What To Expect – Enduro Western Cape Jonkershoek 31 October

by | Oct 5, 2021 | Bike, Bike Events & Racing, Bike Racing News, Enduro WC

This is going to be a big one ladies and gents. The WILD AIR Coffee EWC #1 presented by Tygerberg MTB Club is going to go off! The Jonkershoek mountains are a well renowned location in the trail riding community and for good reason of course! The scale of terrain is enormous and the quality of trail found draped on those mountainsides in the Nature Reserve are nigh on unparalleled in the rest of the country. Always a highlight stop of the Enduro Western Cape series and this year it is the season opener!

What To Expect - Enduro Western Cape Jonkershoek 31 October
Big mountains means great challenge and great reward! Bring on the enduro action! Photo: Chris Hitchcock

Things are stepping up a notch at the Enduro Western Cape this year. We will have a brand new Jonkershoek race village which should be a proper vibe with music, free beer and Protein2Go when you finish! We have some rad spot prizes in the works and there are also some changes to expect in the way the starting procedures and batching works to prevent congestion at the start of each stage and catching slower riders in your race run. Expect some cool prizes for the top 3 riders in each category as well! Find out all you need to know below!

Race Info

Where and When: MTO Trails Jonkershoek – 31 October

What: 4 Stages Full Enduro (35km) / 2 Stages Lite Enduro (22km)

Note: SA Enduro Cup Round #3 / Western Province Enduro Champs / Enduro World Series Qualifier. E-Bikes Welcome

Prizes: There will be prizes awarded for the top 3 riders in each category with the Elite Categories getting a share in 10K of prize money! (See lower down for categories)

Enter Here – Entries close on the 28th of October at 18H00 [updated] and are limited to 300 riders!

Preparing for the Jonkershoek Enduro

These are big mountains and physically testing trails! If you are new to enduro, we definitely encourage you to come and see what it is about! If you’re not sure you can handle 35km with close to 2000m elevation gain then enter the Lite. The Lite will also skip out the 2 more technically challenging stages that the Full makes use of.

What To Expect - Enduro Western Cape Jonkershoek 31 October
Warning! The extreme length and physicality of the Jonkershoek stages may cause severe arm pump, calf burn, watery eyes, and incredible feeling of stokedness. Prepare accordingly. Photo: Chris Hitchcock

Racing Enduro is a real physical test, even through you don’t have to race the climbs. Pushing hard on the descents can really take it out of you and you’ll be out there for over 3 hours usually. Try to replicate some big days like this before the event so that you’re aware of how your body will respond. Make sure you have sufficient food and liquid on you, there will be a Cadence Nutrition water point during the race to help keep you fuelled.

The descents at Jonkershoek are big (up to 10mns +)! You’ve got to ride big descents to condition your body well for them so get out to Jonkershoek or spend good time getting in the longest non-stop descents that you can nearby. This will pay dividends. Have a look at the course previews below to get an idea of what you are in for!

Giant Course Preview: Stage 1 (Lite and Full) – Red Phoenix
Giant Course Preview: Stage 2 (Full) – The Plumber
Giant Course Preview: Stage 3 (Full) / Stage 2 (Lite) – Armageddon
Giant Course Preview: Stage 4 (Full) – Iron Monkey

EWS Qualifier Points

If you would like to collect Enduro World Series points, you will need to follow the link here and pay for your EWS membership.
EWS Website -> User Portal (top right screen) -> Login or Create account -> User Navigation -> My Membership.
Enduro World Series points are necessary for you to enter an Enduro World Series event (entries will open in early 2022 for the 2022 season).

In terms of how the points collection works, the age categories that points are allocated in are u/21, Elite, and Masters (35+). The EWS Qualifier points will be calculated after the event has taken place so sit tight for info there. See the table below for the standard EWS Qualifier point allocation per category, or find it in the EWS rule book here.

What To Expect - Enduro Western Cape Jonkershoek 31 October

Note: Those positions are overall positions within the age category, not positions of riders with EWS Memberships. If you place 5th in U21 Men for example, and the 4 riders ahead of you do not have memberships, you will receive points for 5th in category (25 points).

Categories

The age categories in which you will race are as follows.

8 – 10 Nipper
11 – 12 Sprog
13 – 14 Sub Junior
15 – 16 Youth
17 – 18 Junior
19 – 29 Elite
30 – 39 Sub Veteran
40 – 49 Veteran
50 – 59 Masters
60 – 80 Grand Masters

The Lite Enduro and E-Bike categories will only have overall results with no age categories.

Keep an ear out!

We will be communicating further race info across email (if you have entered), and on our website and social media channels but the important stuff will all be via email so make sure you read them and tell your mates to as well! There will be a bit of a change up in how the batching and stage starts work this year so take note when that is communicated to avoid confusion and potential time penalties! The stoke is high to see everyone at the races!

Enter here for Jonkershoek 31 October

Enjoy a throwback to the SA Enduro Champs at Jonkershoek in 2019!

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