The Enduro World Series (EWS) – an international downhill mountain bike race – came to the Northern Forest for the first time this August, and the Center is proud to have helped make the Burke Mountain edition in East Burke, Vermont, a success.

Nearly 1,500 spectators, plus 215 professional racers from 23 nations and 250 amateur riders, many from the New England region, descended on the Northeast Kingdom for the enduro races, in which riders climb to the top of a mountain multiple times and ride down as fast as possible. (See highlights here!)

Communities started planning for the influx of visitors in the Spring of 2021, wanting to strike a balance between welcoming people from away, gaining economic benefits from the event, and ensuring that local residents had a positive experience as well.

Through our Rural Tourism Academy, the Center worked with project partners to coordinate implementation of a new “event playbook” designed to help the area secure increased benefits and manage EWS visitor impacts.

“The impact of this collaboration is much wider than just addressing the Enduro as a single event. The time spent with the other collaborating communities over the past year has strengthened our relationship,” said Nicole Gratton, Planning Director of the Town of Lyndon. “I know I can lean on the surrounding towns to ensure a large event can be planned for more efficiently and effectively. We are much stronger together than apart!” This collaboration will serve as a pilot for future cross-community collaboration around future events and high visitation periods.

During the event, Center staff hosted a tent and talked with spectators about the Ride with Gratitude campaign and the Bike Borderlands initiative and explained how our Rural Tourism Academy and the Northeast Kingdom marketing efforts are supporting sustainable tourism in the Kingdom.

The getNEKedVT campaign, a destination marketing program for the Northeast Kingdom (NEK) that we have facilitated for several years, published a special landing page to help EWS attendees learn about other places to visit while in the Kingdom for the bike race. The website linked directly from the Burke Mountain Enduro website and featured lodging, dining, music, and other activities to enrich visitor experiences and spread the economic benefits of visitor spending during the Enduro event. Not only were spectators excited to learn about opportunities to enrich their stay in the Kingdom, but the “cow-moo” stickers, the mascot of the Northeast Kingdom, were a huge hit.

The Center’s Bike Borderlands program was front and center on race weekend. Bike Borderlands is a collaboration between nine independent mountain biking organizations, including East Burke’s own Kingdom Trails. When Center staff weren’t racing in the amateur category, they talked with spectators from across the country about the Borderlands initiative and the Ride With Gratitude campaign, which is an effort to build a strong set of ethics and respect within the mountain biking community.

This campaign has been spreading across the Northeast through partnerships with the New England Mountain Biking Association, Vermont Mountain Biking Association, and others. EWS gave us the opportunity to connect with riders from North Carolina to Oregon about how the Ride With Gratitude message could affect mountain biking in their communities.

“The added capacity of preparing for the Enduro with the Center’s support is a gift,” said Abby Long, Executive Director of Kingdom Trails. “I am grateful someone is able to organize and drive this effort forward, representing the entire region.” The EWS was a tremendous success for Burke Mountain, the Town of East Burke, and the Northeast Kingdom, and the Center is proud to have contributed.