2023 Los Ancianos Tecate Enduro 2DEC2023

[robertaccio 406]

From the LAMC Face Book Page

So have you been riding this season? Well, if not you better get on that horse and start training. The Los Ancianos Tecate Enduro is right around the corner and it ain't gonna be easy. Mark your calendars for signups on October 25th @ 6pm! Signups will be linked from HERE! I will try to link from our website as well but since you guys sell us out so fast the website has trouble handling the traffic. Good luck and we look forward to seeing you at the race at Hacienda Santa Veronica on December 2nd at 7:01am!

[SpaceCowboy 52]

This is a super fun race/ride! I haven't been in a couple years, but I'm for sure trying to snag a ticket this year. Thanks for the heads up.

[robertaccio 406]

In once again since 1994!! great show even to come down and spectate at sections.

[padu 322]

I'm in! Since 2023! Hopefully I come home alive!

[robertaccio 406]

On 10/27/2023 at 12:10 PM, padu said:

I'm in! Since 2023! Hopefully I come home alive!

Well, there is at least one new spot opening from the sold out event.......the stage is yours Padu.

[padu 322]

One sportsman spot is open. I've canceled mine.

Check the story on the other thread

[robertaccio 406]

The spectacle begins on Fri 1 DEC then the race day begins at 0701 on 2DEC , the start finish is at Hacienda Santa Veronica with satellite L1 and L2 finishes our in the country somewhere (always with good vehicle access.)  Anyway Im still prepping as usual last days before the event. My number is 602   60th minute (0800) rider number 2 2021 Husqvarna TE300i

   

[robertaccio 406]

getting older 62 and rode in the SSEN/50 class to get in class to ride the entire course..... well I completed the "race"  as usual it had a high failure rate.

L1 and L2 I raced within limits of endurance conservation mixed with speed. L3 I basically just survived and took breaks as needed, so not a constant movement. This Enduro IMHO was the most technically advanced event to date. Relentless. according to my monitor I burned over 7000 calories. Some L3 obstacles were even a little scary with at least one at that level on L2 as well. Big win for me. My L1 and L2 times were in the SSEN mix and respectable, my L3 time was at the bottom of the barrel, almost 4 hours out on the course. My total race time 7:44:14.97  long day.  Reference, OA Pro Max Gerston(GG) total time, 4:05:57.67, this course was made for Max the Endurocross specialist. P2 was Preston Campbell (Johnny's son)(HON), P3 Giacomo Redondi(GG) Italian World plural champ and WORCS champ

[bfar33 165]

Phenomenal work, sounds like a monumental task to complete all 3 laps.

[robertaccio 406]

I didn't count out the class number of riders breakdown but note sportsman, women and masters were required to do L1 and L2.

All others required to do L1,L2,L3. (Pro,Open,Vet, Sen, SSen)= Vet 30-39, Sen 40-49, SSen 50-59

The finisher rate was about 2/3 of all classes combined , so a 1/3 DNF rate total. 305 starters 212 finishers.

[robertaccio 406]

Words and Photography by Mary Rinell and thanks to Cycle News for the coverage Sean Finley

2023 Tecate Enduro Results

| December 5, 2023

Max Gerston had never ridden the Tecate Enduro before, but you never would have guessed that by the way he rode at the iconic and popular 2023 Los Ancianos Tecate Enduro off-road race. Gerston never let up on the relentless three loops of Tecate single-track trail and took the win at the 2023 event with more than seven minutes to spare.

Max Gerston dominated this year’s running of the Tecate Enduro.

Words and Photography by Mary Rinell

The annual Tecate Enduro, hosted by the Los Ancianos Motorcycle Club, made its annual trek to the Rancho Santa Veronica compound in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico, and more than 300 participants enjoyed some of the best single-track conditions the race has seen in its 60-plus years, mainly due to heavy rain days earlier in the week that made the course ideal. The Los Ancianos Vice President Matteo Paxson said it’s usually only once every five to seven years the location receives this sort of rainfall, so to have it happen two days prior to the race was tremendously fortunate.

