Pro racer James Eves is a long time California Enduro Series participant and is looking forward to kicking off the 2019 series with the Ensenada Enduro May 25. James headed down to Ensenada recently for a pre-ride event to scope things out. Here’s what he had to report.
CES: James, how was the trip to Mexico?
JE: It was great! Took a road trip with a couple buddies for the enduro pre-ride and we had a blast.
I have to be honest — when we first decided to go to Mexico for this pre-ride I was nervous. You hear horror stories in the news about Mexico and it makes you hesitate about going there. But I had some friends who have been down there tell me “take your passport, be respectful as you should always be when traveling to someone else’s country, and you’ll be fine.” And that was pretty much it … it was no big deal. Folks were very friendly, no issues crossing the border in or out, and no issues driving down to where we were staying at Horsepower Ranch. We actually saw as many cars with California license plates as we saw with Mexican license plates.
We drove down in my truck with a camper shell, with the bikes under the shell. But there were other folks attending the pre-ride who drove down with their bikes on racks on the back of their cars … crossing the border … no issues.
CES: What’s Horsepower Ranch like?
JE: Horsepower ranch was awesome! It’s a bit outside Ensenada, down a dirt road. You don’t see much of anyone out there; you feel removed from town. But Ensenada is maybe 15 minutes away, so it’s easy to jump out there if you want. The only people we saw around Horsepower Ranch that weekend were the folks doing the pre-ride, and some other folks there doing some off-roading.
The ranch itself is really nice. The hotel rooms were nice, the venue is just beautiful — palm trees, swimming pool, and mountains all around. We were saying we need to head back down to Horsepower Ranch again. It’s a wonderful place, and it’s going to be an incredible event venue.
CES: The big question — how were the trails?
JE: We had fun riding in Ensenada. We had a tight schedule for our time in Mexico and unfortunately there were some delays with the shuttle, so we only got to ride two of the four stages. One was a trail called La Sierrita that starts at the top of the mountain and was super fun. We did that one twice. And then we rode the Pro/Expert-only stage, a trail called Cielo that is going to be challenging. This was going to be two stages with a hike to the top, but Lou [Mollineda, event organizer] is changing this up to remove the hike-a-bike section, and make it a single stage.
Unfortunately, I had to take off after that stage and didn’t get a chance to try the last two stages, but I heard from other folks that were there that they were also very fun.
CES: So, overall, what are you thinking about this venue and race?
JE: I think it’s going to be a fun weekend and a great addition to the 2019 CES season!
Learn more about the Ensenada Enduro at californiaenduroseries.com/2019_ensenada_enduro.
