We take health and safety very seriously at NZ Enduro. Since most of the racing is blind every blind feature that can’t be rolled safely is identified and signed appropriately.



The final day's racing was held on Jentree MTB, it was our bad weather back up plan from the intended day of racing at Wakamarina which is a much more technical and difficult trail system. We cancelled that because of safety concerns (not being able to use helicopters should they be needed for evacuation purposes). A stage on day one was also cancelled as its wet clay surface made it too unsafe to ride, safety comes first.



That said Jentree offered the easiest and tamest trails of the three days. Everything was within sight of the rego area and race village which was set up adjacent to the stream crossing. Riders could inspect the stream, its bottom contours and pre-ride it if they wanted. A double gap jump was closed off above the stream as we don’t feel those are safe for blind racing. It also slowed the riders speed a little before the corner. The whole stage was within sight of the start line, so riders waiting to start could watch other riders crossing the stream and see what techniques worked and what didn’t. Most riders made the crossing successfully at all speeds, slow, medium and fast. Like on any trail or race track in any discipline of MTB riders can choose how fast they want to ride features and sections. This freedom of choice is fundamentally the beauty of MTB. This stream crossing is also part of the XC loop and has been used multiple times (at greater depths) in XC races hosted here.



There were no injuries on this crossing just a few happy wet racers and a couple of bruised egos.



Above is James Rennie who exercised his freedom of choice. — Sven Martin, NZ Enduro Organizer