European Indoor Enduro Riding
WHO SA VS ENDURO-RIDING ISN'T
A SPECTATOR SPORT?
(Above) Indoor enduro riding? Only In Europe - so far.••
STORY AND PHOTOS BY
JONTY EDMUNDS
ere in America, off· road enthusi·
asts have been pretty excited of
late to see a couple of their premier
series getting some coverage on
cable television, and to have a few of
their heroes getting glory on moto
videos such as Terra Firma 6 and
Time to Ride. Over in Europe, howev·
er, off·roading is popular enough that
the Dakar Rally gets live daily TV
coverage, and enduros are held in
fan-filled stadiums.
It's hard to imagine such a specta·
c1e, but with a six·month gap to fill
IAbove) Arguably the top rider in outdoor enduro racing • Juha Salminen • is also
among the best Indoors. The Finn has won the superflnal for two years running.
ILeft) Unlike traditional enduros, a superc:ross-style starting gate Is utilized
in the stadiums.
60
MARCH 13, 2002'
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between the ISDE and the start of the
new World Enduro Championship
season, the world's best endure riders
(as well as some good Spanish up·
and·comers) converge on Barcelona
for the most unlikely of indoor
spectacles. Promoted and organized
by Spanish company RPM (the same
group that takes care of the Spanish
portion of the Dakar rally), the
Enduro Indoor Telefonica·Movistar
International de Barcelona is run in
Palau sant Jordi, one of the city's
Olympic stadiums from the 1992
games. Using every inch of floor
space and a small part of the seating
area, the track design brings together
over a dozen different obstacles, all
of which are technical enough to
frighten even the most accomplished
enduro rider.
This year's event used a row of
motocross· style start gates at the
beginning of each race, after which a
115-foot·long start straight led into a
lBO·degree right· hand tum and then
into a supercross·style whoop section
(though rarely used in real endures,
the radical moguls do make for exciting racing). With a first-gear, left·
hand hairpin immediately after the
whoops providing the perfect place
for block·passes, the "proper" obsta·
c1es started shortly thereafter, with a
rock·covered drop-off leading into a
minefield of tree·stump·sized boul·
ders. Taking a cue from the L.A. Coli·
seum SX, the riders then rode up one
of the steep seating isles at the far
end of the stadium, which they then
exited via a highly polished concrete
floor (no better than ice with knobby
tires), then re·entered and took a
drop-off-littered descent to the floor.
A short section of S-bends then led
into the most demanding part of the
