The final round of the 2014 Enduro World Series took place this past weekend in Finale Ligure, Italy. And it did not disappoint. With the highest turnout of any of the EWS rounds (over 350 riders, 250 of which raced in the Pro Men) the racing was incredibly tight and the courses were hard, fun and varied. Unlike most of the EWS rounds, this race had no assisted transfers (chairlifts, shuttles, etc) so over the course of the two day race, we logged over 90km (55 miles) carrying everything we needed to compete. I loved the courses. All six had never been raced before and some had been newly built. They covered a huge variety of terrain from dark, tacky dirt to dry, rocky descents and did a great job of testing the riders’ ability to handle different a range of trail conditions. And the spectators were amazing. It seems like most of Finale Ligure turned up to watch and the courses were lined with people cheering and heckling. I spent the week leading up to the race recovering from Trans-Provence at the Ciapin Mountain Bike Lodge. It’s a great little lodge located about 15 minutes from Finale Ligure with riding just outside the gate and five sheep roaming the property as the living lawnmowers. It was great to have some down-time after all the racing and travel and by the time the courses were announced and opened for practice, I was ready to race! The first day started off well. I finished the first three stages without any major issues and finished 104th, 76th and 87th. I was close to 10% behind the leaders on all three and went into the 4th stage ranked 90th out of the 250 or so Pro Men. Unfortunately I took an EXTREMELY poor line on the 4th stage and crashed, burping about half the air out of my front tire in the process. I hopped back on my bike and continued to race but eventually rolled the tire because of the low pressure, crashed again and was forced to run the rest of the stage. This put me in 217th for the stage and lost me multiple minutes, putting me comfortably outside of a good result. The next day I had two solid runs. A few mistakes but nothing terrible and finished 98th and 86th. Once the total times were calculated, I was surprised to learn that I still finished 122nd, just within the top half, despite my multiple-minute error. So all-in-all, a good weekend. Now I’m visiting a few sponsors in Bergamo, Italy before heading to Frejus, France for Roc d’Azur. I’ve never been, but hear it’s like the Sea Otter Classic on steroids… Thanks for a great 2014 and feel free to use the attached photos! Cheers, Macky Getting ready to start the last stage.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 14:00:33 +0000
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