Ibis Cycles Enduro Race Team at EWS Finale Ligure, Italy

Finale Ligure, the most iconic venue on the Enduro World Series circuit once again hosted the finals of this year's series. The venue is always one of the rider’s favorites, since everyone loves the Italian dolce vita lifestyle as much as the world-class MTB trails. For this year's race the local organizers surprised everyone with a variety of brand new and established trails.


For day one of racing the riders had to face a 50km loop with over 1700 meters of climbing to access the three stages in the Calice area. Eventually when the riders reached the stages there was not much more to pedal. The first two stages were a true test of downhill skills with loose soil and gnarly rock sections, and then on the third stage the riders had to ride smart to maintain speed around the numerous flat corners and rocks.


Day two of racing was a true test of physical strength and technical abilities. It was a bit easier knowing that the long climb to Nato Base for the start of the 4th stage was the last long transfer of the season. Only the fittest riders would be able to keep pushing hard until the infamous last stage that was the rocky mess called 'Downhill Uomini[Men].'


The Ibis Cycles Enduro racers chose to head straight to Finale Ligure after the penultimate round of EWS in Valberg to get a much-needed recovery week under the warm sun of the Mediterranean. Everyone was suffering a bit after the long season and the beach holiday seemed to do the trick to recharge batteries since everyone felt strong going into the first day of racing. Gary Forrest had a hard time this weekend with very bad cramps already on the long way up to the first stage due to a training incident prior to the race. Unfortunately, he had to retire his race after having raced the first stage with a lot of pain.


The flying Swede, Robin Wallner came into this race with high expectations. He badly wanted to score another top 10 result before the off-season. The luck wasn’t going to be on his side this weekend and after a few hard crashes in practice and the race Robin was just happy to make it through the weekend and jump in the sea to wash off the disappointment. 24th was not quite the result he was hoping for. Nevertheless an amazing season for him that he finished on with a very good 14th overall ranking.


"I was really motivated to finish my season off strong here in Italy after recharging a bit in the week between the races but I ended up with a few mishaps and crashes both in practice and the race so at the end I was just happy to seal the deal and make it to the finish line on Sunday! However, I am more than happy with my season in general and that we got 2nd in the team overall so I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store!“ – Robin Wallner



The twins, Anita and Caro Gehrig, had a solid day of racing on Saturday but really showed off on Sunday where they absolutely killed it, leapfrogging through the field. Anita wrapped her season up with another podium placing, taking 3rd, with Caro followed her hot on the heels with a career-best 4th, only 15 seconds behind her sister. Those results were good enough for the twins to secure their overall series rankings as 3rd and 5th. Besides celebrating her 3rd overall podium, Anita was also among only 7 riders that participated at every single of the 30 rounds of the EWS since its beginning in 2013.


“The overall was pretty much a done deal for me since I had a pretty big lead for 5th place. I had nothing to lose and all to play for so I tried to attack really hard to look how much faster I would be able to go. I’m super stoked how it turned out, 4th place only 15 seconds back from podium is a huge motivation to train hard over winter to eventually make it on the box next season!“ – Caro Gehrig


"Coming into the race week I knew I was capable of pulling a good result in Finale, I felt strong and ready to give it all one more time. Practice was going well and I was more than keen on holding on to the 3rd spot in the series overall. That everything has come together now is an unreal feeling, I put a lot of work in this year and it all has paid off now!“ – Anita Gehrig



Our Chilean junior, Pedro Burns, seemed to love the loose terrain that reminded him of the riding at home and he showed a strong performance especially on the first day of racing with top three stage results. Pedro finished his season with a 9th place in Finale and a fabulous 3rd place in the overall.

"When I travelled to France for the last two rounds of the EWS I was in 5th place overall, and my goal was to improve this to a 3rd place. I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy mission. Luckily my team and family supported me really well to achieve my goal and it’s truly a dream come true to finish this season on the podium of the U21 category. I want to thank my sponsors and team, I’m super proud we ended the season as second fastest team! I’m in love with my bike...“ - Pedro Burns


"My race didn't go to plan today. I tweaked my hamstring dabbing a foot in practice and unfortunately for me it was getting quite sore on the liaison to stage one. My leg tightened up and basically cramped my whole leg which meant I couldn't continue. Though the race trails were amazing and I'm super happy and proud of the team for smashing it and getting us 2nd overall in the team for the season.“ – Gary Forrest


Thanks to consistent performances throughout all the eight rounds of the EWS this year the team was rewarded with an amazing 2nd place in the overall team rankings - a huge achievement for such a small team! We want to thank all our sponsors and our mechanics that kept our wheels spinning through the whole season! Finale Ligure was again the perfect season ending venue and the organizers and trail builders did an incredible job with this year's special stages, Grazie Mille!


As a final note, it was a special honor to have spent some time with Anne-Caro-Chausson at the races this season, and the girls still have goosebumps from watching her drop in for her last EWS stage of her phenomenal career while the entire women’s field stood by cheering her on. Thanks, ACC, you’re our idol and hero! #f**kcancer

All photos by Matt Wragg

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MENTIONS: @ibiscycles / @Anita1 / @Caro-DH / @mattwragg

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