Cannondale Enduro Tour, Round One - Raon l'Etape

Under an amazing spring sky, the Cannondale Enduro Tour powered by SRAM has again shown its best to start the season. The series takes place in North East of France so one-third of the riders come from next door (mostly German, Belgium and Switzerland) and the 375 spots were sold in three minutes. With this huge success, it was already a race to subscribe but the event organisation made a huge work to make it worth!

Ride by night with Spanninga.

Generally well known to be a blind race, the Cannondale Enduro Series has exceptionally offered a practice on stage 5 of the race to ride by night. On Saturday evening, free practice could be made thanks to our partners Spanninga which had lend 100 THOR lights for motivated riders. A great show for spectators but also a lot of fun for the riders who enjoyed the experience of riding under the stars.

The race, on fresh loamy dirt.

In order to keep the fun, the Cannondale Enduro Tour always tries to innovate and give the best riding experience. That's why, on this event, the organisation built a dual stage where riders started 2 by 2, on stage 1 and 2 (by swapping side). The excitement was huge so the riders pushed a little bit more their limits to catch their neighbours!


On the three others stages, the grip was phenomenal in this fresh loamy dirt, that Raon l'Etape is typically known for. Even the off-camber sections, which made the track technical, were rolling easily! Surrounded by green flashy foam, the tracks were flowy and the riders came back with a big smile enjoying every moment of the race!


Rémi Thirion for the win.

Used to riding on this typical sanding soil, Rémi Thirion (Commencal) who lives less than 30 minutes from Raon l’Etape, has taken the win of the scratch race. The 2016 winner of the series Elliot Trabac (Scott Suntour), climbs on the second step of the podium (+37’), just one second in front of Pierre-Charles Georges (Commencal Lac Blanc) (+38'). Unfortunately, the local of the round, Alexis Noirot (Cannondale), had a little problem with his derailleur but ends up 4th (+48’) and Paul Thiebaut, a young talented rider, took the last 5th spot.


Elliot Trabac, winner of the french cup 2016, got 2nd in the scratch. A very talented rider who is coming on almost all the Enduro World Series dates.

In the master category, the favourite rider, Camille Lepley (Geko Bikes) couldn’t handle strong competitor, Frédéric Le pottier, who won in front of him by 13 seconds! The 3rd place of the podium was taken by Olivier Wilhelm who is also the club's president of the 3rd round of the 2017 series!


In the women class, Mélanie Pugin has easily taken the win (she finished top 50 scratch as well) in front of the Swiss, Monika Buchi and the Belgian, Alexandra Marchal takes the 3rd spot.


With more than 30 juniors registered, the future is bright for enduro! Charles Christophe from Dabo2allmountain club takes the win of the class!

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MENTIONS: @loizoriderproductions / @SramMedia

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Racing and Events Cannondale SRAM