Home Field Advantage - Enduro World Series Round 5 - Winter Park
When you talk about the direction enduro racing is heading in, this evening's results sheets provide an interesting insight in how the sport is interpreted on either side of the Atlantic. As I write, there are 6 Americans in the top 20 this evening, of them only Curtis Keene is a regular there (and Ben Cruz is out with a nasty concussion this weekend, so it could very well be 7 up there as he's been running in the top ten for the last couple of races). It is interesting to watch many of the European riders who have dominated the season so far fall back from the top five or even top ten as the racing takes to bike park tracks that are unlike anything we have seen so far this season.
Standings after Day 1.
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 Morning weather check: Clear, sunny skies. It was only spoilt by a small hailstorm around lunchtime, but that just meant the lift stopped for long enough to grab some lunch and relax for a few minutes while the system passed. |
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| Most of the climbing here in Winter Park is done by chairlift, with just some transfers out to the stages to be pedalled. The simple fact is that at this altitude asking riders to climb 1,000m+ per day would break all but the inhuman. |
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| Stage one was about one thing today - jumps. |
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| Tracy Moseley didn't have a good morning. A confused marshall tried to stop her during her race run, costing her precious seconds. She was offered a re-run, but chose not to take it because another ten minute race run would have put her at a disadvantage for the rest of the weekend because you need conserve as much energy as you can at this altitude. |
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| Today was a big day for Anneke Beerten with her first ever stage win at an EWS. She was smiling ear to ear at lunchtime and finished the day sitting in second, just 3 seconds behind with plenty of racing yet to go. |
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| Jared Graves was hot on the heels of teammate Richie Rude, but he just couldn't keep pace with his younger counterpart. Graves finished second overall today. |
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| Check the reflection. The bike park tracks today really didn't suit Nico Lau's strengths and he found himself about 50 second back this evening. |
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| Yoann Barelli was flying today, looking scarily fast through some of the rough sections. His efforts were rewarded with a 6th place this evening. |
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| Mitch Ropelato was on the gas today taking third place on stage one. No doubt Mitch's jump boosting skills were a huge help for him today. |
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| SRAM's Duncan Riffle has taken the opportunity to race this weekend here in Winter Park. |
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| Anne Caroline Chausson came out swinging today taking the win in stage two. |
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| Thomas Lapeyrie doesn't seem to have found his rhythm on the bike park stages and found himself out the back this evening. |
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| We said yesterday that Marco Osborne was stepping into the empty shoes left by his teammates Clementz and Cruz this weekend. He did them proud and then some, smashing his way to a very impressive fifth this evening. Apparently he declined the chance to race the whole EWS this year as he didn't want to do the travelling, but if he starts posting results like this, he's going to be much in demand on the circuit. |
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| Dan Atherton had a better day today than he did last time out in La Thuile, posting a ninth on stage one, but dropping back to 86th in the general classification this evening after a troubled stage two. |
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| The top of stage three is covered in lush green with an amazing strand of single track that winds its way down into a game-on section that includes many rocks that love to eat low hanging bike parts by the dozen. |
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| Damien Oton is all the way back in 20th this evening, clearly not feeling at home on the bike park stages. In practice this afternoon he was by far the most methodical rider, studying each section for small advantages. We'd be surprised not to see him at the sharp end of things on the more natural tracks tomorrow. |
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| It has been tough on bike this weekend, as Chile's Nico Prudencio found out in one of the most expensive ways imaginable. |
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| "If there is a place to break it, there will be a place to fix it." Rene Wildhaber is a practical man, stepping in to help straighten his teammate's rotor that got mangled on one of the awkward rocks on stage three. |
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| He was pretty handy on the bike too, sitting in fourth this evening, with around 30 seconds to find to the lead. |
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| Richie Rude fears no rocks. The Yeti young gun had a stellar day in Winter Park, taking the win on both stages one and two. The extra week in Colorado has helped him cope with the elevation. |
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| While 12th may not sound as impressive as his recent results, it's a very good result for Joe Barnes who isn't suited to the bike park style of riding. It's evidence that he's becoming consistently able to run at the front. |
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| Thanks Iago for hiking back up three time to get this shot for all of us photogs. |
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| New product alert: be on the lookout for the new Shimano XTR DIY brake mounts. Run by top EWS pros. |
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| They don't call him the "Wild Man" for nothing. Rene Wildhaber finds a comfy spot in the woods to make some adjustments after getting a little too up close and personal with a tree. |
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| Justin Leov was saying this morning that he feels comfortable. He couldn't find that feeling last time out in La Thuile, the last time he felt like this was in Valloire when he was arguably the fastest man on the hill all weekend... He is going to need to find 30 seconds over the next couple of days if he wants his maiden win though. |
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| By this evening, the afternoon's storm clouds had gone back to being white and fluffy. |
Standings after Day 1.
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They've been snapping carbon rims like Hulk Hogan snaps into a Slim Jim!
here are results if anyones interested
I don't mind so much some sections can be flat and pedally (like stage 1 and 4 at La Thuile, which I hated!) but it can't be just that. Let's see if the next stages bring something else than berms. The guys should have the opportunity to show their skills as well (and I am certainly not saying Richie World Champ Rude doesn't have skills).
1. Less steep XC style descents with lots of pedaling and maybe even some short uphills (sometimes backcountry trails, sometimes resort green runs).
2. Bike park type trails with berms and jumps.
3. Full on DH runs on steep and technical terrain.
Maybe that's not what "European" enduro is, but that's what it means here in CO, and I think it does a pretty good job of testing both a rider's fitness and technical ability. Personally, I am good at 1 and 3, but not so much the 2.
I believe that Sunday's stages use some of the DH style runs at Trestle.
@dthomp325: that is a very americsn attitude… "european enduro (you could just say enduro actually) is not right so we change it and the rest of the world should do the same otherwise they are idiots". Well no, enduro is a fun based discipline, riden on techy singletracks for more than 10 years now and I found great as such. I said it'd be provocative.
Enduro tracks are not much more technical than some xc tracks in fact. Yes it's a gravity discipline and has always been. It's not because there has been recent conversions from xc guys, 4x guys and of course dh guys that we have to change the discipline of enduro to make it a blend of it all. That feels very UCI type of attitude!