Racing on The Rock: Inside St. John’s Enduro Series

When St. John’s Enduro Series starts this weekend in Corner Brook, N.L. it’ll be the east coast series’ third season. But it almost didn’t happen. The fledgling enduro series was just getting off the ground, after a successful first year, when the first wave of pandemic cancellations started.

After a successful debut in 2019, missing 2020 would have meant potentially watching all the hard work of establishing the series disappear.

“COVID put a huge hole in our momentum and we expected to not be able to race at all,” says Chris Hearn, one of SJES small group of organizers. “The wind was taken from our sails as we had started to believe we would have to cancel the Enduro altogether after seeing such potential and growth from last season. We knew that this could mean the downfall of such momentum since we both had seen it fall off before.”

Hearn and co-organizers Conor Flanagan and his partner Brooke Lundrigan weren’t ready to sit by and watch that happen, after spending two years getting the series going. Instead of waiting to see what would happen, they decided to show what could be possible.

“We took action and managed to have Zoom meetings with Bicycle NL to convince them that we could be their flagship event during COVID, to test the waters for future events to work with COVID. So with that, and much more convincing and paperwork, we managed to keep our momentum going.”

SJES pulled off what few series did in 2020. They held two, live in-person races. One in Corner Brook and one in White Hills, above Saint John’s. That was one shy of their debut season’s three events, but there were benefits to their effort, too.

“That risky and work-intensive idea helped diversify our events,” says Hearn. “It showcased the Island as an adventure tourist attraction. We ended up getting racers from the other provinces in our “Atlantic Bubble” and solidified SJES as an annual series that people can look forward to each year.”

In fact, the series increased its numbers in 2020, getting 80 racers to events, with a 20-plue person wait list. That’s a huge jump for a series that saw 35 riders at its first event in 2019.

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2020 also saw the small SJES team expand. Hearn, Flanagan and Lundrigan were joined by Mike Kenny, and the series’ timing system handler, Luke Nichols. With a small army of volunteers, and help from the expanded team, Hearn and Flanagan finally got to race one of their own events for the first time. That team has expanded again for 2021, with Jeffrey Au running the social side of racing, and Andrew King, and Andrew May who help at individual events.

Racing is where Flanagan and Hearn first met. At a one-off enduro event in St. John’s, the two introduced themselves by chance. “We both loved it and were caught up on the idea of racing,” recalls Hearn. Both had expected to continue racing, but no events were organized. From there, it took a bit of chance.

“I was riding through the trails one day and I met Conor again for the first time since 2017 race,” says Hearn. “We discussed how we were disappointed that there were no downhill or Enduro races to attend. Conor mentioned trying to start one and asked me to help with it.”

Hearn agreed, but, like all ambitious mid-ride plans, this one sat for a while. “It wasn’t until months later that Conor contacted me again after committing himself to organizing a race, and asked me to commit as well. I of course agreed.”

Being new to organizing racing, the duo spend all of 2018 getting their idea off the ground with Lundrigan adding her efforts shortly after.

“That year me and him were hit with a ridiculous amount of paperwork like permissions, land use agreements, insurance, and all kinds of crazy things we had no idea about. We worked through all of that and, somewhat over confidently, reached for a three event series. Against the odds, we made SJES 2019 season happen.”

The first event saw 35 people. By the second and third, there were 60 people showing up.

“That gave us our solid start and a sturdy foundation,” says Hearn. “A surprising victory for a few inexperienced young people.”

Well established now, SJES is tapping into a growing mountain bike community on the east coast. While a smaller, core group of riders has been around for a few decades, the popularity of the sport has exploded.

“Enduro on the East Coast, specifically St. John’s, was always a very small community of very talented riders. But over the past couple of years Mountain Biking has increased dramatically in our area,” says Hearn. SJES is quickly becoming a way the older riders and new, younger riders can connect. The later are rapidly catching up.

“The racing has gotten so much tighter. Our under-19 riders are putting up times that compete, and a lot of times out-compete the adult elite rider’s times.”

For 2021, SJES is back to three events. It will once again spand Newfoundland with events on the east and west coasts of the island. Hearn and Flanagan are already planning for the future.

There are some potential venues on the Island between the Coasts, that we are doing some research on to see if they could work with our Enduro format as well for future events and who knows, maybe “SJES” could pay visits to other Atlantic Provinces in future events.