Enduro World Champ Richie Rude joined us to analyze Coach Jonathan’s onboard footage from every stage of EWS Northstar 2019, and we learned a ton! We hope you enjoy it, and I would love to hear what you guys think of Richie’s line choice, my [sometimes poor] decisions 
, and any other questions you have about the race. It challenged body, mind and equipment in a totally new way for me.
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Stage 1 – River Sticks > Woods > Kickback
- TrainerRoad Ride File
- Strava Ride file
- Distance: 1.68mi (2.7km)
- Average Grade: -11%
- Jonathan’s Stage Time: 6:14:80 (34th EWS 100)
- Richie’s Stage Time: 5:01:39 (1st Pro)
- Time Coasting: 3:54 (62%)
- Time in Anaerobic Zone: 1:19 (21%)
- Peak Power: 1,227w
- Normalized Power: 235w
- Average Speed: 16mph
- Max Speed: 29mph
Stage 2 – Karpiel
- TrainerRoad Ride File
- Distance: 1.32mi (2.12km)
- Average Grade: -15%
- Jonathan’s Stage Time: 5:15:08 (22nd EWS 100)
- Richie’s Stage Time: 4:25:98 (5th Pro)
- Time Coasting: 3:54 (74%)
- Time in Anaerobic Zone: 0:27 (9%)
- Peak Power: 1,308w
- Normalized Power: 142w
- Average Speed: 15mph
- Max Speed: 24mph
Stage 3 – Tahoe Trail > Sticks and Stones
- TrainerRoad Ride File
- Distance: 2.98mi (4.79km)
- Average Grade: -11%
- Jonathan’s Stage Time: 9:26:35 (24th EWS 100)
- Richie’s Stage Time: 8:09:65 (1st Pro)
- Time Coasting: 6:22 (67%)
- Time in Anaerobic Zone: 1:29 (16%)
- Peak Power: 938w
- Normalized Power: 178w
- Average Speed: 19mph
- Max Speed: 37mph
Stage 4 – Tell No Tales
- TrainerRoad Ride File
- Distance: .98mi (1.57km)
- Average Grade: -17%
- Jonathan’s Stage Time: 3:26:34 (29th EWS 100)
- Richie’s Stage Time: 2:44:85 (4th Pro)
- Time Coasting: 3:15 (91%)
- Time in Anaerobic Zone: 0:11 (5%)
- Peak Power: 663w
- Normalized Power: 91w
- Average Speed: 17mph
- Max Speed: 35mph
Stage 5 – Dogbone
- TrainerRoad Ride File
- Distance: .65mi (1.04km)
- Average Grade: -17%
- Jonathan’s Stage Time: 2:49:65 (26th EWS 100)
- Richie’s Stage Time: 2:11:20 (1st Pro)
- Time Coasting: 2:40 (90%)
- Time in Anaerobic Zone: 0:11 (6%)
- Peak Power: 889w
- Normalized Power: 65w
- Average Speed: 14mph
- Max Speed: 36mph
Stage 6 – Boondocks
- TrainerRoad Ride File
- Distance: 1.31mi (2.11km)
- Average Grade: -13%
- Jonathan’s Stage Time: 4:45:32 (55th EWS 100)
- Richie’s Stage Time: 3:36:58 (1st Pro)
- Time Coasting: 3:47 (78%)
- Time in Anaerobic Zone: 0:35 (12%)
- Peak Power: 1,017w
- Normalized Power: 145w
- Average Speed: 13mph
- Max Speed: 25mph
10 Likes
Awesome! Looking forward to watching
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It’s worth the time to watch. North star looks like so much fun.
Thanks for sharing Jonathan.
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It is a ton of fun! These trails are the hardest ones, but there is plenty of variety on that mountain.
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Wow! Can’t wait to work my way through these!
So awesome you were able to get Richie to do this with you.
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Yeah it was! Like most pro athletes, his schedule is packed, so I’m grateful it worked out.
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How low is your HR? You’re clocking 100-115 on the graphic in most of the vids.
Is this accurate?
My favourite quote from the vids. “Oh shoot”. While sealant is spraying everywhere. Solid gold!
I watched all of these yesterday throughout the day. It was really interesting listening to Richie especially contrasted with Jonathan from a style perspective and Richie got a little better throughout the series of articulating how he approaches these segments.
I’ve never really been that interested in trying out Enduro, but these videos really helped me “get it”. Here is a list of my takeaways that i’ll be trying to incorporate into my own XC racing:
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Energy conservation. Obviously these segments are above and beyond what you would encounter in most riding situations, but it was interesting to see which moments that Richie would try to save energy. I’m used to just trying to ride everything as fast as possible during a race and this is a good reminder to be thoughtful about whether to save versus spend energy.
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Cornering setup into segments. This is something that completely makes sense once you here it, but didn’t really occur to me prior. The number of times that he was setting up before a corner in order to have as straight a line as possible was really interesting. It seems like segment “exit speed” was really important and played a lot into helping with the energy conservation as well, where you don’t have to burn as many matches to get back up to speed.
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Risk/Reward. I would expect that the pros ride the gnarliest lines, but many times Richie was looking for the safest/smoothest line (which is logical since it’s probably going to be pretty fast). Makes me feel a bit better about some of the lines that I take
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Using Rocks as Friends instead of Foes. I’d never really thought to use the backside of rocks to pump down and setup up to float other other rocks in rock gardens. I’ve done it accidentally before, but it really stuck in my mind, especially because there is an awkward semi-slow speed rock garden in one of my local trails that I’ve never been able to rationalize why I can get through fast some times.
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How to handle Ruts. I live in SoCal so ruts are a part of life down here. It’s helpful to have some concrete advice to just let the bike surf rather than trying to muscle the bike around.
Really incredible series of vids; you guys have been putting out some incredible content between this series and the sprinting video.
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I think the toughness of the trail kept my Forerunner 945 from tracking HR correctly. Good thing we had my extremely loud breathing to indicate how hard I was working 
.
I’m impressed with how well my power meter tracked through all of that. It was my first time using the 4iiii factory install on my XX1 AXS cranks, and it worked flawlessly.
Glad to hear you’re not a robot!
I know that I’d be hitting HR PR’s on anything half as crazy as that.
Those optical HR monitors can throw out some strange numbers sometimes. It happens on my surf ski (wrist or foot strap) and if I have the Fenix 3 on a handlebar mount. Shoot knows what the watch is basing the HR on at that point in time.
I’m looking forward to watching these vids over to catch as many hints as possible.
It’s scary when you look at how far ahead Richie is focusing.
I’m watching 6 as we speak, I came here to ask that question. I know I can hit max HR going DH more so than uphill. Cool videos, thanks!
XC is my focus as well and I can say without a doubt that focusing on descending at times is super crucial for racing well. This year I’ve really been laser focused on pure fitness that I have let some of my technical skills slide. I really want to hone back in on cornering drills as well as just practicing riding the very technical and steep trails I used to ride a bunch. (I see some technical terrain on the events I race).
Interesting seeing your perspective here as it can pertain to another racing genre. What’s racing XC like in So Cal?
