Who Can Still Win the 2023 EDR World Cup Overall Title in Châtel?
After kicking off in March the seven-round 2023 EDR World Cup series has reached its conclusion as riders prepare for a final showdown in Châtel. None of the Elite titles have been decided so we can expect some intense racing as it will all come down to the final seven stages of the season.
We have broken down the numbers and tried to make a bit more sense of the stats before racing kicks off for the final round of the 2023 season.
How does the points system work?
Unlike DH World Cup racing where the final round all comes down to the final race with no qualifying points the EDR World Cup series continues the traditions of the EWS with a more complex points system allowing for alternative ways to pick up points than just the race win. For 2023 Queen and Pro stages were taken out of the racing and instead, a small number of points are now offered for top individual stage results.
For each stage, an Elite rider can expect to receive 20 points for a first-place finish with this dropping to five points given to tenth place. U21 riders take 10 overall series ranking points for a stage win with a drop to three points for fifth place. When it comes to the race result point scale a win in both Elite categories offers 400 points. For the Men's racing, this extends back to 100th place where 45 points are offered. The Elite Women's scale ranges from 400 points for first to 30 points for 30th. For this weekend's seven-stage race, the maximum number of points on offer is 540.
While the Elite categories see every EDR World Cup round count towards the overall in the U21 racing the series is decided using each rider's best five EDR World Cup results. For the final round the maximum number of points available to the U21 racers is 270.
Points Table
Stage Additional Points Table
What are the current elite overall standings?
Top 20 Elite Men
Top 20 Elite Women
Who can still win the titles?
Mathematically, there are just six racers left in the running for the 2023 overall titles as Emmy Lan has already wrapped up the U21 Women's title fight. In the Elite Men's series, there is a four-way fight for the overall with Richie Rude currently leading the standings by a healthy 238 points. Last year's EWS champion Jesse Melamed will start in Châtel 280 back and Rhys Verner is the only other rider in touch of the title, 322 points off the series leader.
For the Elite Women, we have a repeat of 2022 as once again the overall goes down to a final French face-off with Isabeau Coudurier leading Morgane Charre. Morgane will need to pull back 212 points on Isabeau if she wants to be the first elite women's UCI EDR World Cup Champion.
The last title up for grabs this weekend is for the U21 Men where Lisandru Bertini leads Sascha Kim by only 80 points based on both rider's five best results so far this season. With 270 points on offer, this could be very close.
Elite Men
Richie Rude - 2199
Alex Rudeau - 1961 ( -238 )
Jesse Melamed - 1919 ( -280 )
Rhys Verner - 1877 ( -322 )
Richie Rude - 2199
Alex Rudeau - 1961 ( -238 )
Jesse Melamed - 1919 ( -280 )
Rhys Verner - 1877 ( -322 )
Elite Women
Isabeau Courdurier - 2707
Morgane Charre - 2495 ( -212 )
Isabeau Courdurier - 2707
Morgane Charre - 2495 ( -212 )
U21 Men
Lisandru Bertini - 1075
Sascha Kim - 995 ( -80 )
Lisandru Bertini - 1075
Sascha Kim - 995 ( -80 )
U21 Women
Emmy Lan is the 2023 U21 Women's UCI EDR World Cup Champion.
Emmy Lan is the 2023 U21 Women's UCI EDR World Cup Champion.
How can the overall titles be decided?
Elite Men
After a strong 2023 season, it is Richie Rude who leads the Elite Men's overall title fight going into the final round as he just needs to secure 303 points to become the clear winner of the first Enduro World Cup title. For Richie simply finishing the race 3rd or better with no top-ten stages would take enough points for him to be well clear of the three other riders competing for the top spot. Alex Rudeau has the best chance at toppling Richie off the top of the series standings but he will need a very good showing in Châtel to find the extra 238 points to bridge the current gap to first. With Alex Rudeau's biggest lead against Richie only being 127 points ahead finding a 238-point gap will most likely mean a very bad race for Richie. Jesse Melamed and Rhys Verner are also in the running for the top spot but at 280 and 322 points behind respectively they would need Richie and Alex to struggle in order to overtake them in the standings.
