Here is a little competitive challenge to keep you motivated to push yourself during quarantine. Let’s do an old skool enduro lap on Whoops this week and see who the champ is. What’s an old skool enduro segment you ask? It’s a lap where there is a time cut off for the up, and a timed down. The up is at a pace that is reasonable but will be challenging to make for a rider with a monster DH bike and will give a fitness rider an advantage by letting them catch their breath before the timed down.

How it works:

Between now and Midnight on Wednesday (5/6) the course is “open” for riding; following all social distancing guidelines of course! Using a timing gadget that will record your route (Strava, Garmin, MapMyRide, etc.) start at the trail marker at the bottom of Lower Whoops. This is the junction of Whoops, Pinedrops, and EXT. You must start your timer with a hand on the trail marker and a foot on the ground. Ride up the Whoops up-route (the road). You have as much time as your selected category allows to make it to the top. If you get there before the time is up, you can wait to catch your breath and let other riders go so you don’t have to pass them on the down. To start your timed run, you must have a hand on the trail marker at the top of Lower Whoops and a foot on the ground. When you get to the bottom, ride to the trail marker you started at. Put your hand on the marker and a foot on the ground before you stop your timer.

The Start/ Finish Trail Marker and the Top of Lower Whoops Trail Marker

Scoring:

Before you start, choose your category.

A Group: You are FAST and you know it. You probably have raced a MTB before and are a Cat1/ Pro lady.

B Group: You are a strong rider. You may have raced a bike and if so are a Cat 2/3 shredder.

C Group: You are new riding on the dirt, new to challenging yourself on single track, or just know this is the group you want to be with.

Up route time cutoff’s: A’s 13 min., B’s 15 min., C’s 18 min. If you start your timed run after the up-route time cutoff it’s okay, this extra time will be added to your down time. If you get to the top with time to spare, you can start your down-route anytime before your up-route time cutoff.

This is a challenge, that means you can do this as many times as you like and submit your best. Please remember Whoops is open to all riders and you have no special permission to be a lame trail user. Your run may be a scratch because you ran into a family doodling down Whoops or you caught a rider and had to slow to maintain social distancing while waiting for a good place to pass.

Submitting your time:

Email emma_maaranen@hotmail.com or post on @LadySwarm FaceBook group before the end of the day, Wednesday, May 6th your entire lapsed time for the lap, your down time, and what category you self-selected to be in. (If you sandbag the category, management reserves the right to move you up a category.) If you want to publicly remain anonymous, you can, just send me your rock star name. Winners of each category will receive some sort of prize TBD.

Keep it clean:

Good sportsmanship, trail stewardship, compassionate social distancing, and the honor system are in play here. But… winners of each category and two randomly selected players (like random drug testing) will be asked to submit their recorded data to ensure no funny business.

Example:

I am participating in the A group. I did two laps on Whoops. The first was a practice run, the second is my submitted run. Here is the data:

Using the second loop, my total time is 19min.16sec. I started my timer with my hand on the trail marker and my foot on the ground at the bottom of Whoops. I then rode at a social pace up the road. I hit my lap button with my hand on the trail marker and my foot on the ground at the top of Lower Whoops to start my down hill run which was 12min. 22sec. after I left the start. When I finished my run I pedaled back to the start trail marker, put a foot down and a hand on the trail marker then stopped my lap at 6min. 29sec. Because I made the time cutoff, my time is 6min. 29sec. If my up-route time had been 13min. 15 sec. as a group A rider, 15 seconds would be added to my down-route time making my final time 6min. 44sec.

This is just for fun and to provide a little competition. If you have any questions or suggestions of how I can do this better, please let me know. Feel free to share this challenge with any of your bike friends!