Kellog, Idaho NW Cup #6 and an Enduro

Even though I had a bummer of a race the weekend before during the Canadian Open I felt really good coming into this race. Riding whistler trails and getting a dozen or so runs in a day helped boost my confidence on the bike.

I was looking forward to this race mainly because it was a new venue and I had only heard great things about the place. The course was a shorter one, just over two and a half minutes. It was a loose wide open top section with the bottom dropping into some tighter tree, and corner after corner. Like many of the races this year, it was loose. Like six inch deep moon dust mixed with golfball sized rocks loose. For how dry it was the course held its shape very well over the three days.

I felt good on track all weekend and was loving the riding. My seeding run on Saturday put me into 10th or 11th place and I felt really good about it except a mistake up top. I was able to sort that out pretty quick Sunday morning. My race run was wide open up top and then as I got towards the bottom I held back just a touch as to not throw it all away. It seemed to work out. Came across in 8th! My best Pro finish yet.

Doing it.

Next on my schedule was the Capitol Forest Classic enduro that partnered with Cascadia Dirt Cup for the fifth race in there series. This is my home forest so I had these trails pretty figured out for the most part. I pre-rode once about 3 weeks before just to jog my memory.

When I pre-rode it was dry. It decided to rain the two days before and then during the race. If you have ridden Capitol Forest trails in the wet then you know just how slick it can get. We have a mainly clay based soil around the woods that turns everything it touches a dull orange red. I also hadn't ridden in the mud, except for Canadian Open, for a good couple of months. I wasn't too sure how hard to push it or where the limit was for traction.

Making our way up to stage one.

I found the limit in stage one with a stumble through a corner and a derailed chain. This run seemed to set a standard for the rest of the stages. I rode stage 2,3 and 5 clean but had a couple high speed dismounts on both 4 and 6 that cost a decent amount of time. There weren't many that day made it through all six without becoming victim to the red clay once or twice. Even with the mishaps I ended the day in 7th for my first enduro of the season. A result that I am happy with given the circumstances.