dh bike. I can rally the EX on the home trails pretty easily ( perry hill in waterburry for referance).......

wish i had a slash or remedy..

[epic]

btw - if you really looove to climb, there is a $250 climber's prime.

[Banshee Rider]

Without disclosing too much, I will say the format change was not entirely Dave's, or Highland's, idea. That being said, everbody is really focused on making it a fun event, as most things at Highland are. There will be trails, or at least sections, that are new for this event only, that have never been riden before.

Lets face it, everybody knows that you can put more time into someone on a climb than you can on a Downhill. Highland is small (winning course time this weekend was 2:22) which makes it even more difficult to make any gains on the DH. We'll see, I'm sure they'll make the necessary adjustments now and in the future to make it successful.

I completely agree that more time can be made up on the climb, and this format essencially keeps the race from being won there. But really, 30 minutes? I guess that's my gripe. At least make the time alotted a challenge if it's not going to count. If it were 20 minutes the DH slugs would have to earn the time they made up on the two downhills, or get DQ'd. And inversely, make the weenies think about riding like men on the DH because the climb isn't there to make the time up. Right now it's just comes off as a two-run DH race with some pedaling.

Whatever, it's rad they're guinea pigging an Enduro, and I hope this serves as a stepping stone to getting these kind of events going in the Northeast. With the right format, these things take the best parts of mountain bike racing, and showcase the dudes who don't just DH, or wear spandex, but just downright frickin' shred.

[woodsguy]

Why not just put equal weight on each event. You get third in the downhill - 60 points. First in the climb - 100 points, second in the xc singletrack - 80 points etc.

[Matchew]