5 Things We Learned from EDR World Cup Finale Ligure 2024
Ella Connolly took 3rd place in Finale Ligure but said it was a race to get to the start of each stage.
1. It's really hard to find the sweet spot when designing an enduro race course.
Finale Ligure had Crankzilla 2014 vibes with tight transfer times that made just getting to the top of each stage a struggle for many riders. In addition to tight times between the stages, it was a hot day, which added to the challenge.
After a flat on Stage 1, Evan Wall said that the effort to make it up to Stage 2 with the tight transition time after putting a tube in meant that he wasn't able to fuel properly and "left me with brutal cramps and fatigue that I wasn’t able to recover from for the rest of the day." Helping your fellow racers with their mechanicals has always felt like part of the spirit of enduro racing, but with tight liasion times, it's not something that can happen. Even without a mechanical, Remi Gauvin said that it was "one of the biggest fitness races we have ever had in my opinion." Even Matthew Fairbrother, a glutton for punishment, said that it was "a savage race, full gas from start to finish, liaisons were tight, stages were pedally, combined with the heat made for a good battle all day long. Loved it and hated it."
Women's race winner Harriet Harnden said that she much prefers "dropping into a stage when my muscles are still warm from the climb. Rather than waiting, getting cold and having to put a max effort out on the stage from cold," but it's worth keeping in mind that she used to be a cross-country racer.
None of the other women seemed to feel similarly, with Isabeau Courdurier saying that "it was the most physical day we had in a while and at one point it felt like an enduro marathon where you can’t even stop to properly feed yourself." Women's 3rd place finisher Ella Connolly said she "raced up to get to the stages on time then tried to do something that resembled racing on the way down" while 5th place finisher Rae Morrison called it an "absolute savage day out with long stages, tight liaisons, the heat, and a crash".
On the other side, we've had races in the past couple of years where riders have said that the days aren't long or physical enough. In 2015, the year after the infamous Crankzilla, we saw lots of lift access at the Whistler round, before a middle ground was found in 2016. Treading that line between an adventure and a gruelling XC marathon on long-travel bikes is a fine balance.
In this case, the race was too challenging, with 14/98 (14.3%) of elite men not finishing the race and 9/31 (29%) of elite women DNF. For comparison, last year at the same venue, only 5% of men DNFed and 8.1% of women.
Your top three men were born in 1995 (Richie Rude), 1996 (Charlie Murray) and 1997 (Martin Maes).
2. A rider in their prime is a rider in their prime, regardless of what discipline they race in.
Despite what some might have said in the past, that enduro is the category of racing that downhillers go to once they're done with downhill, the average year of birth of the podium for the top 10 in enduro and downhill is almost the same. The average year of birth of the top 10 Elite Men in Fort William was 1995, which is only a year off what it was in Finale Ligure at 1994. If we compare that to the XC side, which you might think would be older, the top-10 in the men's category at the last World Cup in Araxa had an average age of birth of 1995.
For the women, the average year of birth of the top 10 enduro racers was 1994, while in Fort William at the first downhill round, riders were four years younger on average in the top ten with the average year of birth at 1998. The XC riders at the last round in Araxa were closer to the same age as the enduro riders, with 1995 being the average year of birth of the top 10 Elite women.
So do they go to E-EDR now then? Well, guess what, while the oldest riders of the spread might be in the E-EDR category, the average year of birth of the top 10 Elite men racing eMTB is still 1995. There were only seven women in the E-EDR category, with that having the oldest average age at 1991.
Harriet Harnden was able to best the French in Italy.
3. Hattie Harnden is only the second non-French female rider to win in Finale Ligure.
While on the men's side, we've seen French, Canadian, Australian, American, and French winners in Finale Ligure in the past nine years we've seen racing on the Italian hillside, on the women's side, the race has been won by French women in seven of the past ten years. Now however, Harriet Harnden is the second British rider to defeat the French in Finale Ligure after Tracey Moseley did so in 2013 and 2015.
However, despite the French women's dominance in Finale Ligure, Isabeau Courdurier has still never won in Finale Ligure. While she's won the overall three times and has countless wins, she missed out on yet another win at the famed venue with her second place. She announced in the press conference before the race that she'll be sitting out the 2025 season to start a family, but hopefully the desire to finally taste victory in Finale Ligure be enough to bring her back between the race tape.
4. The YT Mob enduro squad can't catch a break.
Jack Moir broke his hand during a training ride in February 2023 and then washed out during practice ahead of the Finale Ligure round this year and was forced to sit the race out since he didn't have the grip strength to hold onto the handlebars. His teammate Kasper Woolley injured his spleen during a training ride in March 2023.
Three injuries since March of 2023 is a lot for a team of three (Moir and Woolley are joined by Christian Textor on the team) in under a year and we hope to see all the riders fit and healthy for the rest of the season.
