The Rocky Mountain Bicycles Urge bp Rally Team in Ireland for EWS by RockyMountainBicycles

Words by Rémi Gauvin
Photos by Matt Wragg

Flo's diet consists almost entirely of baguettes and cheese.

With six weeks off after the last EWS round in Argentina and lots of work done in between, the team was excited to hop a plane to Ireland and get back to racing. The weather was grey upon arrival, but the forecast called for improvement and things were looking good for the weekend.

I went to bed looking forward to the days to come.

When I woke up the next morning my phone had exploded with messages. The news that Stevie Smith had passed away was a shock. He was someone who I had grown up with on Vancouver Island and ridden with since I was young. Someone I consider a close friend.

I always looked up to Steve, and he’s someone who I owe, in part, my success as a mountain biker. How was it right that I was about to race my bike on the other side of the world when Steve would never get that opportunity again? I struggled with that notion throughout the week, but I know that he would have been rooting for me if he were around. He loved racing, and he wouldn’t have wanted me not to race because of him.

So I cracked on.

Ireland is a beautiful country, and we had some luck on our side with abundant sunshine. What looked like slippery stages during track walk became dry and dusty by race day. The race was composed of 7 stages and a 300m climb between each stage. Practice on Friday and Saturday were two big days on the bike. Most of the team opted to do two laps of each stage meaning that on each day we pedaled up the hill 6-8 times and another 7 on race day. The hill is not the highest or the steepest but the trails are awesome and make the most of the terrain. The stages were a little flatter than we are used to, testing our fitness and ability to maintain speed when gravity wasn’t on our side.

The Claq with some start-gate style.

Elbows out, Melamed style.

The sunshine brought the fans out on race day. The Irish fans lined each stage and do they ever know how to cheer. The rocks on top of stages 2, 3, and 6 made for crowd favourite sections, and getting yelled at by hundreds of Irishmen is one of the most motivating things I’ve ever experienced.

Flo bringing it home for the crowd.

I got to stand on a podium with Sam Hill. How cool is that?

Results for the team in Ireland:

Florian Nicolaï — 5th
Alex Cure — 10th
Jesse Melamed — 16th
Rémi Gauvin — 19th
Sébastien Claquin — 4th U21
Team — 1st, 1st Overall

At the end of the day, the team came away with great results. Flo led the field early in the day, but couldn't quite hold on for the win. 8 seconds back after 25+ minutes of timed stages for 5th place. A return to form after his struggles in Bariloche.

Seb crashed on Stage 3 but was able to take back the U21 Overall lead with a solid 4th place. Alex snuck into the Top 10 for the first time this season, and it was great to see Jesse bounce back from the injury sustained at Round 1 with an impressive 16th place.

I'm super happy with my 19th place. Being in the Top 20 with my entire team is awesome. We took 1st in the Team category, which bumped us into 1st in the Team Overall standings.

Massive thanks to the Enduro World Series and the Emerald Enduro crew for putting on an amazing event, and thanks to the Irish crowds for absolutely bringing it. Our mechanics Matt and Justin kept the bikes running like clockwork, and our manager Lilian made sure everything went smoothly all week long. Thank you to the rest of the support team as well: Peter, Karen, Claire, and Rachael. You guys are awesome.

This weekend will not be remembered without thinking of Steve. The love and respect that the riders, fans, and organizers showed over the last week have been incredible. My condolences go out to everyone that ever knew him. I will miss my friend and I will never forget him.

#longlivechainsaw

The Rocky Mountain Bicycles Urge bp Rally Team rides Rocky Mountain bikes and wears Urge bp helmets. The team is supported by Shimano, Maxxis, Fox, Stan’s NoTubes, Race Face, Royal Racing, 7iDP, FTI Consulting, Smith, WTB, OneUp, Clif bar, Evoc, & Val d’allos.