Opinion: The Enduro World Series, DH1 and Pissing in the Drinking Water?

Viewed through the lens of the internet, DH1 looked good. To those of us who weren't part and parcel of the World Cup circus, who didn't talk to the team managers, the sponsors or the organisers, whose only line into this world was an internet pipe, it looked like it might just work. For years people had been muttering about a series without the UCI, run by riders, for riders. Or maybe more accurately, by the mountain bike industry, for the mountain bike industry.

Here it was. Or here it seemed to be, anyway. Freecaster, the company who revolutionised how we follow the World Cup races were burnt by the UCI and said "enough, we don't need you any more." The press releases were bold, the talk was big and the digital excitement was palpable. What those of us on the outside couldn't see was the lack of substance at the heart of it all. As time ran on, details failed to emerge, the race season hurtled towards us and all that could be seen were those early press releases. In the end, it slipped out of view and the World Cup season carried on regardless. The question is: what legacy did it leave us? Did it offer hope to those who longed for new way of doing things, or did it just piss in our collective drinking water and resign us to The Way Things Are?


Chris Ball, the managing director of the Enduro World Series, is one of those who found hope in it. "It was ambitious, but it showed there is an appetite for this kind of thing. There was an undercurrent of people feeling that they wanted more, they wanted a different structure." Of everyone, Chris arguably has more insight into it than anyone else out there. At the time, he was the UCI's Gravity Co-ordinator, so very much on the inside of what was happening. Today, at the helm of the Enduro World Series, he is the person who has to live with that legacy.

When Chris left the UCI he took his work into creating an international enduro series and carried on without them. He started from a completely different position to DH1 though. Where they put out press releases and hoped it would all come together after, Chris had quiet conversations with the people who run enduro races. The basis for the Enduro World Series is seven races that were going to happen anyway, races that have been successfully running for years. The French Enduro series has been going for ten years, Italy's Superenduro series six. Many riders describe the Colorado Freeride Festival as the best enduro race in the US. If you're being picky, Crankworx did have problems with transfer times for their Whistler enduro race last year. They'll admit that, what do you reckon the chances of an organisation as successful as Crankworx making the same mistake twice are?

On top of those solid foundations is the Enduro Mountain Bike Association, tying it all together to organise the Enduro World Series. That is what Chris has added, an international organisation to pull everything in and create a series. Rather than the UCI approach of a top-down series with sponsors and partnerships he risked a model that is new to mountain biking. There would be no sponsors, instead it would be funded by riders and teams buying memberships and supporting them. In his own words, "We put ourselves in the hands of the industry by choosing this model. We knew that industry-wide support would be critical for EMBA and would give everyone a chance to be involved in the development of the discipline and to show their support for the sport. We believe that this is how to build the sport - from the ground up, through our members."

He does admit they faced, and still face, apprehension. As he puts it, "Enduro is new and unproven and people are waiting to see what happens in the long-term." DH1 can't have helped them. It's the problem of lenses again. From the inside names like Fred Glo, Franco Monchiero and Darren Kinnaird mean something, people who have been on the enduro circuit see that these people are involved and feel confident in what is happening. For the rest of the world peering in through that same internet tube which magnified DH1 to such importance, how could they tell the difference?

On 25 February the dice were rolled for real. Memberships opened for the Enduro Mountain Bike Association (EMBA) and places for the races became available. They were looking for a balance when they were setting up the series, so they held back a quota of places in the races for riders and teams who signed up to the EMBA. Enduro is supposed to be a sport for everyone to take part in, so they opened up spaces for anyone to enter the races to make sure they had a chance to come and race. The plan was that once the team entries were in there would be a second round of public entries to fill the spaces left.

"Overwhelmed" is Chris' reaction to the response. Over the first 30 days of registration they received entries from 19 teams, 10 official supporters and over 220 members. More than that, in a week every single one of the public places for the seven races was filled. There may still be a second phase of public entries, but it's mostly going to be a case of tidying up duplicates and filling in for people who drop out.

This is a very real and very positive response to the series from both riders and the industry, what they are building on those foundations is starting to look equally solid. Yet there is no doubt that the Enduro World Series still has a long way to go between now and 20 October when the first ever Enduro World Champion will be crowned in Finale Ligure, Italy. There are going to be plenty more sleepless nights for Chris, even if it looks like the biggest hurdles are already behind him. A lot is at stake though. If it fails, then the legacy of DH1 would be cemented, surely breaking the heart of the dream of international racing ran by riders, for riders. But if it works...

Matt Wragg
EMBA Member #GBR10235
www.enduroworldseries.com