Enduro World Series returns for stop #7 in Ainsa, Spain
Canadians sail to Spain for penultimate round of Enduro World Series
After a solid month long break for riders to celebrate or lick their wounds and recover from the Whistler round, the Enduro World Series kicks back into high gear for the last two races of the season.
Racing returns to Europe to close out the 2018 season, starting off in Ainsa, Spain. Ainsa-Sobrarbe last saw the EWS stop by in 2015. The Zona Zero Sobrarbe venue is back for two days of racing in 2018. It’s a dramatic two days, too. Riders head out from a twelfth century castle and into the Pyrenees foothills.
While it’s raining, or snowing back at home, there’s a strong contingent of Canadians getting another crack at the dusty Spanish trails this weekend. Rocky Mountain Race Face leads the Canuck crowd, with Remi Gauvin, Andréane Lanthier Nadeau and Jesse Melamed all mixing it up at the front of the field this year.
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In Whistler, ALN narrowly missed hitting her first podium since returning from a lengthy injury, conceding third to GT’s Noga Korem on the fifth and final stage of racing. Gauvin was sixth in Whistler while Melamed broke his wrist during training. He returns to racing in Spain.
Outgoing downhill world champion Miranda Miller joins the ranks of World Cup racers moonlighting in the EWS with the end of their competitive season. She’ll be joined in Ainsa by fellow British Colombian Casey Brown of Trek Factory Racing. While she’s split her time between the tape across Crankworx and enduro events, Brown already has an EWS podium to her name this year. The Revelstoke rider finished third at Round #4 in Petzen-Jamnica, and will surely be a threat again this weekend.
Mckay Vezina (Giant Factory Off-Road Team) has been pushing close to a top result all year. He broke into the top-10 at the opening round in Chile before mechanical woes slowed him down. Yoann Barelli (Commencal Vallnord) is riding fast this year. The French rider who call’s Sea-to-Sky home and was second the last time the EWS stopped in Sobrarbe. There’s a small group of privateers that have been following the series all year, looking for a top result.
The Canadians will be chasing two French women, a legendary Australian and a streaking Belgian in Ainsa. Cecile Ravanel (Commencal Vallnord) has a firm grip on the series, having won every round this season. Close behind her, with an equally strong lock on second, is Isabeau Cordurier (Intense Mavic Collective). The race for third has been more wide open, and the hunt for the final podium spot has been steadily bringing the field closer to Ravanel and Cordurier.
Multiple time downhill world champion Sam Hill (Chain Reaction Cylces / Mavic) has been hugely successful since switching to enduro. He won his first full season in 2017, and is well out in front again this year. He’s only lost two rounds so far. One of those rounds was to another cross-discipline talent, Martin Maes (GT Factory Racing). The Belgian won his first EWS round of the year in Whistler, after a long string of seconds. He then switched over to take a surprise win at the final World Cup downhill round in La Bresse, France. Proving that result was no fluke, he followed up with a silver medal at world championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The Belgian will be riding high when he lands in the Pyrenees, and should threaten the otherwise dominant Hill again.
