EWS Finale Ligure Preview: The Finale Countdown
We started on this adventure way back in March on the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Corral, Chile and this weekend the 2016 EWS Series will draw to a close on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Finale Ligure, Italy. A season that has seen us battle epic dust in Patagonia, massive high-alpine descents in the shadow of Europe's Mont Blanc, and the oxygen-deprived heights of the Colorado Rockies, in a series that truly does take riders all over the world. It all now comes to a dramatic close in a place fittingly called Finale.
Going into these final few days of racing we still have a battle on our hands in all of the classes. Sure Cecile Ravenel has locked up the overall for the women but all of the podium spots behind her are closely contested and still up for grabs. We have a dead heat between Adrien Dailly and Sebastien Claquin in the U21 race and are set up for a winner take all final round, and a pro men's field with all spots theoretically still up for grabs. Indeed with Richie Rude's season of dominance, it will be hard to deny him his second straight title barring disaster, but Damien Oton and Jerome Clementz are both under pressure from their rivals to hold on to the final podium positions. And as they say in racing "anything can happen."
It all ends at the sea. Too bad all races don't end at the sea.
It was an early start to the media recce.
Media recce train starting the day off on stage one.
Stage 1 ends with a waterfall and a swimming hole in case riders want to beat the heat and take a quick dip before pedaling back up the hill.
Humans have lived in these hills for thousands of years and you come across some truly unique features deep in the woods just above the seaside.
The highest point in Finale is a decommissioned NATO base sitting about 1000 meters above the sea
Dave found out that 360-degree burnouts are a damn good use of an e-bike.
The top of stage 4 is super wide but with only a narrow bit of trail that is clear of dried out and fallen leaves.
If you stray from the main line at the top of stage 4 things will get a bit drifty real quick.
Beautiful white rock ridges at the start of stage five.
Riding ridgelines on stage five.
After the exposed ridge line stage 5 dives into the forest for some steep and tight switchbacks, all freshly cut.
Blazing sun and dusty trails are in store all week here in Finale.
It's dry and dusty in Finale, and the trails are oh, so good.
After last year's torrential rain it's nice to find things a bit more dusty this time around in Finale Ligure.
A quick break for lunch in the middle of riding all seven of the weekend's race stages.
Caves line much of the hillside in this region, and the promoters had a bit of a surprise for us today. The EWS and Enrico sent us to the center of the earth on a caving mission midway down stage six.
We were met trail side by a few of the locals who have been exploring and mapping the caves for years, and they decided we needed to have a look for ourselves. So down we went into the rabbit hole that descended some 20 meters below the surface. It was cold, it was dark, and there were bats. Here Dave crawls his way out of a deep dark crevice.
Coming straight out of the Mediterranean Sea are mountains and more mountains.
Not the typical view you expect to see at a mountain bike race.
Meh, just your average city with a wall.
Lord Cunny dropping down to the sea on the super loose stage seven.
The seaside village of Varigotti at the base of stage 7.
Day 2 starts high on the mountains above Finale Ligure and makes its way down to the sea over four unique stages.
The iconic Finale DH will close things out on Sunday as the final stage of 2016.
The hills of Finale await, and we can't wait to get this last race of the season started.
The EWS kicked off on the sea in Chile way back in March and we will close out the season on the sea here in Italy. Six months, eight rounds, and three continents later it has been an amazing season.
MENTIONS: @EnduroWorldSeries
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I would gladly take the job if i had to ride my bike up a mountain to take pictures. Try wearing 40 lbs of gear, hell, -100 boots are damn near 30lbs a pair alone, nevermind the clothing/coveralls etc. and pull cable, erect buildings or scaffolding or be a pipefitter in the arctic circle for 14 hour days everyday for a month.
give me riding around in the mediteranean or chile with any weight on my back anyday bro.
Any idiot can carry heavy sh!t up scaffolding if you get him to do it enough times over. That's not really something to be proud of. Not everyone can take photographs like these guys can- that's why they're in Final Legure, and not climbing scaffold with 100lbs of gear. The point is that you're not a good enough photographer so no one is going to give you an ebike, or a regular bike,or even a camera to go climb up a hill and 'take pictures'.
All 7 stages & 40+lbs of camera gear, the entire distance.
When you're not actually doing it, it's so easy to give 'advice'.
www.dictionary.com/browse/proliferation
Also, nice support van. Maybe put the camera in there next time?
Seriously !!! When did it get cool and trendy to just make stuff up you have zero knowledge about ???
No one was paid a dime by cube.
All we did (for the 4th race preview in a row in case you missed it) was take some e-bikes out to cover a few thousand meters of climbing and two days of race stages in a single day.
We did it for YOU !!! To show the region and to get people excited about the race.
We didn't do it to get shit on by a bunch of know it all keyboard warriors.
Seriously where were you guys last year when we burned 6 gallons of petrol between the crew of PB photographers when we shot the race by motor scooter ???????????
Just a bit sick and tired of this BS each time we bust our ass to cover an EWS, that's all.
Ebikes will ruin access to LOCAL bike trails in the future.....just saying.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=Io3MBpzmVJc
Plus this is in Europe, @thisspock, where trail access is completely different than it is here in the US. In the US, Ebikes are pretty much limited at this point to ATV trails, although I have seen a few on regular old XC trails where land use managers have as of yet to make a ruling on their use.
