Lily Boucher leads Canadians with podium at Haute Savoie Enduro World Cup
Charre unseats Courdurier while Rude takes on Rudeau in men's race
Enduro kicked off a massive double World Cup weekend in France’s Haute Savioe region on Friday and Lily Boucher brought home Canada’s first podium of the mountain bike festival. The Rocky Mountain Gravity Racing rider was third in the under 21 women’s race in Combloux.
Boucher wasn’t the only Canadian putting in fast times in France, though. There was a Canuck inside the top 10 in each of the elite men’s, women’s and under-21 men’s and women’s events on Friday.
Boucher keeps Canadian podium streak alive
Lily Boucher rode consistency onto the podium on a day where consistency was a hard thing to find. With a rainy week giving way to intense heat, Boucher finished inside the top 10 on each of the six timed race stages. That kept her within touch of race winner Winnie Goldbury and second place finisher Simona Kuchynkova and on the podium. Between Boucher, Elly Hoskin and Emmy Lan (Forbidden Synthesis), the Canadian women have earned a place on every EDR U21 podium this year.
Hoskin was building momentum all Friday, finishing third, first and second on the final three stages. But a minute penalty pushed her back to fifth at the day’s end. Lan was similarly hampered by time penalties for missing stage liason times on a day where more U21 women were penalized for not making a tight liason to stage 3 or DNF’d entirely than finished the race with a clean results sheet.
In the under-21 men’s race, Weitien Ho (Commencal 7Mesh) landed in Combloux with the leader’s jersey in the under-21 men’s race. Ho would place fourth, but give up the leader’s jersey to second-place finisher JT Fsher (Yeti-Fox). Adam Max wins the under-21 men’s event.
Rude vs Rudeau
Consistency was also the name of the game in the pro men’s race. While Richie Rude (Yeti-Fox) didn’t win a single stage, Alex Rudeau, Luke Meier-Smith and Jack Moir locked in top times over the six race stages, he would still top the leader’s board at the day’s end.
That result gives Rude an incredible three wins in four Enduro races this year. Between those races, the U.S. racer managed to make an elite men’s downhill final in his spare time.
Jesse Melamed (Canyon Cllctv) led the Canadian effort, just squeezing into the last top 10 position. Kasper Woolley (YT Mob) was two spots back in 12th. Jack Menzies (Canyon Cllctv) followed in 19th and Elliot Jamieson (Commencal 7Mesh) 21st.
On the women’s side, Andreane Lanthier Nadeau (Commencal 7Mesh) again led the Canadian effort. ALN added another top 10 finish to her year, placing ninth. This time, thoguh, ALN wasn’t alone in the elite women’s race. Emily Williams was 17th in her first EDR appearance of 2024.
At the front, though, it was a battle between a near-perfect Morgane Charre (Pivot Factory Racing) and Isabeau Courdurier (Lapierre Zipp). Charre won five of six stages to take a commanding win from the normaly-dominant Courdurier. Ella Conolly rounded out the podium in third.
Racing in Haute Savoie continues with an XC Marathon this weekend before cross country short track and Olympic racing and downhill arrive in Les Gets mid-week with races running through Sunday.
