CES 2023 Race Season Update: Registration dates announced! Plus: New Registration “Waiting Room” and Categories

PRESS RELEASE: California Enduro Series presented by Specialized

CES 2023 race season registration will kick off starting this month!

Registration Opening Dates

Ensenada Bike Fest Enduro on January 29 at 8pm (January 23 for CES teams).
Georgetown Enduro on February 26 at 8pm (February 20 for CES Teams)
China Peak Enduro on March 12 at 8pm (March 6 for CES Teams)
Mt Shasta Enduro on April 2 at 8pm (March 27 for CES Teams)
Ashland Mountain Challenge on April 9 at 8pm (April 3 for CES Teams)
Northstar Enduro on May 7 at 8pm (May 3 for CES Teams)

Registration is through the CES Race Portal race.californiaenduro.com. Scroll down for information on our new registration process – we’re excited to debut an all-new “waiting room” to help keep things fair. Be sure to have your account set up and profile complete before registration opens. You don’t want to be scrambling to get this done during registration as you may miss out on registering for a race.

Race Schedule

The series is set to off with the Ensenada Bike Fest Enduro, presented by Relampago Racing and Lou Mollineda, on March 18 in Ensenada, Mexico. Renew those passports and get ready for some good times in this Baja coastal oasis!

Next in the line up is a return to gold country in the Sierra Nevada foothills for the Georgetown Enduro, presented by MTB Experience and California Expeditions, in Georgetown on May 20.

The China Peak Enduro, presented by China Peak Mountain Resort, will lead a succession of big mountain action on June 24 in Lakeshore. China Peak will be followed by the Mt Shasta Enduro, presented by Mt Shasta Ski Park July 15 in McCloud, and the Northstar Enduro, presented by Northstar California August 19-20 in Truckee.

The 2023 season wrap up with the ever-fabulous Ashland Mountain Challenge, presented by Wild Rogue Events, just over the California/Oregon border in Ashland on September 30.

New Registration “Waiting Room”

With the high demand during registration for CES races, we have a new “waiting room” to help keep things fair.

The link on the registration page will go live one hour before registration opens; this will get you into the waiting room. It doesn’t matter if you enter the waiting room at 7pm (for an 8pm reg opening) or 7:59pm – everyone in the waiting room will be queued up randomly into groups when registration opens.

Groups will be sent to registration in order, like boarding groups on a plane. Anyone who clicks the registration link after the 8pm registration time will be queued up at the end of the line (behind those in the waiting room, and everyone else clicked in before them).

CES Teams

You need to be on a qualifying team prior to race registration opens to get early access. A qualifying team means having five or more team members with at least one female team member to qualify for access to early registration.

Details about CES Teams are available on the CES Website.

New Categories

A Sport Girls U18 category will be making its debut for the 2023 season. With more and more women and girls racing our series, we’re thrilled to make our events even more accessible to women of all ages.

Plus, you’ve been asking for it, you got it: we’re also adding a Men 60+ category due to popular demand!

Queen Stage

The Queen Stage returns for each race for this season. The racer in each category with the fastest time on this particular stage will get bonus points towards their overall ranking.

Stage Wins

Of course, winning a race and winning the overall are the goals, but we all like stage wins as well. For the 2023 season, the series will again be tracking stage wins, offering a bonus prize for the male and female amateur racer with the most stage wins at the end of the season.

eMTB Categories

eMTB categories will be available at the first five of 2023’s six events: Ensenada Bike Fest Enduro, Georgetown Enduro, China Peak Enduro, Mt. Shasta Enduro, and Northstar Enduro. These four categories are: Open eMTB Men, Open eMTB Women, Sport eMTB Men, and Sport eMTB.

Sponsoring the Series

CES is made possible by the generous sponsorship of industry and community businesses. The series is grateful for the continued support of title sponsor Specialized, official suspension sponsor FOX, Race Face, WTB, and Adventure Sports Journal. If you’d like to get involved and be part of CES’ exciting 2023 season, send an email to sponsorship@californiaenduro.com.

Learn more at californiaenduroseries.com.

Featured photo: Hella Mello’s Haley King racing the 2022 Ashland Mountain Challenge by Bixxel.


Adventure Sports Journal is proud to be a founding sponsor of the California Enduro Series. Read more articles about CES here.