French Enduro Series - Round 1

It was a tough and pure french style enduro race that Samoëns gave to the enduro fans for the opening of the 2013 battle. Samoëns terrain is, as we now know since last year, very demanding and the wet conditions the days prior to the event would definitely finish to spice things up. From the 330 riders who signed up, only a third would give up and more than 200 brave warriors and real enduro riders would reach the finish line of the 8th and last stage on Sunday.

The race up front was as intense as exciting:
Big battle in the male race between Francois Bailly Maitre and Remy Absalon. But an unfortunate broken chain on Sunday would end all the winning hopes for the Commencal rider.


The fight for the other places on the podium was also magnificent and once again a mechanical problem would be decisive as Theo Gally, forced to change his wheels, would get a 5-minutes penalty. The Urge riders Florian Nicolaï and Alex Cure would benefit from these misfortunes and took the spots on the podium in this order, behind the BMC rider.

Surprising maybe, but also impressive for sure, the nice performances from the former XC riders Thomas Decugis and Cedric Ravanel, 4th and 5th.
29”, 26” or 27.5” wheels, XC, DH or “historical” enduro riders, all of them got the best of this week-end. Enduro is definitely a nice mix between all the MTB families.

And it’s not with the female resort that can proof otherwise, with the nice win of the former DH rider Tracy Moseley in front of the former XC rider Cécile Ravanel. Hats off to the 6 girls who saw the end of this tough week-end.
Expected wins in the junior category for Aurélien Demailly and for Yannick Sénéchal in the master category.

We will meet up again next week-end in Val d’Allos for the mythic Tribe 10000 where the top spots will be even harder to reach, as few “trouble makers” from different countries will compete. The Enduro Series are indeed sharing their favorite tracks with the Enduro World Series. Magnificent show on the horizon!

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