With winter about to arrive in the Southern Hemisphere, the enduro race season in New Zealand has all but wrapped up. That said, there was one major event left to run, and that was the Cable Bay Enduro in Nelson, NZ. Nelson is synonymous with steep and uber technical trails and Cable Bay is no exception, I mean there’s a reason that round two of 2022 EWS season will take place there. In fact, we used Cable Bay to shoot the Honzo ESD launch video (watch it again here) because of its steep rugged nature.
Based in Wellington, New Zealand, Kona Ambassador Elliot Smith was not going to miss this race and the opportunity to get to Cable Bay to finish off the season with some Nelson roots! In fact, this was Elliot’s first-ever time riding in Nelson so it was going to be a baptism by fire. Saturday was the official practice day with all five stages open and Elliot was loving it, his favorite being the super tech stage three, Jurassic into Missing Link.
Race day rolled around on Sunday and the sun was shining on the hill and the race village, trail conditions could not be better. A trouble-free day of racing would see Elliot ride his Process X to second place in the U19 category, securing a podium finish to end his season.
All photos: Sven Martin