The result was chocolate dirt come race day. To call it “hero dirt” would not be an understatement. These are the types of conditions racers dream about. Three loops covered a total 86 miles, with the third loop offering the most technical and demanding sections. Pro riders finished in a little over four hours, but to put a better perspective on the level of difficulty, average seat time for the A/B-only event was just over six hours. A total of 167 riders completed all three loops while the last man standing came in at just under nine hours.

Preston Campbell battled his way to second place.

The Tecate Enduro lineup saw some new names in the Pro class this year, with Arizona natives Max Gerston and Ryan Wells showing up to try their hand on the Northern Baja terrain. Adding to that was GasGas Factory racer Giacomo Redondi, who typically races very different formats and landscapes at the National Grand Prix Championship (NGPC) and West Hare Scrambles (WHS).  Cont. below

[robertaccio 406]

“It’s always good to try something new,” Redondi said at the halfway point. “I’ve heard this race has some difficulty, and that is what I am here for. The first two loops have been very windy and fast, so I am looking forward to some more technical track in loop three.”

Fortunately for Redondi, that is exactly what the test provided. Test number three launched them into upright stacked tires, a rusty car jump, some muddy water-logged berms, flat tires, and then shot them out back into the tight manzanita-lined Mexican hills. There were 30 more miles of hill climbs riddled with slick rocks from the recent rain and technical rock features, including huge boulders the racers had to maneuver their bikes through. Towards the end of the course (once the riders were good and tired), they had to enter a dilapidated, roofless building, making their way up groups of steps, through doorways and hairpin turns, only to drop down yet another narrow and fairly steep decline before opening back up again for the final mile to the finish line.

Giacomo Redondi made a run at Campbell but came up a few seconds short.

After an impressive four hours of seat time, the newcomer Gerston, owner of Max Off-Road Training, was the first to finish this year’s Tecate Enduro, leading by a respectable 07:07.

“My plan was to ride smooth, pace myself properly, minimize mistakes, learn the terrain quickly since I’ve never been here before, and build throughout the day,” Gerston said. “One thing about this race is that because of the long tests, it is fatiguing on your body, but it is also mentally fatiguing. So, being able to stay focused for long periods of time is valuable. I just rode my own race. It’s easy to get wrapped up in your own head and think about all the good racers that are here. So instead, I just focused on the next turn, then the one after that, and kept that mentality going throughout the day.”

Only 35 seconds separated second-place finisher JCR Honda’s Preston Campbell from Redondi in third-place aboard his factory GasGas. Preston is a familiar face at Tecate, as both he and his dad, Johnny, have raced Tecate in years past. He narrowly claimed runner-up honors.

“The Tecate Enduro is one of my favorite events, and it is always nice to end the year off down in Baja for some fun!” Campbell said. “The conditions were absolutely perfect, and the dirt was amazing, full traction. The race was long and technical, so I planned accordingly. I tried to ride smooth and not make any mistakes. At the end of the day, I felt like I did that well. Test three, I struggled a little bit but was able to push to the end. I’m pumped on my second-place finish.”

Gerston encounters a little bit of traffic on the narrow Tecate trails.

On the flip side, any midpack racer offered a much different race report than the pros, as the soft dirt continued to get dug out from the hundreds of bikes attempting to make their way up canyons and through rocky washes. Casual banter around the post-race taco tables offered the general consensus that loop three was extremely gnarly, with the two most challenging sections being what the Los Ancianos had named “Skid Plate” and “Stone Hedge.”

Senior-class racer Eric Schettler said, “Skid Plate was this huge canyon we went up that was basically a wash which had lots of vegetation and boulders. We traversed the creek a few times, running into these very rocky step-ups that had gotten dug out with huge holes from the bikes trying to get up them. But generally, the third loop had technical rock features, like giant slabs you’d ride across that had wet dirt drug across them, so the normally grippy granite was now very slick.”

