After two days and six stages of racing, the final results are in: Jerome Clementz and Anne-Caroline Chausson have won the first Enduro World Series race of the season. Consistency was key this weekend, and staying in the top few positions for every single stage was crucial to Jerome Clementz's success. He took the overall victory without winning any one stage, but at the same time never dropped below a sixth place finish. For the women, Anne-Caroline Chausson laid down a commanding performance, winning five out of six stages to take the win.
Elite WomenElite MenJerome Clementz and Anne-Caroline Chausson, winners of EWS #1.Full results here.
But Graves gave up the most race time on stage 6. I'm a huge Graves fan and was pulling for him too, but the best Enduro racer in the world won this weekend (just like he did in most of the 2013 season.)
He should have stayed in DH.
Same debate with rear wheel drive in cars vs fwd or awd. The consumers speak. Plenty of good ideas don't make it such as the rotary engine, as consumers didn't buy them.
Dish it out but..... Anyone?
That's crazy, a lot of the time enduro racers are coasting.
At the very least Graves justified the existence of the 26 wheel in racing by almost winning.
As far as 26 or 650b, I don't give a monkey's... but it does seem to be getting hard out sold on a level above what I believe the real performance gains warrant. If everyone stops making 26" wheel bikes, you can't buy one even if you want to. Does that make them better?
Conspiracy theories are appealing, but the realities are just simply economics.
Point one: some brands will still make a 26" Commencal HipHop dam fun bike, and thats its purpose not an Enduro racer, many still ride for fun and not for Strava!
Point 2: Ive been trying out a few 27.5" and still don't know if I like them or not esp when some top riders tell me my bike is the best they're ridden, wak wak aye! Short for, yeah!
But what I can tell is that over time you stay fresher on a bigger wheel eg use less energy in key areas say momentum over a rise, pedal strokes up a short hill,on a course this all adds up over stages to seconds and minutes for us mere mortals, I been saying this for awhile look at day 1 Graves fresh fit but I don't care how fit you are, he still used more energy than Jerome, Jeromes stages with no wins but consistency bears this out, not all bike for sure as he's a smart rider and rides that way too yet still fast,
So for me 26" is just as fast if not faster but you use more energy and that over 2 days or many one day stages smashes you more than 27.5"
Waki is right about bike setup pros know if 5psi is missing they feel it!
Still though Enduro is the winner on the day and Chille fantastic place and hope it stays on the EWS calendar
Congrats to AC and Jerome just amazing!
Going to be a tough fight to the end this year, Graves will win rounds, Maes will win a round and Justin Leov 2nd stage 5 he will be too 3 very soon I'm betting.
Congratulations to the winners.
Also, one rider whose sponsor doesn't make a viable enduro bike with 27.5 wheels.
And silly me thought the riders were racing, not wheels.
Stage 6:
Stage 6 was basically eight minutes straight down the side of a cliff and was super fast and steep. The top of the course was well above tree line and the volcanic soil made it feel like you were riding on the moon, something you don’t experience every day. The bottom half was steep loamy turns as you made your way back below the tree line. The track just got steeper and steeper and some arm pump was inevitable. I should have taken a lot more time to choose better lines in the top section. There were a few key sections that I covered far too much ground where I could see other riders’ more direct lines. An extra ten minutes scoping out a few smarter lines would have made all the difference, but it’s too late for that now. I lost 10 seconds to Jerome in the final stage, and with it the overall lead. The end result was 2nd overall for the weekend.