Race Report: Nelson NZ's Mammoth Enduro

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Nelson Mountain Bike Club’s Mammoth Enduro returned for its second year. The two-day event links up all of Nelson New Zealand's best trails into what is thought to be the hardest enduro in the country. After a hugely successful first year, froth levels were high and the race's addition as an Enduro World Series qualifier brought even more of New Zealand’s fastest enduroists out of the woodwork to try their skills on Nelson's finest trails.

Mammoth Enduro Stats

  • 2 days, 5 stages per day, 10 stages total.
  • Total descending: 4105m
  • Total ascending : 2730 (roughly 700m vertical, shuttle provided to first stage of each day)
  • Total distance: 58km
  • Total ride time: 10 hours 20min with about a 1-hour race time for the faster riders.

Racing began with a test of speed-carrying ability and got progressively steeper and faster as the weekend went on. With stages ranging from four to eleven minutes for the pointy end of the field, vertical drops from 300 to 793 meters this was not a race to be trifled with.

At the end of two full days of racing, exhausted riders began appearing out of the Douglas Fir forest opposite the event village with that dusted-but-relieved-and-stoked look on their face. The looks of accomplishment confirmed the event as a good one and that Mammoth was indeed a worthy title.

Keegan Wright said the trails were some of the sickest he had ridden around the world. "There was so much different technical terrain with awesome climbs and great views and tracks to reward ya," he said.

Wright continued, "that Peaking Ridge, if it was a little longer, I think it would have been the most demanding and physical track I’ve raced. Nelson would be the perfect place to run an EWS," as it has everything from fast and flowy trails, to rough roots and rocks, to awkward tight, stuff on offer. "And the town is so rad to hangout in afterwards with the beach and river right by the tracks."

At the end of the weekend results stacked up as follows

Men's Top 3

  1. Loui Harvey 53:34.43
  2. Keegan Wright 53:41:76
  3. Kurt Lancaster 54:08.94

Women's Top 3

  1. Ronja Hill Wright 01.06:26.62
  2. Emma Bateup 01.07:03.29
  3. Sasha Smith 01.08:09.75 (on a hardtail)

View complete results (PDF)

Credit
Digby Shaw
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