Enduro Race of the Year: Nominees by mattwragg

Enduro Race of the Year: Nominees

The last few years have marked a series of huge changes for enduro as it rose to prominence as a worldwide discipline. 2015 was in many ways more subdued - a case of evolution rather than revolution. There were no huge changes in regulation or racing formats; race organisers began the process of taking the framework the sport grew from and refining it; the riders we saw at the sharp end of the results sheets were those that were known and who many expected to be there. While this may not sound as dramatic, it is what the sport needed. That process of refinement is likely to be the theme for the coming years for the discipline. Any sport that cannot find a path, a style that suits, will tend to thrash around, twisting and changing before inevitably collapsing in on itself. So while there may have been few exciting headlines away from the track, we should remember 2015 as the year when enduro racing truly started to build on its foundations.

More than any other racing discipline, enduro is about the riders. So to give an award for the Enduro Race of the Year, they were the people we spoke to. Unlike most of our awards, we have no say in who this award is given to - instead we polled more than 50 of the sports top riders and media - the people who were the on and off the tracks, week-in, week-out. From world champions to privateers warriors, racing legends to up-and-coming hopefuls, no other award in enduro is based on such a wide set of opinions.

We asked the racers to do the impossible for us - to try and forget their results (unsurprisingly, racers will always prefer the races they won). They were asked to give us their top three races of the year, ranked in order. The four criteria we asked them to consider were: location, organisation, tracks and atmosphere. A first-place race was awarded ten points, second five and third two points - these were then totaled to give us the final scores. When we publish the award we will make these rankings public so race organisers can see which races were well-liked and where riders would like to see changes.

Double rainbows for a rider seemingly on his way to the world champion s stripes... As his rivals faultered Richie Rude is starting to look unstoppable.

Click here for information about the judging and selection criteria for Pinkbike's Year-End Awards.

Author Info:

mattwragg

Member since Oct 29, 2006
753 articles