The Scottish weather definitely has a sense of humour. After grim tales of impending apocalypse today, of torrential ran, 40mph winds and winter temperatures the race organisers were left with a stark choice last night. Risk dangerous weather or pull the pin and cut the race short. In the end they erred on the side of safety, cutting the unpopular stage six (and the very popular stage seven) from the race, but extending stage eight to start from the top of the hill. Come this morning the town awoke to the rain lashing against rooftops, but it had no conviction, subsiding by mid-morning and eventually even giving way to blue skies. For the fastest riders this still meant around 15 minutes of timed stages today and with the fresh, deep mud waiting for the in the forest, a test for even the best riders in the world...
The strong winds and sideways rain forecast for the day never really materialized, but the overnight deluge of rain still turned the race into a slip and slide.
This is what fresh loamy dirt looks like after a night of rain and a few hundred racers. It's quite safe to say the conditions on Sunday could not have been any more different to the dusty and tacky tracks ridden one day prior.
Local lad, Gary Forrest, did not have a good weekend. He went down awkwardly at the start of stage one in practice, suffering compression fractures in five vertebrae and cracking rib. With six weeks in his brace and then a long rehab to get back to strength, that looks a lot like his season written off for this year.
She may be an eighteen-time world champion and an Olympic gold medalist - but there are no luxury winnebagoes here for Anne-Caroline Chausson - just a quiet seat in the back of the Ibis team van to gather her thoughts before racing.
Despite the weather warnings, the volunteers who make an event like this possible, were out and smiling this morning.
Birthday boy Jerome Clementz struggled with a bit of a cold and a nagging shoulder injury again today, finished well down the order and out of the top 10. Worst of all he would give up his lead in the overall series and slide back two spots to 3rd.
If it weren't for a one minute time penalty picked up at the start of stage one for missing his start time, we would be talking about Rene Wildhaber's first top ten of the season. After his injury at the start of the season he looks to be gathering momentum for, and with six weeks before the next race in Samoens he has plenty of time to put the work in to get himself back to the front.
Ruaridh Cunningham came here with lofty goals of a top three and was close all weekend, eventually settling in for a very respectable 5th overall.
Welcome to the top ten Josh Carlson.
Matti Lehikoinen came back for more this weekend. It seems like he is enjoying the enduro format and is keen to become a more regular site at these EWS races.
Some riders struggled in the mud while others used it as an advantage to pull back time on their rivals. Here Anka Martin catches and passes Kelli Emmett who started 30 seconds earlier.
After the thick, cloying mud on stage five, the stream that crossed the stage was welcome respite for riders looking to unclog their bikes.
Last years third place finisher, Joe Barnes, would have to settle for 8th this time around.
Jesse Melamed discovered the consequence of getting an inch or two off line in the tight steep and twisty woods.
Katy Winton had a storming race in her hometown - she finished in seventh this evening.
Some naysayer's claimed Greg Callaghan wouldn't be inside the top five again this year after winning on his familiar home trails a week ago in Ireland. With a third here in Scotland we can safely assume he will be a podium threat all season and on any track.
Mark Scott this weekend showed the form that many in the UK have known he has for some time now. Over the winter he has been putting in the punishment with Alan Milway who also trains the Athertons, and today that hard work began to pay off with his best ever result at an EWS - 5th.
Cecile Ravanel was another rider who took advantage of the mud on stage five. By the halfway point she had already passed Anneke Beerten and pulled back enough time to take over third place for good.
Nico Lau has had a patchy start to the season, but today he started to get back up to pace and grabbed his first top ten of the season.
Richie Rude came into the day with only a small lead, but would lose it all and then some after going off track on stage five. He would roar back to finish 2nd on stage 6 but the damage was already done.
After a disappointing day yesterday, Fabien Barel showed that he has more than enough stamina to play with the young guns today, coming on even stronger on the second day of racing. A second and a third propelled him right the way up to sixth this evening.
Yoann Barelli couldn't quite make the top ten this weekend, missing out by just six seconds.
Florian Nicolai was on it this weekend - despite coming from the south of France, where they don't have mud or rain, he smashed the first stage this morning, winning by a clear two seconds. On the longer second stage he couldn't quite hold the pace though and had to settle for second place, his best-ever result at an EWS and only his second ever podium.
After losing a huge time on stage five, Anneke Beerten absolutely pinned the final stage of the day to pull back 30 seconds on Cecile Ravenel, but still came up a few seconds short of the podium.
Tracy Moseley was supreme this weekend taking five of the six stages convincingly to build more than a minute's advantage over the rest of the field.
It's been a long time coming. Justin Leov has been so close to winning since last season, denied a couple of wins by cruel, little twists of fate. Today it finally came good for him, sealed with his demolition of the entire field on the final and longest stage - putting 10 seconds into second-placed Richie Rude and 23 seconds into the then-race leader, Florian Nicolai.
Canonndale and SRAM threw Jerome Clementz a birthday party after the podium presentation, complete with an extra large goblet of Duvel and personalized cake.
Cube's Dutch distributor, Jarno, told the team that he would shave his head if both Nico and Greg got top tens this week...
The Scottish fans are a hardy bunch.
In case you couldn't tell from the smile. Winning never gets old.
It was a more subdued celebration than last week's riot in Ireland, but don't think this win means any less to Justin Leov for it.
That's a wrap... After 10 days and over 200 man hours shooting back to back Enduro World Series rounds, these two photographers are headed to the pub...
About the Photographers
Matt Wragg • Age: 32 • Years Shooting: 3 Maybe best-known as a long-standing member of Pinkbike's European editorial team, Matt is also a successful commercial photographer. As the first English-speaking photographer to follow and document the nascent European enduro scene, he was shooting enduro well before it became a marketing buzzword or a shade of blue. Today he is still one of the few photographers to make his living following the discipline and has built up an enviable client list that includes many of the top teams and brands in the world.
Author Info:
Member since Oct 29, 2006
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And cut them a break on the grammar and spelling mistakes; I'm honestly surprised they're still able to string sentences together with the workload they're dealing with.
If only I could ride my bike faster I might appear in these pics.......
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