Race Recap: Round #1 Fraser Valley - MEC Canadian National Enduro Series presented by Intense Cycles

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Ted Morton

There are very few days on the bike that truly are perfect, it’s rare to have great weather, with moist, loamy, tacky dirt. Not to mention a race weekend, as any event organizer can tell you that race weekends typically have the worst luck. Well, when you partner with what could be the best Trail Association in BC, the Fraser Valley Mountain Bike Association, mother nature listens, and she shares the stoke! This day will go down in the record books for many people, as they climbed just over 2,000m of elevation, pedalling 30+ kms, to see who would be able to fend off the local hotshot Max Leyen.

Max is the 2017 MEC Canadian National Enduro Champion, and he showed everyone this weekend what Leyen Into It, is truly about, setting a blistering pace, and starting the season off right! In the Women’s field, we saw Georgia Astle make somewhat of a return to Enduro racing aboard her Intense Cycles, as she dominated the Women’s field and looked ever so confident doing so.

This year we are switching our race recaps up a bit, we’ll be posting a brief recap after the event, so stay tuned midweek for our new video series chronicling the local communities that we visit, in partnership with Mountain Biking BC.

TRAIL LOVE

This weekend was a doubleheader, FVMBA Vedder Classic XC on Saturday and MEC Canadian National Enduro Series presented by Intense on Sunday, with over 550 event participants between the two events, the Vedder Mountain Bike Festival is quickly becoming the best season opener in British Columbia. The Fraser Valley Mountain Bike Association put in more than 800 hours of labour in the three weeks leading up to the event, as they wanted to showcase what the best trails in BC look like. The bursting beer gardens, full vendor expo area, tired legs and steep smiles, were confirmation that yup, indeed, Vedder Mountain is world-class, thanks to the efforts of the local trail association.

For those who didn’t know, at every stop of the Canadian National Enduro Series, we donate 10% of racer registrations, for this race, racers contributed $2566 towards the clubs trail maintenance, and it gets even better, our partner MEC graciously supports our events by matching that donation up to $2000, resulting in a whopping, $4566 of cash going straight back into the dirt!

A special thanks to Fraser Valley Mountain Bike Association!