Posted by Photo-John on October 1, 2020
2020 Fears Tears and Beers mountain bike enduro race photos are posted! Keep reading if you want to learn more about the FTB enduro race. If you just want to see the photos, scroll down to browse.
Nothing can stop the Fears Tears and Beers enduro! It’s the original and longest-running mountain bike enduro race and even a pandemic can’t shut it down. In a year with so much turmoil and nearly everything canceled due to Covid-19, the 2020 Fears Tears and Beers enduro mountain bike race came through! It was so nice to see a group of people respectfully come together to share something they love. The mountain biking community is the best!
Like most everything else, I assumed Fears Tears and Beers would be canceled, this year. So I was happily surprised and grateful when I got the news it was on. It’s the only event I had scheduled this year that wasn’t canceled. FTB is one of my favorite events. I love the trails, the homegrown community support, the dedicated riders that make the effort to travel to Ely, and I love Central Nevada’s bleak and rugged Basin and Range country. I haven’t covered any other mountain bike race that’s quite as raw, loose and gnarly as Fears Tears and Beers. It’s a one-of-a-kind event.
This year’s FTB enduro race was a little different. Besides the pandemic safety precautions (event organizers handled health and safety issues really well), which included no awards banquet and no casino rollout, a bunch of new trails were highlighted in this year’s race. Great Basin Trails Alliance, the local trail building and advocacy group, has done a ton of work in the past year. They’ve connected and polished up old trails, completed new trails and, thanks to a grant from IMBA, more trails are in the works. The most important changes for this year’s FTB were the addition of Powderberry, a new descent off Ward Mountain; and Rob’s Knob – a new pro stage that makes the old pro downhill, Whorehouse Hill, look like beginner terrain. They worked hard for those timed stages, too – to finish the race this year, pros rode 46 miles with over 7500 feet of climbing.
Because of racecourse changes, the logistics of photographing this year’s FTB race were more difficult. The pros headed in a completely different direction at the start so I wasn’t able to shoot everyone like I did in previous years. Luckily, my wife Photo-Jennic, who’s also a good photographer, was able to help. If you were racing you probably saw her at Party Mountain or at the top of the G Loop transfer on Ward Mountain. If you raced as a sport or expert, that’s where your photo would have been taken. I apologize if we didn’t get a photo of you, this year. Plans are already in the works for better photo coverage for the 2021 Fears Tears and Beers.
With no further ado, here are your 2020 FTB race photos. Clicking on a thumbnail will take you to a photo page on my Photo-John print sales site where you can order prints and download a web-sized image for sharing on social media. If you’d rather just go to that website to browse, click here, to open it in a new window. Please tag Fears Tears and Beers, White Pine County and Photo-John if you post your photos on Instagram and Facebook.
[ZFP_PhotoSet id=’p503161749′]If you’ve got an outdoor event and need a photo and/or video coverage, please contact me. I’ve got extensive experience covering all kinds of events from mountain bike races to electronics tradeshows. I can work alone or assemble a full media team – whatever you need, I can provide it.