Crankzilla: EWS Race Day Photo Epic - Crankworx Whistler 2017
The iconic backdrops of Whistler played host to one of the most spectacular races of the season: the Canadian Open Enduro presented by Specialized. The forecast threatened to throw a spanner into the works of riders who had practiced Crankzilla’s massive five stages in dry, rough conditions over the last few days but the overnight moisture, intermittent light rain, and cooler temperatures were a welcome development for the parched trails. All this would make for one of the most dramatic races of the season, with mechanicals, crashes, and a come-from-behind fairytale ending.
In the men’s field, it was Sam Hill who took a massive early lead on Stage 1, but hometown hero and last year’s runner up Jesse Melamed stormed back to win Stages 2, 3, and 4. With a 14 second lead on the final stage, Jesse brought it home to a cheering crowd and took first on the day—despite what we’re told was a nightmare 10 second crash at the top. With Sam Hill on form and taking second, it was Mark Scott with a breakout ride. His consistency throughout the day earning him third and his first ever trip to the EWS podium.
For Cecile Ravanel it’s been a season of pure domination, and the technical, aggressive tracks here at Crankworx Whistler were no exception. She won every single stage and took the win yet again. Isabeau Courdurier pushed hard for second place, clearly enjoying the steeper, more technical stages, while Katy Winton won a hard fought battle with Anita Gehrig to take third.
In the Overall Championship Cecile Ravanel has absolutely run away with it, nearly 700 points ahead of her nearest competitor—which means she’s pretty much locked it up already. On the men’s side, it has been a race within a race. Adrien Dailly had a nightmare first stage, with a cleat that got stuck in his pedal and a huge effort to make his liaison for Stage 2. He battled back into 6th with strong results on the final three stages to salvage some points, but with Sam Hill taking second he slips 110 points behind Sam. All eyes will be on Finale to see if Sam can steer the championship home or if Adrien will pull out a miraculous result on the terrain where he will definitely excel.
The smoke may have blown out, but in its place the rain blew in.
For weeks it has been nothing but scorching temps and dust in Whistler, so the overnight rain was welcomed by all.
It was classic Whistler scenery in the woods for the first stage of the day.
Mckay Vezina wishing he could still feel his hands and arms down the final minutes of Ride Don't Slide.
Josh Carlson fully committed down one of the gnarlier chutes on Ride Don't Slide.
Richie Rude may have won here last year, but it wasn't meant to be today.
Caro Gehrig has been battling with her sister Anita all season, but Whistler would see her finish a bit off her usual pace to take 8th.
Sam Hill took stage one by 17 seconds. unfortunately, the day wouldn't be his.
Sam left it all out on the track for Stage 1 and opened up what looked to be an insurmountable lead of more than 15 seconds.
Adrien Dailly after a rough Stage 1 in which his cleat fell out, fought his way through the day to finish sixth.
The nightmare that was Adrien Dailly's reality on Stage 1.
Noga Korem would finish in 7th, some three minutes behind Cecile Ravanel.
5th for Andreane Lanthier Nadeau.
Iago Garay gets loose on Stage 4.
Katy Winton may have been feeling under the weather when she started out today, but she wasn't showing any signs of holding back.
Joe Nation was on fire today, he rode to ninth place.
Cecile Ravanel crushing the flat sprint on Stage 3.
Sam Hill making quick work of the monster roots on Stage 2.
Fifth for Remi Gauvin would be his best ever EWS finish.
Total stage domination today as Cecile Ravanel went five for five.
4th for Anita Gehrig and right on the heels of Katy Winton.
Isabeau Courdurier charging her way to second place.
Anita Gehrig had a heck of a day and rode to fourth place.
Remi Gauvin was on the pace today and took fifth place.
Jerome Clementz weaving his way to eighth place on a massive day out.
Mark Scott crushed it for his first EWS podium. Scott took third.
Lewis Buchanan is picking up speed. It's a matter of time till he makes top ten.
Katy Winton nervously waiting on the times to tick in to see if she would be on or off the podium.
Too exhausted to celebrate, second place for Isabeau Courdurier.
That sigh of relief after a very very long and hard day.
Robin Wallner would start the day in second, and then spent the rest of the day chasing the final podium spots. Unfortunately, he would miss the mark by just seven seconds to take fourth.
Yoann Barelli had his best result of the year in seventh.