Italian champion Mirco Vendemmia on his way to an impressive fourth place.
5. There's a big local's advantage in enduro racing.
Unlike downhill, where riders race the same tracks year after year and get ample time to memorize every line on one track, you get very limited time to practice in enduro and the trails that are a part of the race course each year change a huge amount. While there's still the boost of the home crowd in downhill, being a local to an area and knowing every trail on Trailforks makes a much bigger difference in enduro racing.
We've seen it before with Marcelo Gutierrez taking second at EWS Manizales in Colombia in 2018, a third place for Ines Graham in the Tweed Valley in 2022, and even Pinkbike's own Christina Chappetta taking 6th place at EWS Whistler in 2018, to name a few.
At Finale Ligure, Italian champion Mirco Vendemmia finished an impressive fourth in the elite men's category riding for WeRide Exept Factory team. His best Elite result before this year outside of Italy was a respectable 21st, but last year he finished, 56, 49, 13 (in Finale Ligure), 34, 34 and DNFed twice.
Other facts:
• Despite a foot injury just a month ago, there was no slowing down a charging Hattie Harnden as she went eight seconds faster than 2023 series champion Isabeau Coudurier.
• Tracy Moseley podiumed in the Finale Ligure EWS in 2013 and 2015 and is still racing in 2024 in the E-EDR, with a second place finish this past weekend.
• EDR and E-EDR are on separate days, but since they share a highlights video, it means an extra day of waiting for the race highlights.
• Stage 4 was cancelled due to an incident on the Rocche Gianche course.
• It's as hard as ever to follow the live timing.
• Greg Callaghan got 7th in his first EDR as privateer, one of his best results in a while.
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"Loved it and hated it." is appropriate.
Some enduros are relying too much on lift access, which is kinda contrary to the spirit of the whole game. At some races, the transfers are replaced with lift rides when it's hot.
The most technically skilled rider should still win. Always.
If I cared about fitness I’d watch road cycling.
I think lifts can be part of the game, as long as it's not 100% lift access. But on the other hand if you have to race uphill, then the timing is wrong. This is not part of the race, though I like the idea of the time limitation, as it used to be on local races.
In everyone's group of friends, there will be the DH specialist who may be too exhausted to ride their best after a climb, and the super fit friend who isn't phased by the climb and needs all the mental clarity they can get to keep up on the descent. An enduro event strikes a good balance when both of these riders can be competitive. We already have XC and DH to represent the ends of the spectrum, so enduro can span much of the range between; it doesn't have to be just downhill racing with water bottles.
Regarding the DNF stats: In the Araxá World Cup XC races, approximately 50% of the XC field was pulled off the course before finishing due to being lapped, so 14% and 29% of the field not finishing a particularly challenging enduro seems reasonable.
And it bares little resemblance to motorcycle Enduro which isn't just riding downhill......
- I agree with someone above, I don't think anyone was complaining about the transfers themselves, just the time given to complete them, an extra 5 minutes for the men and 10 for the women would have helped a lot.
Mechanicals can't be fixed? They are part of the race and the bike has to hold up as well, I get that it can happen to anyone at anytime, but enduro racing wants to reward the rider AND bike that holds up all day.
My take on up lifts for enduro, use them where it makes sense but maybe one at most? I can see this could also benefit getting better coverage but with how bad the coverage is then that is bad point.
Also, think of it this way, if there are 300 riders between all categories and they start them every 30 seconds, that is 150 minutes (2.5 hours) from the start of the first rider to the last rider. They will likely take 5-10 minutes between categories too, so that could be 3+ hours just to "start the race".
They have to keep the event moving along.
I see no reason why enduro organizers have to design their races around the heaviest possible bike setup that the racers might want to choose
It's a good question! (re: Lighter/faster rolling bikes vs. reliability.) With current equipment and current courses, the balance favours DH or almost-DH (ex. Double Down) casings. Even with the tight transfer time limits at Finale Ligure, it would've been a huge risk to use anything more supple - did you see those rocks, especially on Stage 4?!
A good argument in favour of making races resemble consumer behaviour - whether that's enduro, automotive racing, etc. - is that technological advances for the racers will be more applicable to consumer products. One of the reasons I favour burly World Cup XC courses and climbing-intensive enduro courses is that it's driving development of tire casing design.
I agree with you, Upduro, that current options force enduro racers to use equipment that's a chore on the climbs, and I agree with you, chrismac70, that enduro racers could benefit from lighter and faster-rolling equipment. So, tire manufacturers, we're waiting ...
Accuweather says the high that day was 18°C. Even if it felt a little warmer - it was certainly sunny - the weather wasn't unreasonable.
