Photo Epic: French Enduro Series & National Enduro Championship - Val d'Allos 2018

Two words describe this weekend in Val d'Allos: fun and physical. Three of the four stages had the riders on the mountain for no less than 10min, up to 12 on the first gruelling stage of Saturday. None of the stages had really technical or steep sections where you just hope not to crash, but everyone had fun - tons of fun and at the end and that's what matters.

Weather forecasts were good for the whole weekend, with a possibility of scattered rain on afternoon Sunday. And sun we had, starting early on Saturday with the first long stage, a combination of the 'Valcibiere' and 'Premin' trails awaited the riders.

Thomas Lapeyrie immediately showed his cards. winning with a time of 12:10.529, almost 20s over Alexander Cure, clearly aiming for the title of the first ever French Enduro Champion. On the women's side, Laura Charles started off with a win over Julie Duvert and Morgane Jonnier, who came 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Alexander Cure won the 2nd stage, with Nico Quere coming 2nd and Thomas Lapeyrie 3rd, but losing just 4 seconds so he maintained his overall position for Sunday. On the girl's side, this time Morgane Jonnier had the win, followed by Laura Charles by 6 seconds and Charles Estelle 18 seconds behind. Saturday's first stage was crucial for the overall winners as they got lot of time on their pockets to play on the next stages.














Sunday morning was sunny and without wind, but some showers were expected in the afternoon. The first stage was a long one, similar to the second of Saturday, starting from the top at almost 2400m high. One practice run and 2 timed runs awaited the participants.

Alexander Cure started the day with a win, by less than half a second over Nico Quere, with Thomas Lapeyrie coming third, losing by just 4 seconds. Morgane Jonnier started the day winning by 5 seconds over Laura Charles and 38 seconds over Julie Duvert.

On the second run, Alexander Cure lost some precious time crashing on the upper section and eventually giving 1 minute to Nico Quere. Thomas Lapeyrie finished first and Nico 2nd, 7 seconds behind. Third position was to Oget Ludovic. On the second stage, Laura Charles won again by 7 seconds over Morgane Jonnier, settling things over for the overall.

After another pass through the feed station to hydrate and have some rest, the last stage awaited. It would be a blind one with no practice runs allowed. It was a short and fun stage, perfect to finish the day. As riders started to come down it slowly started to rain, then harder and harder every minute and after half hour the trail was impossible to ride. Marshals call it off and the remaining riders went down through the mountain slope as if it was a mass start race. This last stage didn't count to the final results.

Results

Overall results here

Next stop will be Les Orres, 28 and 29 of July, also part of the European Enduro Series.

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