Elite Women
Isabeau Courdurier carries a strong lead of 212 points into the final round and with 540 points on offer for the perfect race, Morgane Charre will need to perform very well in the final round of the season to dethrone Isabeau. From our calculations, Isabeau Courdurier would need to secure a 329-point combination to take the first EDR series champ title. An example that would score enough points for Isabeau would be 5th place on every stage netting 70 points with a fourth-place finish securing a further 280 points. Given Isabeau has yet to finish outside of the top five this year if she continues this she will secure at least 250 of the 329 points needed to win the overall making it very important for Morgane Charre to come as close to the perfect race as possible. No matter how Isabeau or Morgane do this weekend they are both guaranteed a spot in the top two.
U21 Men
The last title on the line will be the close battle between Lisandru Bertini and Sascha Kim in the U21 Men's race. For the U21 category, it is only the five best results that count leaving the pair with Lisandru on 1075 and Sascha 80 points back with 995. Sascha has a lot of work ahead of him as Lisandru is on a winning streak with three back-to-back wins. For Lisandru he definitely holds an advantage going into the final race but with 270 points on offer and a gap of only 80 points, both riders will still need a top finish to secure the title.
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Must Read This Week
remember the first two happened way back in March in Australia...
UCI MTB enduro playlist:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5W-TcQwJltJMDXEQDdHeeqyQiAycA_7x&si=Yts5ukPOm7C52jxb
There was a comment on one of Ed Masters videos about the "Golden Age of Enduro" being just before covid. With its bike checks, finish line interviews. At least there were full stage previews on youtube. Its just not buzzing as it was.
Sad to see the demise of this beautiful sport. I'd be interested to hear from some of the other big name original organisers and later EWS Board Members, Franco Monchiero, Fredric Glo, Enrico Guala, and Crankworks GM Darren Kinnaird, what they think of it all
But trillions of super borin (but well payd) road racing.
Is this the „new level „ Chris Ball promised?
UCI/EDR was never going to work out.
Grassroots Enduro racing is now key for the sport to grow into good media coverage. Support your local Enduro races: Cascadia Dirt Cup, TDS Enduro, Whatcom World Cup, Cap Forest Free For All, Big Mt. Enduro, to name a few around me.
If we all put time and energy racing (or just having fun with timing attached), volunteering, and supporting these programs, more like them will come, as will attention from media, non-bike sponsors, and everything else.
This will be especially important going into next season with so many teams dropping out of the "big leagues". Can't let the local programs lose support.
1. The initial excitement for enduro has waned, so the return for any company is less.
2. It's hard to televise. People are still annoyed at sections of a 3 minute dh track being excluded from coverage, and here you have around 10x or 20x (at a guess) the tracks over a weekend.
3. They moved the races in line with the dh and xc stuff (I think? It certainly seems that way). They now seeming have to compete with them, and those formats are also exciting (and easier to televise). Presumably that reduces the cost to teams though?
4. Doping and cheating scandals have, for some, tainted the series.
5. Youtube.
Personally, I used to love watching all the enduro coverage. It felt new and exciting and relatable in a way that the other disciplines didn't. I lived that there was the idea that 'normal joes' could race against their heroes. Now, I've not watched any coverage for a year or two, and looked through the rider list and don't recognise many of the riders. I watch dh (where I can), but honestly most of my viewing now is YouTube. Watching YouTube often shows either faster and more technical riding (DH - I acknowledge that the gap is small, but you can appreciate it so much better with Cathro's analysis), or fresher trails and more fun? I'd far rather watch some Ben Cathro or someone like Bernard Kerr any day of the week...
1 - but why has it waned? is this because of decisions made by organisers and are they reversible. In my opinion it is yes to both
2 - it's hard but doable. coverage doesn't need to be the same as DH. it should be about telling the story of the day
3 - reduces costs for the organisers but makes enduro significantly less attractive
4 - meh, been and gone
5 - riders providing vlogs on youtube is the only thing keeping it alive
Personally I think removing the average joes and introducing the EWS 100 was the right way to go.
I just think they have made no effort to progress the footage. The likes of Jack Moir with his one camera man have shown it is all very doable. Course previews (with Carlson, not Ric please!), pre race track walk and pit interviews with riders and teams, race highlights, post race interviews, post race analysis. There are so many easy wins if the organisers wanted to push the sport forward from a view engagement point of view.
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5W-TcQwJltJMDXEQDdHeeqyQiAycA_7x&si=LABliZBVoCkqWM6T
I'd not actually seen the preview for this round despite checking here every day. Is the official EDR stuff making it to the Pinkbike home page?
I follow the UCI channel, so I'm guessing that course preview came out Friday evening - they've had all week to get people's attention.