Flash Fires: EWS Round One, Chile - One Minute Recap Video

 No doubt. Really seems like enduro is pushing more and more back into old school downhill

 Except with a huge level of fitness. 200km riding in that weekend. Nico cant be the only alien

 Nice coverage! Thanks for sharing.

 That video was slick enough. Cool to see that fast doesn't look FAST all the time, it looks controlled and measured.

 No one rode here early, and sane goes for next week's venue.

Peatys "quotes" in that interview were quite misleading and much of it taken out of context.

 Yeah that simply isn't true, of the top 10 only clementz and FBM were in Chile for the Andes pacifico and the trails in corral probably were not even built then. Most of the teams flew in last weekend. A lot of the top guys are on strava so you can see where they train. There are issues with some places in Europe like finale is well known by many riders etc, but that's not exactly cheating...

 It would be great if they ran a 'blind' category for those that are into it. Something that would be good at smaller races anyway, as of course guys at this level are going to have ridden everything already.

 The EWS is quiet hard with penalty and disqualification for cheating, ie early training (at least compared to some smaller series in Europe). There were some cases last year. I think it's the right way if you want to establish the sport in a serious way! The Riders really look pinned as!!!

 Here is my question in regards to "Peaty's" comments: Don't the DH WC racers run the a lot of the same course's at the same resorts / venues every years, and show up a week or more in advance? I understand that they change the course so often, but they don't change it every year...???

 @GoldenH They do repeat courses for DH, but it's an entirely different race format- there is only one race course and athletes are given plenty of practice time. Everyone is expected to have every line, every corner, every rock garden memorized, that's just part of downhill.

Enduro, meanwhile, doesn't have as clear of a mission statement. There are so many stages that complete memorization would be impossible, but all the racers study video footage to try and learn it, anyway. Part of Peaty's dissatisfaction, I think, is that these questions of 'what is the best formatting' are still unanswered for Enduro.

 I respect Peaty but I think he shouldn't have made statements that were misleading or make sweeping generalizations.

On another note Sam Hill seems to enjoy enduro and I hope to see him racing more ews rounds (on flat pedals!) when he retires from dh.

 In the end it's only like a WC downhill racer living at near a venue and he doesn't complain about that. Local knowledge will always be a thing.

 SRAM chains are not used to his watts !!

 Sounds like he really had to push it through the transfer to make his start time. I can't imagine going into a late day EWS stage after putting down some serious watts to get there.

 fuego!

 Ah. That makes way more sense. Gracias!