Events with vastly greater physical demands exist. No one is saying enduro is or should be about pushing the limits of physical endurance, but if XC racing can exist, let alone 160 km off-road ultramarathon running events in temperatures up to 50°C and Ironman triathlons (3.9 km swim, 180.2 km ride, 42.2 km run), then surely 39 km of riding with 2139 m of climbing in room-temperature weather isn't inherently dangerous for a professional mountain biker. It would exhaust my soft, middle-aged body, but these are supposed to be world-class athletes and only a couple courses per year are so physical.
If we look more closely at the riders who DNF'd, there are a few top riders, but it's mostly the lesser-known riders. The usual suspects finished on top, including some stoutly built riders who are carrying a lot of muscle mass - it's not like Tom Pidcock and Yolanda Neff suddenly won an EDR round due to an outlier course or exceptional conditions.
Every athlete has unique strengths and it seems fair to have a balance of less demanding courses that favour a pure DH rider and courses that favour riders with high fitness.
I suppose that made Enduro more difficult to explain to a completely uneducated audience. But anybody who regularly rides MTB gets it right away.
Did everyone that attended the event and anyone reporting on the event take some secret oath to never share the details about said “incident” with the general public? A stage at a major cycling event is cancelled and no one will explain what happened.
Jesse Melamed, Remi Gauvin, Slawomir Lukasic and Greg Callahan were putting roughly 200 to 210 watts for less than 400m of elevation, that's basically peanuts considering their weight.
Jesse, who's the lightest was not even reaching 3 w/kg.
Now, if professional athletes who have all the time in the world to train, especially during the off season where they can build a huge base, are unable to put 3 w/kg for a short amount of time, then there's something wrong in the sport.
"U21 racer Sascha Kim told us he averaged a heart rate of 159 BPM over nearly 5h30m of effort, which is comparable (well, kind of) to a mountainous Tour de France stage"
And
"Several top elite riders had written to the race director after practice to say the transfer (aka liaison) times should be extended as they didn’t seem long enough, but they were told it was not possible (presumably as there were too many people to fit into the day’s schedule, with Open racing on the same day as Elite and Under-21 EDR racing). During the race day, as it became clear that the transfer times were too optimistic, time was added to two transfers (most riders found out too late); regardless, many elites dropped out of the race or incurred time penalties. With so many riders struggling, penalties were scrapped for the U21 categories but only after they'd already ridden most of the course."
Regardless, I don't think any pros are asking for more shuttle/uplift stages. I think they all of them are perfectly happy to pedal the liaisons. The main issue seems to be whether these liaison times at this specific race were too short or not. As others have said, some of the greatest "stories" from enduro are when competitors end up helping each other through mechanicals with some trails bodging and such. Too tight of liaison times makes this unlikely. In fact, it would probably encourage what I know at least one rider had done in the past, in having a "coach" ride a clone of their bike in the race and be available with spare parts and for trailside help (sacrificing the coach's "race" if necessary to assist the pro rider)... because your competition isn't going to help you if they have to sprint to the top of the liaison.
The climbing to stage 3 was at really low power for all of the riders I mentioned. Roughly from 140 to 160 watts and the hill was quite irregular. Looked like a very easy transfer as a matter of fact.
www.pinkbike.com/news/video-greg-callaghans-best-race-in-years-finale-ligure-edr-world-cup-2024.html
They have stopped previewing the stages 2x per video which they did previously, which is a great improvement.
Ric did a great job with the enduro recap last year, his cadence and inflection was almost perfect. His pronunciation was as good as he could do with a speech impediment. He is good at interviews, but his lack of dh knowledge and non-scripted pronunciation should preclude him from live coverage and dh commentary box) But I think his enduro work was great. And he should do the interviews for dh instead of Josh or the lady.
Alot of the racing footage at the start was out of focus and very grainy
one shot looks like the camera perons hand is in the way, and another the shot is focused on the course tape they are standing behind,
The slow motion shots they cut in are of different dirt. At least it is in focus.
He was actually pretty good on the EWS recaps. As for his DH commentary, it's actually gone... downhill since 2023, which is hopefully just a clever metaphorical joke on his part.
Nothing wrong with his accent.
Ric can't say TH sounds, he replaces them with Ffffffr
E-EDR proved that ebikes can be a great leveller in terms of fitness. EDR top three riders' ages varied by 7 and 2 yrs (F and M respectively), whilst for E-EDR the equivalent differences were 16 and 12 years
I still cannot wrap my brain around how a 1995 person can be a grown up racer.
But then yes, right, it's because I'm damn old.
• It's as hard as ever to follow the live timing.
what a f*cking disgrace to be in your late twenties and compete in this travesty of our beloved sport.
the mopeds should - if even - be a thing in the masters category.
If the climbs were exposed and they were having to gun it to make transfer times, I can believe that it felt hot.