7 idp Enduro Series Round 4 - Samoëns

A bit of mud and a lot of fun !

Samoëns hosted for the 3rd time in a row a round of the Enduro Series French Cup - and as usual the terrain was pretty loose and even muddy for the 280 riders at the start.

Mud is often a specialist affair and the specialist is clearly François Bailly Maitre. However, it wasn’t a walk in the park for him after a bad start on Saturday morning which saw Florian Nicolaï and Nico Quéré scoring impressive times on a slippy track. Then FBM would get his rhythm back and win the other 5 stages of the day whilst serious contenders like Nicolaï or Cure had some mechanical troubles in the stage 3, due to the sticky mud that would block their front wheels several times. They eventually got rid of their mud-guards but it was too late, FBM had too much of an advance.


After winning the Saturday round, FBM needed to (simply) manage his advance to win the weekend overall, and it was Alex Cure who took all 4 stages, winning the Sunday round and precious points. Solid performances too from Nico Quere , Yo Barelli , Baptiste Gaillot ou Thomas Lapeyrie, always on the top spots.

The rounds 9 and 10 will take place in Valberg next week-end, week-end 5 of the 2014 Enduro Series, and should not change the final podium, with Nicolaï, Cure and Quéré well positioned on the first 3 spots.


In the female race, we were expecting an easy win for Cécile Ravanel on the Samoëns tracks. Unfortunately, she would cross on her high speed line a solid pine tree from the Griffe valley and therefore bluntly stop her race on stage 2. Fortunately she’s fine and will be back on her feet pretty quickly. Mélanie Pugin then dominated the 2 race days in conditions she loves. Despite mechanical problems in the last stage on Sunday and a long run pushing her bike, she took the week-end overall win. Axelle Murigneux took logically the win of the Sunday round and the second place overall, in front of Anaïs Laroubine and Nadine Sapin.

Mechanical problems for Seb Claquin in the junior category and it’s his usual challenger Elliot Trabac who made the most of it. With a very fast Adrien Dailly on Sunday, the battle is on for the last round in Valberg. In the Masters category, it’s a come-back on the Enduro Series from François Dola who stopped the dominance of Yannick Sénéchal.


Samoëns once again offered a magnificent and selective terrain that sometimes looked like British Columbia through the humid forests.

Last round of the season will take place in less than a week in Valberg – Guillaumes where we expect Nico Vouilloz and Fabien Barel back from injuries to celebrate in style with the entire 'enduro' community for the 10th season of Enduro Series during the Enduro des Portes du Mercantour, also in its 10th edition.