Duel at the Cantina
Dual Slalom Practice, Saturday, Reveille Peak Ranch.
The Team Trail Party 2023 Texas Enduro Cup series kicked off with the Texas National Championships at Spider Mountain and Reveille Peak Ranch in Burnet. This ambitious two-day event featured two enduro races, two XC races, and a dual slalom race at a brand-new track at RPR. I considered racing both venues, but I know my body would not have gone for that and instead I decided to shoot photos all weekend. Luckily the weather was gorgeous and so it made camping at RPR a no brainer.
I chose to post up on Sidewinder for the full race at Spider, hoping to not miss anyone by changing stages mid race. There is a section on middle Sidewinder that has a series of berms snaking back and forth, with one in particular that was long and sweeping, and that was my scene. I chose a spot low down on the hill so that the backside of the berm would be in the foreground and dialed in my settings while I waited for the first few riders.
It was fun to see which riders were fully leaned in and committed, and where they were looking. I witnessed a few interesting things, and I won’t drop names but at least two riders cut the entire switchback section by skipping over the backside of two berms, which means you eliminate four berms. This had to be worth ten seconds. In fairness, they did crash on their second run, so there was definitely a risk versus reward calculation there, but it likely paid off assuming their first run was a clean one. The course wasn’t taped there so who knows, it was probably legal, but it did seem a bit… well, you know. Everyone else rode the berms.
DL Wood, with eyes looking well ahead.
I eventually made my way down to lower Sidewinder which had some beautiful lighting under the canopy, and there were a ton of angles to pick from. I finished up with Sleep Tight, but I think I could have done a better job with those shots; I was not as happy with them as with the Sidewinder shots. The limestone wall behind the drop is pretty close behind the rider so the background is very busy and the rider is not very clear. Next time I will try a different location or angle, and perhaps also a different lens. I stowed my gear, grabbed the bike, and went up for a personal fun lap of Vipers Den, Sidewinder, and Venom before leaving for RPR.
I beat the traffic to Reveille which was a good thing for sure because by the time dual slalom practice was kicking off, the campground dubbed “The Cantina” was starting to get packed. There were a lot of folks who came to spectate which was great to see, and there were some pretty good spots to watch from. The event was guaranteed to be popular since this is our first DS track in Texas, and there were no corners cut. Jeremiah Work and Team Trail Party plus a lot of volunteers poured a ton of effort into the project, with a goal of rivaling the like of the Sea Otter Classic DS course. It is a sight to behold and fits in beautifully with the rest of the freeride park.
The race took place under the lights, and it quickly became apparent that the rhythm section was bathed in shadow, so a bunch of folks volunteered bike lights, work lights, and headlights to illuminate this tricky spot, which actually worked fairly well. Where the permanent lighting worked, it worked very well and that was a big job taken care of by master electrician Wesley Crow. It will be nice to be able to have evening races in the hot summer months, and lights will be critical in the fall when the time changes again.
The racing finally ended a little bit after midnight just as a cold front was moving in. It seems there were a few lessons learned from the race, but that is pretty expected for a brand-new event requiring a huge amount of logistics. I hear that the plan going forward is to have monthly races, and the track is not open to riders when not being used for races. This is something that will be obvious to anyone who builds trails. The amount of handwork on top of the machine work that went into building the course means you don’t want it being destroyed.
I got some pretty epic sleep and woke up around 7am to grab a few laps of Flodelo before heading out to Slick Rock, which was the stage I planned to shoot from. There is a steep rock roll feature followed by a skipper jump before a gap step-down, and this is definitely the most exciting portion of the trail, so I found a little spot just below and to the side of this, set up my remote flash, and swapped out the telephoto for my wide angle lens. I was excited to try something new as I have almost exclusively been shooting with my tele.
It was probably a full hour before the first rider actually came through. I think most people started with Sweet Skull and Full Commando and finished with Slick Rock. The highlight here was getting to hang out with a few spectators, and seeing Ashlie Poland crush the rock roll and skipper on her second lap after giving it a hard pass the first time through. Seeing people progress and take personal victories is one of my favorite aspects of this sport.
I was packed, gone and on the road by 3pm and headed back to Austin to begin the process of editing photos. I ended up with just over 4,300 untouched images and 57 video clips from the weekend. Thank goodness I took Monday off because I was a total zombie by Sunday evening. I wound up culling photos till about 8am Monday before taking a four-hour nap and starting right back up again. Eventually I would finish everything and get the final gallery posted by Wednesday evening. I wound up editing over 1700 photos.
I’ve been really enjoying getting back into photography. I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who purchased photos from the last two races. You made it worth the effort and helped me realize a viable way to fund this website and the content and allow MTBATX to contribute to trail projects and events in Central Texas, including $500 to the prize fund for the upcoming Five Finger Discount jam at East Austin Bike Park! I’m looking forward to seeing y’all this Saturday for that!
The 2023 Texas Enduro Cup Schedule is below:
