Speaker: Despite all the difficulties that 2020 threw at them, the organizers of the
Enduro World Series still managed to make a 2020 season happen.
That's pretty awesome in itself.
We were super happy to have that racing to watch.
Here's a quick recap of what happened this year in the Enduro World Series.
Against all odds, the EWS was actually able to put together a shortened but no less exciting
set of races for the racers who were actually able to participate.
The season started where 2019 left off in Zermatt, Switzerland.
This was a classic Alpine wide-open race with a rocky descends at high altitude.
Next in this year, were cold conditions and wet weather.
It couldn't be a simple race not in a year like this.
We didn't have the pleasure of seeing a few key players this season based on travel restrictions.
Last year's men's champion Sam Hill was not to be seen nor was Richie Rude who both decided
to stay in their home countries instead of traveling during the pandemic.
It was awesome to see Jesse Melamed take that win in Zermatt with Martin Maes hot on his
heels.
Theo Galy in third.
Jack Moir put in a fantastic performance in his first full-time EWS season coming in fourth.
In the women's race, it was no surprise to see Isabeau Courdurier coming out on top while
Morgane Charre followed in second, and Ella Conolly in third.
The second race was in Pietra Ligure neighboring the much-loved home of the Enduro World Series,
Dynam Finale Ligure.
The weather was thankfully more forgiving here with some sunshine and warmth greeting
the racers.
They still had some ranked to 10 with but nothing like in Zermatt.
Here we saw Isabeau Courdurier's dominance in the women's field wane as she suffered
an ankle injury.
She still put up a fight though and took second behind Melanie Pugin, with Morgane Charre
in third.
Jesse Melamed couldn't make it two for two unfortunately but Adrien Dailly showed his
form and took the win just ahead of Florian Nicolai and Jack Moir now up to third place.
A week later and five kilometers down the road to Finale Ligure for the final round
of 2020.
The women's field was a dying one as Isabeau Courdurier had decided not to race in finale
and focus on healing her injuries.
Morgane Charre taking her first-ever win.
Pietra winner, Melanie Pugin taking second, and Estelle Charles coming in third.
It would not be a French victory for the men's race however, after not performing quite to
his liking in Pietra, Jesse Melamed came back storming to take the win in the finale, making
it his third win to his name.
The rest of the podium stayed exactly the same as in Pietra Ligure with Florian Nicolai
in second, Jack Moir in third.
Talk about consistency.
Now because it wasn't a normal year, not as many races as normal, and not all the riders
could get there, the Enduro series decided not to award an overall champion this year.
However, they decided to make it a team championship.
All the points that would normally go towards that rider championship were put towards a
team and this year Pivot Racing came out on top.
Great rides there from Morgane Charre, Ed Masters, and Bernard Kerr.
That's what happened.
You may already know that you may have watched all of our highlights from this year because
fortunately, GMBN is now the home to those videos from the EWS.
Same going into next year, so I can't wait for that.
What did we actually learn from the racing this year?
Well, it seems that any pre-season racing helps.
Over in Canada, they have the Crankworx Series.
A really intense three races back-to-back with downhill Enduro Dual Slalom.
I think it was in Pumptrack.
All sorts of racing.
These races really need to get that eye in, to get every single 10th, thousandths of seconds.
It made a difference to people like Jesse Melamed.
When few other riders had any sort of race time under their belt before coming into the
season, it really does pay dividends just to have some racing.
You just get your eye in a little bit and well done to Jesse Melamed.
Obviously, he rode awesome anyway, but he added two EWS wins to a single one that he's
had from Whistler in the past.
Well done there.
Other notable racing happened over in France with national French and German races happening,
but also some downhill.
Both saw Adrien Dailly beat the reigning world champion at the time, Loic Bruni, on his Enduro
bike.
Adrien also up to speed and in really good form when he came into the start of the race
season.
You feel like a bit of a broken record talking about the French winning all the time.
We've only got a look at downhill racing as well with Loris Versace, and his back-to-back
wins, but particularly in women's Enduro World Series, we've seen the French women absolutely
dominate.
In fact, there's only ever been a one-woman not from France to ever take any EWS win and
that is Tracy Moseley.
We have, of course, Isabeau Courdurier this year, but also Melanie Pugin.
The only non-French person standing on a podium this year was British Ella Conolly.
Jack Moir adapted quickly.
It just goes to show that if you're good at riding a bike fast downhill, you can transfer
those skills but not everyone does it quite as quickly or as impressive actually as Jack
Moir, the Australian rider.
He has raced some EWS before and never dropped out of top 10 but not many.
This was his first full-time year and he really came in swinging.
He's fourth place in Zermatt, then back-to-back third places in Pietra and finale really show
that speed.
This is on a brand new team and a bike they've not ridden before this year.
Ebike racing is here to stay and likely to really gain in popularity.
I have to say I was on the fence so I've raced some e-bikes stuff before but I've always
been unsure about how it translates to a proper race series.
Seeing the EWS-E in Pietra Ligure for myself, I was really impressed.
As with the riders, they really enjoyed the stages, the power stages going up the hills.
I'm really excited to see how that develops in the future but I definitely think the riders
and the industry are going to be well behind pushing that race series.
Predictions for 2021.
Who knows?
It seems a bit too early to make any predictions at the moment but it looks like it should
be a fairly short offseason finishing racing end of September, October.
The series is due to kick off in March in South America.
Let's keep an eye on that.
Not as much time off for the riders as normal so riders will be straight back into their
training, getting bikes ready.
There will be some riders licking their wounds, people like Isabeau Courdurier, and hoping
they can get fit for next year but there is time for that, of course.
Maybe we're not going to see the dominance in the women's field that we have seen from
Isabeau in the past.
Of course, she was riding injured in Pietra Ligure this year so that did give some opportunity
to the other riders people like Melanie Pugin, Morgane Charre.
Hopefully, they'll be fired up for the offseason and come back 2021 swinging.
We could see a good fight in the women's racing.
Definitely another highlight for the women's races was Ella Conolly.
She backed up a decent result and in 2019 with the third place here.
She might be there to challenge the dominance of those French ladies.
The men's field is far less predictable.
I've got people like Jesse Melamed who has shown just how strong he can be, whereas in
the past, who may have talked about him crashing a little bit this year two out of three races.
That's really good going.
Jack Moir has shown his speed gaining even through a very short season.
Someone like Florian Nicolai as well has really shown his consistency again and his pure speed.
Still, the rider to finish every single stage of an enjoyable series and be right there.
The other big guns, Sam Hill and Richie Rude are to be thrown back into the mix in 2021.
You've got Martin Maes, you've got Adrien Dailly who has shown a bit of resurgence after
his bad elbow injury from a couple of years ago.
It's time to get excited by racing in 2021.
If you missed any of our coverage this year of the EWS, there's loads of it on GMBN.
We've got shades and highlights but also over on tech, I took quite a look at a few of the
enduro racers bike so loads of bike checks over there plus you've got that EWS-E race
that I talked about over on EMBN.
Give thumbs up if you can't wait to see some more bike racing in 2021.
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