Also, realize that without their use, you'd have shit for the coverage of "racers you'll never meet in places most us will never go" but realize that it is this coverage that grows our sport.
And as for your off topic about journalism:
(1) your coverage remains confined to several web-portals, which are unknown to 99.9% of population.
(2) many of us did not need extensive "internet media coverage" to start MTB - it was all about woods, mountains, and bicycle.
and for the record I am anti e-bikes....
This is article is about the best mountain bikers in the world racing 7 stages at the last stop of the circuit, and has great pictures(by the guys on the ebikes)! All the DH legends are racing this EWS, and it's Nico Voullioz's last racing season ever..! Get excited bout that dammit
— Chris Rock
On a more serious note it would be very interesting to have an insight from someone who use it as a tool and would maybe ease up the tensions around e-bikes (the comment section of those preview is getting quite toxic, in stark contract with the pictures
I totally agree with racers practicing on these things. Thats F'in rediculous that they are using them for practice. It really is an unfair advantage as they could probably do 3x the runs and save a whole lot of energy.
After watching the world champs this year in Val di sole with my wife, we were naturally a little hungover the following day.
Instead of regular bikes, we rented two Lapierre e-bikes and rode a little of the Dolomites.
It was beautiful, fun (up and down) and in no way did it destroy the trails anymore than a bloke a stone and a half heavier than me on a regular bike.
It even had enough juice at the end of the day to ride the 4x track 5 times.
I want one, eco uplift as far i'm concerned.
That IS the reason they're all riding e-bikes: MTB media, riding all 7 stages in one day, with camera gear, to scope out the best spots for pics. Again, read @davetrump's explanation below:
" Get used to the e-bikes as we are going to continue to use them at many of the events in the future. All of these photos came from the media recce day... The day media only is allowed to preview the stages so we know where we are going all weekend and can get into the proper spots when racing starts. We rode all 7 stages in one day which would be impossible on a normal bike and truly horrid with camera gear. Some of us are quite fit while others maybe not so much so it keeps the group together as well. Last year I covered the EWS in Finale from a motor scooter and no one compkained. I used a car in Whistler one year and no one compkained about that either. It's simply the best tool for the job we have to do and it allows us to provide better and better coverage plain and simple. And to the person complaining see shuttled e bikes, yup we did. In the sake of time which some people think grows on trees apparently. We often shuttle to the top when we have the chancr rather than the 1 hour pedal even on e-bike. And in the race we often have to catch back up to the women and juniors after the last men finish of each stage. Considering they are often 30-40 minutes ahead of us we simply can't just ride normal bikes on the liaisons and expect to cover anything other than the top 10. So there ya have it.... Enjoy the photos and please think twice before being a hater just because of the bike someone is riding :-)."
Phil, if you want good EWS pics, this is part of the process.
Some of us mountain bikers are the most ignorant people out there. We are constantly complaining, why not sit back and e,brace change and innovation.....I for one am always stoked to see where the mt bike industry leads us next. Open your little mind kid.
Great photos existed long before eBikes.
Is there any live coverage anywhere ?
Care to wager on that? I will.
In Europe that are making up half the sales of bikes right now, yet we never see them out on the trails here either. The biggest problem is people are trying to relate e-bikes, their end user and that users behavior with their own of that of other mountain bikers. They certainly have their place and of course there are many many many places they don't belong. I'd never own one or ride one in any circumstance other than covering a multi-stage race with a few thousand meters of climbing, but that's my reality not that of the people for/against them.
A closed race course that is about to see practice and racing over four days by a few hundred riders sure seems like a place they can be utilized with no issue whats ever.... However the condition your precious pedal powered bikes will leave the trails after the race, the trails you worship and would never tear up. That's a completely different story.
I see what you are saying and agree, but when said E-bike is used to ride a loop 3 or 4 times in a row, impossible on a normal mtb even by a XC racer, then it starts to have an impact on sensitive trails.
So hate on the media using them as as much as you want, but realize that without their use, you'd have shit for coverage. And also realize that the shooters are every bit as physically exhausted at the end of the day as are the racers, even with the Ebikes, but also realize that they then have to work for another 4-5 hours or so getting their edits done in time to post to their clients and to PB, Vital, etc. And then do it all over again the next day. Covering an EWS properly is in many ways much, much harder than racing one.
Also, "pretty pictures of racers I'll never meet in places most of us will never go just to pump up the wow factor of the sport to the public" are what grows this sport and puts pressure on land use managers to allow mountain biking in more areas. It's exactly this kind of coverage that has helped to more than triple the amount of legal single track at Tiger Mountain outside of Seattle in the past 3 years.
I am a firm believer that electric motorized transport is the way of the future, especially on two wheels... It just makes perfect sense when one considers the greener aspects of the idea, but the costs at the moment just far too high for practicality. At the end of the day when people have to make the choice the price will always be the deciding factor... If you gave the the choice of gas vs electric transport and the price was the same, it's a no-brainer, however right now the extra cost of fuel just doesn't outweigh the monthly installments
e-bike just makes the whole thing easier and if anything we can create better content.... You know, our job and all ;-)