The Last Dance, Part One - Enduro World Series, Round 7 - Finale Ligure
At 8.30am this morning riders rolled off the start ramp in the centre of Finale, starting the final dance of the 2014 EWS season. What began five months ago in Chile wraps up here in Italy, 12,000km and seven races later. With Graves and Moseley needing safe rides to secure their titles, is this a chance for less-familiar face to make their way onto the top steps?
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 As the sun came up over the horizon racers were busy with last minute preparations, shoving food in their faces, and slurping down one last espresso. |
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| Evel Kinevel was out there somewhere on track today. |
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| A relaxed Damien Oton was checking his headcam films this morning, taking one last look through his lines for the race. |
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| Tracy Moseley was visibly nervous this morning, she is clearly feeling the strain of the title hunt. |
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| It was a focused Anne-Caroline Chausson who took to the stage this morning - she clearly wants the title a lot and was ready to give it all to try and secure it. |
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| Riders headed out from the centre of town towards the 50km loop in the hills around the town. |
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| Anne-Caroline Chausson set off as she meant to go on - winning both stages this morning. |
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| Taking it conservatively? For Jared Graves that means an 8th, a 2nd and two 7ths today. He sits in fourth tonight, 40 seconds ahead of the 22nd place man he needs to meet. |
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| Nico Lau was dominant here last year, but aside from a second on stage two he hasn't quite managed to put it together today. |
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| Greg Callaghan had his best result of the season. He finished twelfth overall today, with a career best sixth on stage one. |
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| Bryan Regnier prefers the lift-accessed racing, rather than these rally-style enduro but is still sitting in a respectable 22nd place tonight. |
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| Dan Atherton was one of the only riders to clear this section on the high side. Must have been good luck wearing Rachel's jersey. |
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| Greg Minnaar was another World Cupper out on track today. Has he has the spirt of Enduro all up in him? |
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| Today is the first time we have seen the form many expected from Josh Carlson this season. Tonight he holds onto an impressive 8th place. |
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| What a comeback. Considering how many huge injuries he's had in his year, you might expect for Fab to come back gently from his broken back in the first round this year, but no. He won the first stage this morning, setting out his intentions, and kept it consistent to sit in second tonight, a mere half second from the lead. |
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| Nico Lau was not missing his lunchtime timecheck this year. Last year the time penalty for missing the check cost him the race. |
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| Chris Ball comparing angles with Duncan Philpot. Ball is a jack of all trades. |
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| Anne Caroline form carried into the afternoon, stomping out a first place for every stage to take a healthy overnight lead. |
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| Tracy Moseley didn't seem to be herself on track today, dropping behind Cecile Ravanel on the second stage, but clawing her way back into second this afternoon. She's nearly a minute off Chausson, but holds 15 second over Ravanel, who she needs to beat to take the title. |
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| Anneke Beerten let those big wheels do the work for her on the lower section of stage four. Beerten was fourth overall. |
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| Louise Paulin is the fastest woman in Italy right now, and a Finale local. She's not a full-time racer, but has cracked the top ten this evening, holding onto ninth. |
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| Florian Nicolai is more than at home on the tight rocky sections here in Finale - they are very similar to his home trails near Nice in France, which is only an hour and a half up the coast from here. Tonight he is in fifth going into tomorrow's racing. |
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| Joe Barnes had a slow start on stage one finishing twentieth, but he stepped it up on stages two and three finishing first and eleventh. |
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| Yoann Barelli has taken the confidence from his stage win in Whistler and built on it. By this evening he was leading an EWS event for his first ever time, fending off a host of his countrymen. |
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| Yoann Barelli started slowly today, but gathered momentum as the day passed. |
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| Martin Maes was just outside the top ten today. No doubt he is hungry for that podium, but is it too late? |
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| Jerome Clementz will be back up to speed in no time. Back from injury and slaying it out there. He finished seventh today. |
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| Commit and let her rip. Riding down stage four takes big balls, and if you were wise six inches of travel. Tomas Lapeyrie looked spot on in the rough today. |
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| Davide Sottocornola was the fastest Italian in four stages today. |
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| I gave Chris Ball my Sony today to run around and shoot with on stage four today. He caught many getting caught out on the final turns of the stage. |
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| Here in Finale there is undoubtedly one of the biggest crowds in enduro, a sport that is hard to spectate at the best of time. But the locals here aren't put off and stage four this afternoon was lined with several hundred fans who had hiked, scootered and pedalled up to see the action. |
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| The town of Varigotti comes at you fast when you reach the end of stage four. |
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| One last view of the sea from up high before you are safely down at sea level. |
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| After day one of the racing it was time for a recovery drink and a good night's sleep. |
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Doesn't matter if English is this poster's native language or not, you guys make enough money in advertising to pay some poor intern $5 to do a 3 minute spellcheck.
Great to see Yoann up there, hope he can hold on to the lead.