Words by Lauren Gregg @lauren.gregg
The best racers in the world recently arrived in Aspen for the USA stop of the Enduro World Series. I was very excited to have an EWS on American home soil and was stoked to check out my progress since racing there last year, which was my first go at a World Series event. My parents made the trip out to and it was great to have family and friends around for a rowdy weekend shredding the alpine trails of ColoRADo.
Although rain and thunderstorms were predicted throughout the weekend, we lucked out with perfect conditions. The race consisted six stages over two days, with two full days of practice beforehand. At 11,000+ feet, the altitude got to everyone over the four massive days of riding, but after practice all the racers were absolutely pumped to race the stages in front of us. The courses were even better than last year and Snowmass put in a lot of work building a fresh cut trail from the top of the mountain that challenged racers on Stage 4 with off-camber traverses and loamy sweetness for almost 15 minutes when pinned to the bottom. Most of the courses remained the same from last year, with terrain varying from super high speed sections, loose corners, loam, sketchy drops to muddy shoots (my Vigilante / Breakout tire setup attacked everything the course threw at it).
I was very happy with how I rode and Aspen ended up being my best race of the year so far. It was encouraging to confidently hit sections that tripped me up last year and nailing some of the trickier corners and bigger features was a personal victory for me. A crash on the top of Stage 4 cost me quite a bit of time, but other than that I rode clean into 28th place in a field of the fastest riders on earth. It’s so humbling riding with the amazing athletes on the EWS circuit and I’m grateful to be learning from and pushed by my friends and fellow racers.
All in all it was an awesome weekend of racing. Everyone was in high spirits for the first race of the year with good weather, and we all crossed the finish line on Day 4 drained from the altitude, maxed out from so much climbing and pedaling, and pumped on riding the fastest and most fun trails Aspen has to offer. After lots of beers and high fives, we all packed up and started our journeys north to Whistler for Round 7 at Crankworx.
