Arrowhead Hosting Enduro: 2022 MAXXIS Eastern State Cup Enduro Series Primer

By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT — The city of Claremont will see an influx of bicycles this weekend, as Arrowhead and The WheelHouse host the 2022 MAXXIS Eastern State Cup Enduro Series.

This year marks the second event hosted by the Eastern State Cup after the organization became aware of the popularity of the expert level trails in Claremont. The event begins on the morning Saturday, September 10, 2022, and will feature roughly 300 mountain bikers, along with their families and spectators.

This will be the first year the World Enduro has come to the United States. Last year, Arrowhead served as a qualifying mountain for the larger races that took place this year at Burke in Vermont and Sugarloaf in Maine. According to Rob Walker, co-owner of The WheelHouse and trail builder, enduros of this nature traditionally happen on much larger mountains like Killington and Okemo. It is the difficulty of the terrain, however, that has made the biking trails on Arrowhead appeal to professional mountain bikers from all over. The trails were built, maintained, and added onto by not only the owners of The WheelHouse, but numerous volunteers, the Claremont Parks and Recreation Department and help from companies like Sinuosity and Powderhorn.

While the riders have paid an entry fee to enter the series, spectators are able to attend free of charge. Organizers ask that anyone spectating park at Monadnock Park and Arrowhead offers hiking along the ATV trail to witness bikers ranging from professional to an under 12 races down the mountain. Sunday morning will be the official start of the race at 8:30am. Vendors like Epic Food Truck, Rocky’s Taqueria, and Monster Tacos will be in attendance, with the Claremont Chamber of Commerce offering a bar option to riders and spectators alike. Spectators are encouraged to hike roughly halfway up the ATV trail to a section where four separate trails come particularly close together to get up close to the action.

While the trails at Arrowhead may have attracted a lot of attention from organizations like the Eastern State Cup and well-known mountain bikers with large online presence, the folks at The WheelHouse are nowhere near done building trails and encouraging an active biking community in Claremont. The trails at Arrowhead are lauded for their difficulty level, and on the other side of that coin, Moody Park has a number of beginner trails, but The WheelHouse and Claremont Parks & Rec are looking to add even more.

“Arrowhead is unique in that every experience is advanced, it’s incredibly steep up there. We have gone backwards from the way other people do it, but we knew it would attract a lot of people. So, we started with hard terrain, but we have Moody Park for beginner riders. We are getting to the point as a plan to start developing, along with Claremont Parks and Rec, a ride trail that is more digestible to intermediate riders,” said Walker.

The owners of The WheelHouse, including Walker, Matt Hall, and Eli Burke were also able to bring attention to the mountain just by celebrating biking. For roughly the last seven years the group has conducted a sort of “underground enduro” with friends that attracted pro bikers. Not taking it terribly seriously, Walker said that bikers would be doing things like eating powdered donuts before starting a run, but that ECS organizers took notice and saw that the trails were particularly well crafted.

“We always felt like the race season ended too early last year and so we wanted to get out there. So, the last seven years we were hosting our own underground enduro race just for fun. We were graced with really high-level riders and were just doing goofy stuff to celebrate bikes. The organizers caught wind of that and then realized the terrain was way better than our antics, “ he said.

“They asked if we could host an event and we said yes but all the trails weren’t done. So, there was a massive effort to make sure the trails were done, and it was a huge success,” he continued.

MAXXIS ESC looks forward to hosting the event. Hikers are encouraged to begin heading up the mountain at roughly 8:45am on Sunday and will be helped by volunteers to find the best place to spectate.