Bike
MTB Enduro
Just how do downhill and enduro compare as racing disciplines?
With the UCI MTB World Cup and the Enduro World Series seasons both kicking off their 2019 campaigns, we breakdown the specific demands of each discipline, their similarities and differences.
Mountain biking has many guises – from the trick-focused and judged disciplines of slopestyle to the big-mountain Red Bull Rampage events, and racing against the clock. Downhill has always been the premier gravity led discipline, but with the emergence of enduro racing, we're seeing world class racing on bikes many of us own and ride ourselves.
Enduro is best explained as a rally, but on bikes – a long event covering large distances, with numerous timed sections against the clock. You have specific times to reach each stage by, with liaisons taken at your pace between these stages.
Stages are primarily gravity focused, and generally the liaisons take you to the top of a hill, before you race back down for the timed sections. The duration of the stages can vary hugely, with part of the remit of enduro to be an all-encompassing discipline to challenge multiple areas of skill and fitness.
Martin Maes is a racer who's active on both DH and enduro racing circuits
© Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
How is enduro similar to downhill?
The timed stages can be compared to many World Cup downhill tracks, especially those old-school DH tracks that were more natural in their design. These technical courses require a huge amount of skill and speed.
The wallride section at Leogang
© Bartek Woliński
Both disciplines are against the clock, and riders are separated by very fine margins – even after nearly an hour of total race time in enduro, riders at the top are often separated by just a handful of seconds. The times are remarkably close considering the length of the races. For example, in 2017 Sam Hill beat Martin Maes in at the United States round of the EWS by just 03.84s over 46 minutes of racing.
Greg Callaghan on course
© Chris Wachsmann
The nature of the racing is very similar: high pressure, mistake free riding at the limit of your grip and control will deliver the best results, not a full attack run with the rider bouncing from one side of the track to the other, with a high risk of mistakes. Watching the top riders in either discipline is a lesson in control, composure, and momentum, which is something any amateur can take a lot from.
Enduro's premier competition, the Enduro World Series, kicked off its 2019 season in Rotorua, New Zealand. Watch the replay below and tune into Red Bull TV.
Maxxis Slopestyle in Memory of McGazza
Named after the late freeride mountain bike hero Kelly McGarry, this is the first stop on the Crankworx tour.
What are the main differences between downhill and enduro?
1. The bikes
Loïc Bruni – Specialized S-Works Demo
© Bartek Woliński
Whereas a DH bike is often seen as an F1 machine – a thoroughbred race machine that's often heavily modified from stock and aimed only at going downhill very fast – an enduro bike is very similar to most bikes you'd see at any trail centre. They're designed to go uphill as well as down, and need to be a master of all trades. In DH racing, the mechanics can change parts every single run, and many pro riders change wheelsets multiple times a day.
Greg Callaghan stands with his enduro bike
© Morgan Treacy/Red Bull Content Pool
However, in enduro racing the bikes must last the event – your wheels, forks, and frame must last the entire duration of the event, so a robust bike is primary.
2. Racing format
Downhill racers learn one track to the highest level of accuracy. The challenge for them is putting together one perfect run on a track they have almost unlimited riding time on.
Early morning track walk
© Paris Gore/Red Bull Content Pool
For enduro racers, they often get a just a single sighting run for each timed stage (of which there can be up to six in a race weekend), and they must then take as much as they can from this little track time to carve out the best possible run.
In enduro you may face different types of terrain on any stage
© Matt Wragg/EWS
Momentum, smoothness and speed are all critical, and there's clearly a trade-off between the riskiest lines, which might save fractions of a second, but could lead to crashes or bike damage versus a smooth, consistent, and fast run. The first thing you must do to win is complete all stages without mechanical incident.
3. The duration
Downhill runs usually last between three and five minutes. An enduro race will usually be across two days, and you're often out on the bike all day. Within this you complete multiple stages of durations often exceeding 10 minutes, and total race time can be close to an hour. Fitness is key, and not just fitness to power through a stage, but the fitness to complete the transitions between stages and recover quickly for the next run.
The EWS Superkappa trail is steep and committing
© Dan Milner
As an accessible form of mountain bike racing, and for pure adventure, enduro has really hit the spot. It's attracting a lot of riders to this format, so why not give it a go? There are many events to choose between, from big two-day events to mini enduro events held over one day where there's less pressure and total race time, but it gives a good taste of the sport.
