by Zack Zumvorde

What’s your name? 

Zack Zumvorde

How old are you?

27 years old

Where are you from?

Cincinnati, Ohio

When did you get into the sport of hard enduro and when did you ride a dirt bike for the first time?

My experiences with hard enduro began when I started riding at Saddleback with a new friend I had
made. That quickly steamrolled into a new group of friends who all enjoyed the challenges of hard
enduro found at Saddleback. The very start of it all was when my dad bought me a cf80 at the age of
10.

What bike do you ride?

Today the bike i ride is a 2019 KTM 250XC

What team do you ride in (if any)

I ride for team “self funded”

How many hard enduro races have you entered (roughly, doesn’t have to be 100% accurate)?

I’ve only done 3 true hard enduros in my entire career. I will do more as time goes on but my primary interest still lies in XC.

If possible, what would you characterise yourself as? Beginner, weekend warrior, ambitious amateur, semi-pro or pro? 

I would consider myself “semi-pro”

What race are you going to talk about and what year did you do it?

I am going to talk about the 2021 SEERs Saddleback Extreme

What was the race format like – how many days, hours or races did you have to do to finish/win the race?  

3 hours to go 13 miles with 4 checkpoints

What excited you the most about this race? Was it the terrain, the grip, the camaraderie, the organisation, the weather, your own performance or something entirely different?

It’s always the camaraderie for me. I love competing with friends and battling for bragging rights. When you do more casual riding than racing with a group of friends, it really increases the pressure to outperform the ones who talk the biggest game. Although it truly boils down to testing my own self.

What kind of tires/mousse/tubeless/tube did you use and why? More importantly – would you recommend your setup or did you learn that something else would have been better?

I loved my tire set-up. I run bibs and bibs only in any style of racing. I ran the Nitromousse Plushie with 1” drill holes spaced about 4 inches apart and Kenda Ibex for the rear. I didn’t buy a new front tire so I ran a leftover IRC VE35 with an old Nitromousse Platinum front. I wouldn’t change too much on the set-up.

Was there anything bike setup-wise that you discovered to work great and
that you’d like to share?

Nothing break through that I’d like to share. The only thing bike wise that I’d like to share is that my
Tusk radiator fan killed my battery about 20 minutes into the race and I had to finish with my good
old kickstart (2019 KTM).

How tough did you find the track physically and mentally?

The track was mentally and physically grueling. It tested me in both of those aspects and I am a very
conditioned sprint racer.

Was the track easy to follow (markings or GPS) and was the difficulty level of the track what you expected, easier or harder?

The track was marked fairly well but a small group of us did get lost and ended up off course.
Collectively we turned around and found the spot of the track missed. Other than that I had no
issues with the course. Difficulty wise, it was exactly what I was expecting and that was a very tough
course.

What result did you get and are you happy with it?

I believe I finished 13th in the silver class but I was not very thrilled with my results as I did not even
come close to completing the race within the 3 hour time period.

Did you feel like you got a good value for your money at this race?

I left the race exhausted and defeated…I got every dollar worth of what I spent and I would do it all
over again. Same course, same everything.

What would be your best piece of advice, to a person who is considering entering this race for the first time?

Make sure your bike is built for enduro. Tire set up is by far the most important. Besides the bike, I
would highly advise someone with no enduro experience to achieve that outside of the saddleback
extreme. In my opinion I would only attempt this race if you are an experienced rider. Doesn’t mean
you have to be good but you need that experience to avoid injury.

What (if anything) would you like to see changed in the event to improve it?

If any changes, perhaps more markings on a few sections of the course since we did get lost. The
course MAYBE could have some more breather sections, just something to add some mileage but
give the riders a chance to recover and get the bike up to speed. (cross country guy over here)

Finally, would you do this race again and recommend it to other riders?

I would ABSOLUTELY race this again. I’d race it again exactly the way it was and my only focus would be
to do better than last time.