- This is the Enduro World Series.
We are at the final round in Finale in Italy.
Let's take a look at this race format,
and just how hard it is to race.
(crowd cheering) (upbeat music)
So, Finale really is a classic venue for Enduro.
Enduro racing began its popularity in France and Italy.
The trail network here really lends itself to Enduro racing.
Two big days of racing here, both over 50 kilometres ridden,
with some really long stages.
Add two days practise to that.
You're almost riding 200 kilometres in four days.
Whilst the days are long,
most days are made up by liaisons.
This is the downhill time stages,
where the racing is won or lost.
They are much shorter, but still super physical,
there can be some climbing in there,
and riders are almost maximum heart rate.
The riders also have to look after their own bikes
and make sure they arrive at the start of the next stage
in time, or else pick up a time penalty.
The trails here in Finale can go from
very physical, fast, and rocky,
to smooth and flowy,
to slow and technical.
The variety of terrain
means you can't just be a fast downhiller.
You need all-around skills, fitness,
and the ability to react fast to the changing terrain.
You may have only done one previous practise run
on that track.
Riders like downhill pros and legends,
such as Remi Thirion and Steve Peat,
line up against the pure Enduro racers
such as Greg Callaghan and Adrien Dailly.
Enduro race bikes tend to have between
140 and 170 millimetres of travel.
As you can see, former EWS champion Jerome Clementz's bike
is 27.5 inch wheels, the short stem,
high bars, and remote dropper seatpost, and lockout.
They need to be light enough to ride all day
but robust enough to take all the punishing downhill stages
and be able to go fast.
So this is Greg Callaghan's bike.
And he's one of actually quite a few riders
to choose a 29er.
This is the Cube Stereo 140 mil travel.
Well something that's actually a little bit unusual
is Greg runs a two-by system.
So he's got plenty of gears there,
just makes his really long liaison climbs that much easier.
He does take advantage of Shimano's Di2 feature,
that Synchro Shift, where you just need
one shifter on the right hand side to change all your gears.
That is actually really important,
because on an Enduro race bike,
obviously you have a dropper seatpost,
and you really need that lever
on the left-hand side under the bar,
because the riders will be using that a lot in the stages.
(upbeat music) (crowd cheering)
500 races face the big day one at Finale,
and in the men's race, Damien Oton was leading,
but only by six seconds over Sam Hill.
Not far back was championship contender Adrien Dailly.
Cecile Ravanel was again dominating the women's race
with Courdurier second and Katy Winton third.
(upbeat music) (crowd cheering)
Day two, the final day of racing for 2017,
a four relatively short but technical stages lay ahead.
Cecile Ravanel won all but one round this year
where she slipped to second place
in an unbelievable performance.
Isabeau Courdurier was second,
followed very closely by Katy Winton.
In the end, Damien Oton took the win,
his second of the year.
Whilst young Belgian Martin Maes
stormed back to take second place,
Sam Hill third, and the 2017 World Enduro title.
So there you go, that's the Enduro World Series.
A really tough event to try and win.
A lot of riding goes on, and at times,
it's still really tight when it comes to it in the racing.
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