Day 1 Results: EWS Olargues, France 2018

 Merica!

 You really quoted heman?

 Someone finally pumped their tyres up.

 yeah looks like rude swept the first three stages then took it easy on the final short stage. he could be up by another 8-9 seconds if he'd punched it on the 4th but must be trying to play it safe and go for the long game. go get 'em richie. oh yeah and sam dale in 21st, thats pretty sweet.

 Bikes checks, please?

 Psyched to see Rude and Graves having a good day. Hope it keeps up tomorrow!

 Don't call it a come back,,,, Rudeboy back in action. Anyone know what happened to Jesse MELAMED? Looks like he pulled out after stage 2.

 He must have gone down on 4. No way he loses 8 seconds on a short course like that.

 @rocky-mtn-gman: Richie has some Bad luck in the first two events, he needs to secure points, more than risking everything FTW.

 somehow he's a pretty quick flatlander

 @fecalmaster: he said he broke his collar bone on instagram.

 @harrybrottman: I hope you're wrong. But we've all been shocked before.

 as long as graves doesn't blow up his bike he has a chance at the win

 @jclnv: my sides

 How Rude

 FINALLY. Beyond stoked to see it

 In that picture he looks like he about to jump off the bike a box Mike Tyson.

 @guytherev: The Pinkbike plebs don't get it.

 Given that Ravanel was a top 10 world cup XC racer earlier in her career one might be tempted to suggest that her competition is likely to come from the current XC ranks.

 If T-Mo comes back then she’ll just pull a gap ahead of Cecille. What we need is for the likes of Isabeau and Katy Winton to make a big leap similar to what Women’s DH saw last year.

 @almacigatrailrider: Are we so sure? Ravanel was fresh on the scene just as T-Mo was bowing out. Also, while Ravanel did come from an XC background, T-Mo was a highly dominant BMX and DH racer, which makes me wonder if Ravanels skills havent increased given her WCDH performances and if DH skills or XC Endurance are whats neccesary to beat her. It certainly makes things more interesting when a racer isnt completely dominant...Go Richie!

 ARE YOU KIDDING? ZIP IT!

 @sevensixtwo: officially jinxed now.

 50to01 ftw

 Wouldn't like to be them tomorrow.

 yeah, i feel like flo's always been so damn consistently close to the top but hasn't won a round yet.

 Ha ha you need at least a minute

 Crash on stage 2 and his day was done, according to the race feed.

 Crash on stage 2

 @brianpark: noooo he was absolutely destroying the tracks in practice

 Hope Jesse is ok!
Not a ton of spots you want to be taking a tumble on that course eh?
Looks like his team mate Gauvin did not too bad on stage 2 , 39th overall.

 For real that whole track is a no crash zone. Hope he ok and can continue the series.

 He posted on FB that he broke his collarbone.

 That really sucks

 @COnovicerider:
Noooooooo! Fark n crepes!

 They say that's just racing but you have to feel bad when a real contender is battling through back to back injuries. Speedy recovery and can't wait to see him back in action.

 @COnovicerider: nooooooooooooo

 Yup. It sucks. Hopefully he’s back before Whistler at the latest. @gramboh:

 Ack, that suuuucks. Second place on stage 1, too. ((

 My thinking as well . Maybe he’s playing it safe. Oton is the only one close to him in the series overall within striking distance after day one. Going to be a fun watch tomorrow

 double post

 @won-sean-animal-chin: totally, Sam will be thinking of the whole season, calculating the risk of pushing too hard and injuring himself or loosing so much time he adds no points. Richie just needs one good result.

 i exist, therefor i am...on the internet...on a spreadsheet...next to some numbers...on column C68..

 It's just a concise report of the results, if people wanted to know the full results of other categories I'm sure they can do so

 I came here to see who got 61st in the 45+ class, dammit!

 And Rude is 183rd on that stage Short stages don't matter that much. That's only 7 seconds of difference.

 Four is super short and kinda strange mix of urban and parkland. I can imagine most of the lead pack were just surviving and not really hammering like some of the mid pack riders.

 CRC team feed said the thunderstorm kicked in, so I expect he played safe on the greasy urban cobbles.

 @Trudeez: it doesn't make sense to take it that slow on 4. Losing 8 seconds to the guy right behind you is very careless regardless of how short the stage is. I imagine Rude must have had a crash or something to be that far back on a stage that short. Deliberately going that slow would be insane.

 The top 30 had to race it in wet conditions, that's why most of them are quite far behind

 @humoroususername: yes it does make sense when you consider that crashing on wet slimy cobbles could cost you far more than just eight seconds. Hearing now that it was wet it makes even more sense considering Richie, Martin, Sam etc are still leading the pack and not losing time hitting the deck, suffering mechanicals or injuring themselves. Maybe Adrien pushed harder than others. . .maybe he had a drier track. . .i don’t know. A cautious ride by Rude looks like a pretty good play to me.

 @Trudeez: I don't know why I'm getting neg props. That is exactly what I said. He didn't just take it easy because it was a short stage, there was a reason. Ie. Rain/crash.

Others here were suggesting that he just relaxed and didn't care as it was a short stage. I was saying he must have had an issue. Read people, read.