Today was a big day for enduro. For the first time in the Enduro of Nations' six year history the French have been beaten. Well, sort of... In the individual race, the Superenduro PRO race, Jerome Clementz dominated, but as he's not on the French national team this year it sort of doesn't count. In fact, the top three places in the individual race were all held by Frenchmen (Nico Vouilloz and Nicolas Lau were second and third) and none of them were racing for France, which is slightly embarrassing for the country. But in the team competition the French were beaten and it wasn't the Italians like most people expected it would be - it was the British. Admittedly the French weren't helped by time penalties on Saturday for missing a checkpoint in the paddock, but that's racing.
The top ten in the men's individual race were:
1. Jerome Clementz
2. Nico Vouilloz
3. Nicolas Lau
4. Dan Atherton
5.Martin Maes
6. Al Stock
7. Nicolas Quere
8. Davide Sottocornola
9. Joe Barnes
10. Manuel Ducci
One name from that list we want to know more about is Martin Maes. We don't even know what he looks like, but a 15 year-old from a country unlikely as Belgium placing in the top five at the biggest race of the year is something pretty special. In the women's race, Anka Martin made it two years in a row, coming from behind to pip Morgane Such for the win.
And with that a great weekend of racing was over. For the Enduro of Nations it's not the end though as the second leg of the competition will be at Valloire next weekend and it's all still to play for (unfortunately we won't be there as there as some things in this world that are more important than mountain bikes, not many, but some). The French will surely want to press their home turf advantage, but the Brits were strong this weekend and the Italians would definitely have been hoping for more...
We need to thank
Riders Refuge in Morzine for helping out when we needed somewhere to stay on the way back home. Cheers guys!
www.superenduromtb.com
Not much, but it's a start.
Notice that there isn't much out east?
The mess starts are the best part of these races
here
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