The French Fellas on the Ethirteen Urge BP Enduro Team Take on EWS Val di Fassa & EWS Les Orres
This article will report two weeks of good experiences while racing / shooting the Enduro World Series with these French fellas, Ulysse Francoglio, Théo Daumas, Baptiste Gaillot and Clement Benoit from Ethirteen Urge BP Enduro Team.
After a sleepless night, one flight, two trains, two buses and 40ºC temperatures we finally made it the picturesque village of Canazei, Italy.
Oh, Canazei, a picturesque village surrounded by huge mountains. It only took a few minutes to fall in love with this place.
The trails were mainly natural trails with a vast diversification of styles - wide open and flowy sections on the top and more steep, techy and rooty on the bottom section of the hills. Besides the usual arm pump, riders would suffer from a different thing - weather. Italy was burning with 40ºC in this region and definitely, this would be a key factor.
Everyone knows the feeling of getting into the first uplift of the day.
The Queen stage was the Queen stage in every meaning.
It's hard to avoid the surrounding scenery here. A proper race photo of Théo Daumas.
First switchback of the day. A lot more would follow this one.
Théo Daumas finished in 73th place taking his best run at the Queen stage.
Ulysse Francoglio foot out on last off-camber corners of stage 3. Ended the day in 113th.
Théo was riding an Yeti SB150 size Medium with 170mm Fox up front and 150mm Float X2 on the back. Full Ethirteen LG1r carbon components, Race Face Atlas 760mm x 35mm cockpit with 35mm rise and Maxxis Assegai x DHR II combo.
Ulysse was riding an Yeti SB150 size Small with 170mm Fox up front and 150mm Float DHX2 on the back. Full Ethirteen LG1r carbon components, Race Face Atlas 760mm x 35mm cockpit with 20mm rise and Maxxis Assegai x DHR II combo.
Out of Italy and on the way to Les Orres we had the opportunity to stop in Grenoble - their hometown - and spend two days recovering the breath and riding a variety of trails.
Just before a thunderstorm, Serlin trails delivering it - these trails are located a few minutes from the downtown and are composed by good flowy lines and a proper jump section.
Time to move south to Les Orres. It was a completely other thing to Canazei - It's a ski/mtb resort and so, his bikepark heritage is very well pronounced. Due to the typology of these mountains, riders shox setup and riding style would change quite a bit.
Les Orres postmodern towers reigning the valley.
First time ever in EWS, a new initiative called Shakedown Day. This day allowed teams and riders to ride a designated section of the mountain in a relaxed atmosphere in order to test new equipment, settings and kind of have everything dialled for the upcoming days. Views from the bike park's top section.
Théo having a blast in this day!
First stage and first technical section. Was a bit of Carnage around there.
Clement Benoit sending it while to rest of his french mates were just standing.
Ulysse on Stage 7. Rocky on the top, a middle section full of flowy line on the grass just before riders entering in the woods.
Clement Benoit took 37th place on Queen stage.
Ulysse also had a consistent run, getting more and more confident on his riding.
Theo Daumas had a big crash on stage 2 that almost took him off the race. Unfortunately this crash caused some traumas and he wasn't able to come back to the previous rhythm.
Stage 4 located on the north side of the valley, an area super exposed to the sun, was a drastic change from what they were riding.
Riding until the big lake.
Ulysse broke the top 100 and finished in 93th, a good improvement from Canazei.
Clement took 63th place.
Théo finished his promise and finished in 2nd ... to last, due to his big crash.
Thank you Les Orres, you delivered us an amazing 5 days of good riding.
End of the first journey, see you in September around Zermatt and Finale Ligure.
Words and Photography: João Fânzeres, MISSION adventure collective
Special thanks to: Ulysse, Théo, Baptiste and Clement | Ethirteen Urge BP Enduro Team
Author Info:
Member since Jul 17, 2006
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2 Comments
- 2 0
Stinkbomdotcom
(Jul 31, 2019 at 10:43)
Was in Jamaica by myself couple years back can’t remember much but had a good time with the fellas
- 1 2
madmon
(Jul 31, 2019 at 7:41)
Do not under any circumstances use the word or refer to your friends as FELLAS in JAMAICA. Other than that ride on dudes.
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