Race Report: Kona Montenbaik Enduro Championship 1

By Eduardo de Solminihac
The first race of the Kona Montenbaik Enduro Championship took place in early October with 200 enthusiastic riders. This was the 4th year of the championship and is still the only series of its kind in Latin America. The format of the Montenbaik Enduro Championship is similar to the Superenduro series in Italy or to a Moto Rally.  Riders have a certain amount of time to get to the start of each stage and hit the check point before starting their timed, Special stage which is mainly downhill.

The course featured 27.5 km of riding total with four check points and a gain of 1425 meters. The four timed Special stages had 1300m of downhill and all the riders finished exhausted. Overall Pro times were around 15 minutes.

For this first race, the riders got to test out the new El Durazno Bike Park with brand new trails created by Momentum Trail Concepts.  There was a lot of excitement with all the riders because the new trails are fun, flowy and unique to the Chilean riding scene. This year was also the first time Montenbaik used a new timing system that uses a personal chip which stores the data from each check point. This the same timing system that the Transprovence uses and proves to be very accurate and user-friendly on the trail.

Among the 200 registered we saw new faces. Several moto riders, such as Joshua Smith, Jose Moreno Calufo and Agustin Fuenzalida joined Chilean legends like Claus Plaut, Diego Diaz, the DH Triple Master World Champion Sebastian Vasquez, Pedro Ferreira and Rogelio Cano.

The Master A category was surprising, with nearly 60 competitive riders.  Calufo Moreno who participated in his first Montenbaik Enduro, took the win followed by local, Eliodoro Matte.  Juan Cristobal Rodillo (winner of the category in 2009) took third. The Expert category, with 41 riders, saw the return of a classic DH rider who took the win, Jan Guzman. Juan Hagn and third place Nicolas Jubera rounded out 2nd and 3rd place. At day's end, the top of the Elite, Pedro Ferreira, took the win with his Commencal Meta AM, dethroning Nico Prudencio (Giant Reign/Schwalbe) who competed with a plaster cast on his hand. Third place was awarded to Claus Plaut who preferred to participate in Montenbaik Enduro instead of the XC National Champs that weekend.

There was a special atmosphere with the 200 riders, plus families, friends, spectators, dogs, beers, barbeques and delicious pizza sponsored by Papa John's, which added a special touch to Kona Montenbaik Enduro. We look forward to the next race on the Enduro calendar held on November 17 in the south of Chile, Valdivia, where Jerome Clementz and Ben Cruz from the Cannondale International Team will participate.

Pro Results

(for complete results visit montenbaik.com)

View the Photo Gallery from the Kona Montenbaik Enduro Championship