Enduro World Series Round One: Punta Ala, Build-up
The biggest weekend enduro has ever seen is here, the first ever round of the Enduro World Series, hosted by Superenduro. This weekend, more than five hundred riders of all levels from across the world will descend on the Tuscan resort of Punta Ala. In that field there are (at a rough count) nine world champions from various disciplines, including mountain bikings two greatest champions, Nico Vouilloz and Anne-Caroline Chausson. There are a lot of unanswered questions, for a start nobody knows how the racing is going to shake down... What we do know is that there is a great network of trails in the hills around the resort, 60km of race course and 1,800m of descending in store for Sunday.
www.superenduromtb.com
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 At the start of the week, the late spring sunshine hung over the Tuscan fields as Punta Ala waited for the world to arrive. |
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| Stages four and five both have sections where you're zipping through the narrow corridors between the trees. |
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| Sam Flanagan, sideways in the dust. |
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| Stage five finishes on the fireroad above the sea. Mark Scott drifts through the deep dust towards the beach. |
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| Mark Scott and Sam Flanagan have spent a lot of time in a van together recently. That creates a special bond between people... |
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| Toby and Sam Pantling ride a lot with Brendan Fairclough and the S4P guys. But they've been putting in the training miles and are proudly running the Sorry For Training stickers on their headtubes... |
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| Jerome Clementz isn't happy with just being faster than you. Now he's learning to take photos... |
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| The SRAM guys were here early and had everything sorted with their cabin in the sun. On Tuesday they took an leisurely breakfast on the porch and then headed out for a pedal around the stages. |
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| Joe Barnes has made the trip over here with the famous Landship. |
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| Heading out to shoot, we stopped at a local shop to get some sandwiches. The owner was struggling to figure out what to do with his lettuce... |
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| A special race warrants special nails for Valentina Macheda. |
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| At the Specialized/SRAM enduro race at Lake Garda a couple of weeks ago, Joe Barnes won the second stage and scored a couple of seconds against guys like Barel, Clementz and Lau. He looks at home here in the rock channels of Punta Ala and the easy-going Scot may just surprise a few people this weekend. |
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| Jared Graves has been putting in the laps this week and it's going to be interesting to see how he makes the transition from 4X to enduro. |
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| Joe Barnes was here... |
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| The Brits on tour king of the car park, Al Stock is back on the European enduro circuit. He kind of went MIA towards the end of last season, but is back now and it was skids and wheelies all around on his freshly-repaired Kona. Last year, a crash on PS4 denied him the victory in the Superenduro here at Punta Ala, so even though he insists he's been slacking this winter, we reckon he's still one to watch come Sunday. |
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| Marco Tiberi and the trailcrew are working on something wooden and secret for Saturday's prologue... It could make things exciting if it rains. |
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| No one photo can quite do the line Cedric was taking here justice. You come in fast and have to jump a rock channel, one slight hesitation and you're going to slam straight into a rock wall. Immediately after you have to jump back out again to miss the rock channel on the exit. Cedric did this by accident first time, it simply seemed like the thing to do when he go there... He was saying that one stage three he didn't weant to do too many runs, as he felt he'd actually be faster down there if he didn't know everything. |
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| Anneke Beerten was looking fast and composed on the tough stage three, she's definitely going to be one of the women to watch come Sunday. |
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| This hasn't been altered in Photoshop. Throughout the forests here there are flat, black patches where no plants will grow. They are charcoal burning spots and some of them date back more than 2,000 years. It is the paths the people who lived here then that have been re-opened and re-shaped to form a lot of the trail network here. |
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| Stage two is DH track from the 90s, but on the modern enduro bikes the fast guys are doing faster times than they used to see in the old races here. |
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| Stage three is tough, as Cristofer Bertotto found out the hard way... He got shot out over the bars and slightly dislocated his shoulder. Fortunately there's no ligament damage, but that is his race weekend over. |
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| Valentina has spent a lot of time on the road bike this winter and is hoping this means the long race will play to her advantage. |
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| Brian Lopes is a fierce competitor, he won't have come here for anything other than to chase after the win. He's even specially cut a mouth hole from his helmet to help him breathe and decided to use his right kneepad as it was slowing him down. |
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| Manuel Ducci on the rocks of stage two. |
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| On Wednesday evening the sky started looking a bit threatening... |
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| The wet weather couldn't dampen series organiser, Enrico Guala's, spirits. |
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| All through Wednesday night the rain came in, and kept throwing little tantrums through Thursday morning, Heavy rain and a layer of dust on the trails added up to slick conditions. |
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| The stage start signs... Somehow they make this all seem more real. |
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| After a rainy drive down, the Specialized guys clean off the team van before setting up the pits. |
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| With a strong British (and Irish) contingent here, that means a lot of people living out of vans. Mark Scott got to the campsite first and claimed the best pitch, so everyone ends up hanging out around his van. |
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| Jason Marsh arrived a few days ahead of the rest of the Syndicate and spent yesterday getting Greg Minnaar's Bronson ready for his arrival. |
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| Smiling and pinned. Ben Cruz is clearly having a lot of fun here this weekend and is a good bet for a strong placing on Sunday. |
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| I don't know if I'd want to be Jerome Clementz this weekend. With enduro rising to this level he's very much the man in the spotlight this weekend, but he seems to be coping with it well and looking as fast as ever. |
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| With Greg is his friend from home. Normally Jimmy races moto, but has come travelling across Europe to try a few enduros. |
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| Greg Callaghan took a solid ninth at the Metabief enduro last weekend. He's a big lad with an aggressive style and looks a good bet to back that result up this weekend. |
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| Toby Pantling making the roots on stage four look easy. |
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| Matteo Nati was the last man working in the pits last night and the first I saw there this morning, fettling and perfecting Dan Atherton and Martin Maes' bikes. |
www.superenduromtb.com
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saludos de México
BTW incliment weather has moved in, 2nd stage cancelled
Caption per cedric jumping over rock spine section....
Well, im betting that the rider with the lime green bike and/or clothing will win.
Ez call.
...and Tallboys, Highballs, the new Chameleon, Nomads, etc. They did the same thing for every newly released bike they have ever done.
Do you think maybe there is a reason they don't make a 150mm 29er?
For a pro racer, if they preferred a 29er, would 15mm of rear and 10mm of front travel matter at all?
Really getting the Enduro rush and want to see the complete event
www.ibiscycles.com/bikes/ripley_29
www.urgebike.com/index.php/en/vtt/archi-enduro
Also, info on CG's Mavic wheels and unlabeled tires (Panaracer protos?).