After a hectic season, with just 2 rounds to go, all the fastest Enduro World Series racers lined up for Round 7 in Northstar, California. The weather was hot and dry, making the extremely rocky stages fast and extra loose, with unpredictable grip and plenty of high risk lines for those looking to save valuable time. In the end, every millisecond would count, as this would be the closest winning margin in EWS history.
Saturday – Stages 1 & 2
The action started with 2 tough stages on Saturday. Isabeau Courdurier had a good points lead coming into this weekend and the smart choice might have been to play it safe. But she had other ideas and won Stage 1 by an incredible 9 seconds ahead of Noga Korem. That formula continued for stage 2, with Isabeau leading the race by 11sec at the end of day 1.
In the mens category, coming into round 7, Florian Nicolai was leading the overall. But the rocks and Californian dust didn’t seem to suit him – he finished stage 1 down in 20th place. That’s how it went for him most of the weekend, which pretty much took him out of the running.
Richie Rude is back and he knows this kind of high altitude terrain really well. He put a solid margin of 7 seconds on his Stage 1 score sheet, ahead of Martin Maes and Sam Hill.
Stage 2 had plenty of drama, starting with a crash and broken wrist for Eddie Masters – a tough way for him to finish an amazing season. At least he’ll have plenty of free time to fill the internet with comedy gold! The lead switched places, with Sam Hill taking 6 seconds out of Richie’s lead.
Rude finished the first day less than 1 second ahead of Hill. Even with bouncing back and forth between EWS and World Cup events, Mitch Ropelato was on fire and sitting in 3rd spot.
Sunday – Stages 3-6
Day 2 continued with Hill and Rude slugging it out for the lead. Stage 3 was by far the longest of the weekend, with Rude putting down the fastest time of 8mins 9sec and gaining valuable lead over Hill who slotted into 3rd. Ropelato was just 3sec back from Rude and showed that day 1 was not a fluke.
Noga Korem won stage 3 and gained back some time on current leader Isabeau Courdurier. But it wouldn’t last long – Courdurier wasn’t holding back through the rocks of stage 4 and went 3 seconds faster than Korem.
Sam Hill has no problems with big rocks and dust, going fastest on Stage 4 and jumping ahead of Rude by just 0.4sec
Andréane Lanthier Nadeau was the fastest woman on Stage 5, but Isabeau is close behind and keeps a solid 15sec lead over Noga Korem with just one stage to go.
Stage 5 had Hill and Rude go within 0.4sec of each other. Less than a tenth between them going into the last stage.
The Rude/Hill battle went down to the wire. Richie won stage 6 by just 0.94 sec ahead of Sam. It was close, but Richie won the race overall by less than 0.1sec. After 6 stages that is an incredibly close margin – the smallest in EWS history. Sam Hill takes 2nd and Mitch Ropelato gets his first EWS podium in 3rd!
Amy Morrison wins Stage 6 by just 0.22 sec ahead of Isabeau. But Courdurier goes a close 2nd and takes another race win. She also manages to wrap up the EWS WORLD CHAMPION title for 2019
Heading into the final round in Zermatt, Sam Hill has just 65 points advantage over Florian Nicolai with Kevin Miquel 395 points back in 3rd. It’s going to be an exciting finish to the season!
MEN – Race Overall
- Richie Rude: 26:09.65
- Sam Hill: 26:10.46
- Mitch Ropelato: 26:30.21
- Martin Maes: 26:39.35
- Jesse Melamed: 26:56.08
WOMEN – Race Overall
- Isabeau Courdurier: 30:37.62
- Noga Korem: 30:56.89
- Andréane Lanthier Nadeau: 31:05.85
- Ines Thoma: 31:47.26
- Katy Winton: 32:05.63
