Enduro Philippines

24 - Bato - Bandera, DRT, Bulacan Friendly 

Enduro Race (Invitational)

Our good friend Marvin sent me a message inviting me to a friendly enduro race in DRT, Bulacan. I did not know how to react because racing is not on my mind or has crossed my mind since I started mountain biking. Then I got curious, I asked Marvin "What is an enduro race?"

Track Reading

Here is what I got and let me enumerate it:

1. Enduro racing is all about technical skills and having balls made of steel, you need to be stout - hearted if you want to succeed in this field of biking.

2. It is composed of a liaison (LS) and a special stage (SS).  A liaison stage involves a lot of climbing. All participants will be climbing together and will be given a certain amount of time to reach the special stage. If a person fails to reach the SS in the allotted time, he will be thrown into the ravine with his bike, JK! If the LS time limit is 60 minutes and you reach the SS at 61 minutes, the extra minute will be added to your SS time.

3. The special stage is like the 15th and 30th of the month, it is payday for all the hard work that you have done! This is pretty straight forward, you descend as fast as you can and be the champ if you have the fastest time.

Bikers are given a minute or more of interval to avoid chaos in the trail.

4. Enduro racing involves a lot of LS and SS, in 24-Bato-Bandera there are 3 LS and 3 SS. Please send me a message if I got it all wrong or if I missed something.

The race is on a Saturday and our friend Marvin invited me to a track read or track familiarization 2 days before the event (Unfortunately I was not able to join the event as I was still recovering from muscle fatigue.) We parked at the Bandera exit and headed to 24 (Bente kwatro) with our bikes and we did a little detour at the 24 falls as seen on the photo above and continued going up.

That was my first time in 24 and it was a nice and challenging experience. I have been to Bato - Bandera trail via Jampol Quarry (Dubai to some bikers) and I am not ashamed to admit that I walked most of the descents that time.

24 was the first stage of the race, the LS was gruesome it was a 2 hour mountain climbing and buhathlon experience. The terrain got steeper and the air got thinner as we reach the top. The SS 1 was a single track with a 25 - 30 foot ravine on the right side. The SS 2 and 3 are almost the same with steep technical descents, a v - shaped trail and it won't let you get away with a slowish speed IMHO, the terrain will encourage you to descend with a bit of speed as slowing down will only make your rear tire wash out and lose control. I remember talking to myself as my rear tire was washing out while I was trying to slow down on a steep descent "Am I going to be on my brakes the whole way down?" Hell no! I released my brakes and immediately got back the control of my bike.

Photo courtesy of Marvin Mendoza.

Real De Cacarong

Sunset Ride from jigs on Vimeo.

Real de cacarong is one of our regular destinations, especially if we have newbies tagging along, although some newbies especially the ex-bmx riders are equipped with skills needed for ripping the trails. With the help of our friend Google map, we discovered different trails leading to Cacarong. This one is our latest route and along the way are a few quarry sites, or "playgrounds" as we call it.

Quarry sites are perfect for thrill-seeking bikers like me and my friends. Pinagtulayan Quarry and Jampol Quarry, both in DRT, are perfect examples. Fast and rough downhills, river crossings, zero cellphone signal, challenging "uphells" and locals that treat you like a celebrity. You've got to be self-sufficient though for the nearest asphalt road might be an hour away or more.

Today's blazing summer heat is unbearable. Climate change is changing the way we live and for us bikers, the time that we ride. Most bikers ride early in the morning especially on weekends. Some will arrive home before lunch (short ride), some will arrive home after sunset (long ride), some will arrive home the next day (harkor ride), some will never get home (probably lost in the woods or mountains and will die from starvation or from the inability to post photos of their food on Facebook.) Just kidding!

What is the best way to avoid heat stroke? Stay at home and watch teleseryes or post photos of your food on Facebook the whole day. Although we are bikers and we love to ride our bikes whenever possible. The sun is very angry for no reason at all during 2:00 to 3:00 pm, so we try to avoid biking during those times. We either ride early in the morning and go home before the sun gets really angry or ride after 3:00 pm (hapon ride/ semi - night ride, as we call it) and bike home without worrying of dehydration or heat stroke. Plus you get to see amazing sunsets!