The Tecate Enduro left its mark on Super Senior racer Kelly Gelhaus.

“My favorite loop for sure was loop three,” winner Gerston said. “It was gnarly, it was rocky, it was like an old-school enduro. There were big rocky canyons that we went up, and then it had some technical feature-based obstacles up through the rocky hills. It just kept you guessing and kept you learning and figuring it out the whole time. I was never just like, ‘I’m riding and it’s easy,’ you were always problem-solving, so naturally, I liked that challenge a lot.”

The top-finishing non-pro rider was Albaro Ortiz who was ninth overall in the Open class.

The top Vet racer was William Zak, who rounded out the top 10 overall.

Clint Bornholdt won the Senior division, while Ira Vick nailed the Super Senior victory.

Campbell, Gerston, Redondi and the Tecate crew celebrate a job well done at another Tecate Enduro.

Brad Rosbach took the two-loop Sportsman victory by approximately 30 seconds over class runner-up Jake Gage.

Reed Haberer captured the Masters-class win and Emma Keiser brought home the number-one trophy in the Women’s class.

Former NBA player Rik Smits was another notable entry, and at seven-feet four-inches, he was hard to miss. He and his son Derrik made the trek from Arizona to compete in their first Tecate Enduro. Smits finished a respectable 86th overall, eighth in the Super Senior class. Derrik was 107th overall and 41st in the Open class. CN

2023 Tecate Enduro Results (Preliminary)

OVERALL (Top 10)

Max Gertson (GasGas)

Preston Campbell (Honda)

Giacomo Redondi (GasGas)

Ryan Wells (KTM)

Brandon Prieto (Honda)

Ryan Surratt (Honda)

Clayton Hengeveld (Yamaha)

Anson Maloney (KTM)

Albaro Ortiz (KTM)

William Zak (Husky)

[robertaccio 406]

good edit

Tecate Enduro 2023. Los Ancianos MC. Best SIngle Track. UNICORN CONDITIONS - YouTube

[robertaccio 406]

Edited December 13, 2023 by robertaccio

[bfar33 165]

Would love to do this event one day

[robertaccio 406]

2 hours ago, bfar33 said:

Would love to do this event one day

FYI, they opened a (re-opened) a Sportsman class for anyone that wants to ride only the partial course. Normal classes do 3 loops ( I entered the 50+ SSEN) SPTSMN do 2, MSTR 60+ do 2, WMN do 2.

It's all about paying attn to the sign update and time, they sell out under an hour   If I am here next year I will finally relent and do the 60 class 2 loop choice (I'm 62). Almost 2 weeks out and I am still recovering.........from my finish of all 3 loops. If I signed up in the 2023 60 class, I would have podiumed most likely 1 or 2 in class, my friend Reed beat both my L1 and 2 times for his 60-class win, however; if I knew I only had to do 2 loops my intensity would have been raised for sure. In this event you need to remember it's a real enduro and energy conservation is very important.

[bfar33 165]

Nice. Sportsman class sounds perfect for my 1st time. I'll keep an eye out for the signup, is it the same day every year? I'll set a calendar reminder so I don't forget.

 

Oh cool, I've ridden with Reed at McCain. Well, I've ridden far behind him eating his dust anyway. Would be awesome to see you two fighting for the top spot on the podium next year.

[robertaccio 406]

1 hour ago, bfar33 said:

Nice. Sportsman class sounds perfect for my 1st time. I'll keep an eye out for the signup, is it the same day every year? I'll set a calendar reminder so I don't forget.

 

Oh cool, I've ridden with Reed at McCain. Well, I've ridden far behind him eating his dust anyway. Would be awesome to see you two fighting for the top spot on the podium next year.

Reed Haberer KTM350XCF-W has @ 75% win ratio over me, Reid Mirvis KTM300XC-W TBI has 0% win ratio over me........ there are the 2 Reeds I know and ride with both are fast and unafraid to ride hard stuff.