Cambodia, 2nd Enduro Phrom Brasith

[brody713]

Last weekend was the second national Cambodia enduro held in Phnom Brasith. I heard about it from Leng our guide from a trip I took last July. Being starved from proper enduro riding for about a year now, it didn't take much to convince Dave and I for flying from HK to Phnom Penh.... Leng organised us bikes (WR250) and board, and off we went.

We arrived on Friday afternoon, got a few cold ones down, you know for calories before the race and stuff...

And then Saturday we rode to the course to help set it up. Mostly an excuse to practice the course before the race on Saturday!

Setting up tape on the course:

Leng and David up one of the steep descent of the A course

Part of the course was in a quarry which which provided great views for spectators:

The A course went around that temple/thing before going down a steep ass descent which you did not want to fall or your race was over...

Then after putting tape up and walking the course, we went for lunch nearby:

Beautiful temple next to the place where we ate:

.... and then after lunch, we decided to follow the lead of our guide (and a few of the locals) and try a few laps of the A course for practice. And then reality it us. Wow, this 35deg blaring sun with no wind could really crank up the difficulty level of this already pretty hard course! We did one lap each and had to stop of near heat exhaustion! and then on my second practice lap, I crashed on a rock section and busted a radiator. So I was pushed (30 miles) back to Phnom Penh to find a welder to repair the rad to get ready for the race on Sunday.

Anyway, Sunday was a big success, David rode the A course despite our fears from the previous day. He finished 6th over a 10-12 riders. I chickened out and decided to ride the B course, which was almost identical to the A course but 1.5h instead of 2.5h for the A course... and finished 10th over 21 riders.

Here are some random pix from the race:

Me at the checkpoint:

Someone who didn't make the floating bridge (had to be careful with throttle there) :

Our guide Leng:

David flying after a checkpoint:

Thank god for race bunnies!

Podium of the C class:

Podium of the B class:

Podium of the A class:

 

[KTMphil]

Looks like a blast! & no rain. Thanks

 

[brody713]

Yeah, with rain it would have been hell!

 

[AlexUSA]

Cool. What's the competition like there? Good riders?

Do they run an underbone class?

Was it just one stage done for maximum laps in a time limit or was it time trial special stages?

 

[brody713]

The Khmer guys are really really strong riders! A lot of them are guides who ride 12 months/year and it shows...

As for the competition, there was 4 classes A, B, C and D. D and C had an easier course and the races were 1 hour only I think.

A class was for expert, the race was 2.5 hours

B Class was for intermediate, the race was 1.5 hours

A and B were running almost the same course. For the B class there was a steep descent that was bypassed. Total course was about 6-7km

For all classes, you had to do as many laps as possible during the allotted time.

Unfortunately, for now this is the only enduro race in Cambodia. It's a yearly thing

 

[KTMphil]

Brody -

How did you guys fair against the locals that knew the area?


.

The Khmer guys are really really strong riders! A lot of them are guides who ride 12 months/year and it shows...

As for the competition, there was 4 classes A, B, C and D. D and C had an easier course and the races were 1 hour only I think.

A class was for expert, the race was 2.5 hours

B Class was for intermediate, the race was 1.5 hours

A and B were running almost the same course. For the B class there was a steep descent that was bypassed. Total course was about 6-7km

For all classes, you had to do as many laps as possible during the allotted time.

Unfortunately, for now this is the only enduro race in Cambodia. It's a yearly thing