Cycling: The first race of the Enduro World Series overseas took the field to Colorado in Winter Park. The fifth round of the EWS took place as part of the Colorado Freeride Festival and, with typical bike park trails, offered a welcome change from the last very alpine-heavy races. Jared Graves and Richie Rude were the dominant factor. The two Yeti team riders won every stage and thus secured the double victory.
For the first time, an EWS race was held over a period of three days and thus provided a great mental challenge. In addition, there was once again a new format for the drivers. With the lift and training, you could get used to the track the days before the race and take a close look at the key points.
So the Enduro World Series started on Friday on the first two stages and Richie Rude and Anneke Beerten promptly caused a stir. Both secured their very first stage win in an EWS race on stage one and took the lead for the time being. His team colleague Jared Graves showed that not only Richie Rude liked the courses with the many berms and jumps. The current leader of the overall standings won the race here last year and was hot on Rude's heels by just under a second.
Stage two and the last stage of the first day was again secured by the young American Richie Rude. Both he and Graves started with the new Yeti SBc5 for the first time and thus showed the full potential of the new bike right at the beginning of the race. Meanwhile, Anne-Caroline Chausson took over the women's ranking with a win on stage two, followed by Beerten and Moseley.
[iframe width=”620″ height=”349″ src=”https://mpora.de/videos/AAduirhbohpr/embed” iframe]The dominance of the Yeti riders continued through the second day of racing. The routes took the field of riders outside of the bike park for the first time and provided some shocking moments with technically highly demanding trails. The many stones made life difficult for the drivers.
Nevertheless, Jared Graves set the best times on all three stages in an impressive manner and took the lead with a clear lead. Richie Rude secured second place twice and was the only driver to stay within striking distance.
Anne-Caroline Chausson showed similar dominance. With two first places and one second place, she further extended her lead. Meanwhile, Anneke Beerten was relegated to third place by Tracy Moseley.
[iframe width=”620″ height=”349″ src=”https://mpora.de/videos/AAdujfa9nxkm/embed” iframe]
Graves thus went into the last day of racing with a 17-second lead over his team-mate Rude. Once again, two stages had to be completed. Behind Rude was a strong group consisting of Rene Wildhaber, Joe Barnes and Mitch Rapelato, who contested his first EWS race and caused a sensation with his 29er Specialized Enduro.
Graves also set another best time on stage six and now led the field by over thirty seconds. Without taking any unnecessary risks, he took it easy on stage seven and thus secured his second EWS victory of the season. Richie Rude won the final stage of the day, leaving Yeti the absolute dominant force in Colorado. Yeti completed all seven stages and the Americans secured the perfect one-two with Graves and Rude.
Tracy Moseley set the fastest time in the last two stages, but did not manage to completely close the gap to Chausson. As a result, Chausson won and moved up a menacing 50 points from Moseley in the Enduro World Series standings. Third was Anneke Beerten.
The full results are there HERE.