Smashing rocks and riding to his true potential, Mark Scott finally landed himself a long overdue podium.
After losing big on Stage 1, Jesse Melamed went on a tear to win the next three stages.
Stage 4 would be where things would start to fall apart for Sam Hill, as Jesse Melamed took over ten seconds out of him.
Jerome Clementz kept it smooth, fast and consistent and the long and rough stages to take eighth.
Greg Callaghan finished outside the top ten and watched his chances of taking the overall slip almost entirely away.
What a ride for Marco Osborne today.
Andreane Lanthier Nadeau thrilled to have the final stage over with.
There was never really any doubt that Cecilie would come out on top.
Miranda Miller holding it down for Specialized. While Jared and Curtis were out early with mechanicals, Miller came home in twelfth.
Jesse had a few fans...
Truth...
.......and he certainly rode like an animal.
What a battle between these two. Huge times gaps, crashes, and a fight that came down to the very wire.
Adrien Dailly has had some bad luck this season, that has surely cost him several wins.
A hard and frustrating day for Adrien Dailly as he watched his once firm grasp on the overall disappear even further.
Santa Cruz team manager, Allan Cooke, congratulates Mark Scott at the finish line.
As the sun sets in Whistler, with it goes Greg Callaghan's shot at the overall title.
It's not every day you get the chance to win in your hometown with parents, siblings, and close friends standing just meters away at the finish line.
The fastest men and women in Whistler popping bottles on the podium.
Rocky Mountain took top honors in the team standings today, and it is now a neck and neck battle with Ibis that will be too close to call in Finale.
The new Mayor of Whistler.
With one round to go, it's looking more and more likely that this man will wear the crown in Finale Ligure.
MENTIONS: @davetrumpore / @mdelorme / @EnduroWorldSeries / @officialcrankworx
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I assume the Sponsors foot the lions share of the bill.
@jayacheess: It's like that: Road racer get 10 of stuff, Marathon racer/XC racer gets 3-4, DH and Enduro racer gets 1. You can see it if you stroll around the pits on a World cup where you have both DH and XC comp. If you go to truck of a large XC team it's a bit of a yacht club. Go to a major Dh team and it's a bit of MX race pits, go to privateers and it's a fkng hippie festival. Now go to any national road race, and "privateer pits" look the same if not better than those XC folks at a World cup. I've been also to pits and Trans Alp, well that makes most Dh team trucks look poor.
I was watching the live web feed and it was all a bunch of guys talking and a couple of riders coasting in the last sections of stage 5. Everything about it in the way it was presented was so anti-climactic and there was no sense of thrill or stakes in the way the event was shown.
I hope they do better in the next few seasons. But for now, enduro is still a long way from DH as an event or spectacle.
nsmb.com/articles/jesse-melameds-winning-ews-bike-compared-remi-gauvins-5th-place-ride
Winning bike check?!?!?!
And then you get tweeter sht storm of upper echelon butthurtness as soon as someone doesn't play by the rules, as if these rules were written by a God with the face of John Tomac... Fabien cut the course ble bleee, not a real sport ble ble bleee, something should have been done, look at me there is a book with picutres of meeee, I am a legeeeeend. Enduro Not a real sport. Sad. Oh look at me Brian I am drinking a beer straight after my race run in a real sport for real athletes. I'm so cool. Boo boo bee boo
But yeah it's always funny to see that double standard with home advantage whining. We had that conversation with @davetrumpore after Millau in the comments. In France he said they didn't have enough practice for the race to be fair, but it was the same thing here : only two days of recons, with a lot of people on the trails.
Millau and Whistler is apples to oranges... and NZ was effected by rain.
But we've been through the facts, and they don't align with your opinions so discussion here is futile.
Ohhhh bummer for him.. he rode so well... Hope he will be well soon and win Finale once again!!
Anyone else notice the bodyless man??? lol
www.enduroworldseries.com/live
TL;DR : the thing on their wrists is an RDID chip which does the timing for them
Two consecutive titles for 2015 and '16, he's ranked 13th so far in 2017, and he's 22 YO and you think he should move back to DH. Oh ya, he's washed up. It's so-o, like, obvious. ????
So much crap.... 100 times the same lap and just 1 run on race day...
Enduro .. 1 or 2 runs to train an 3 to 8 stages a day....
So which is the king class again?