High Stakes at Finale Ligure
Issue 50 / Wed 25th Oct, 2017
Ben Winder heads down to the Italian Riviera to soak up the sun and atmosphere surrounding the final race in the Enduro World Series Calendar. Between espressos he explores the racing and finds out quite how difficult and tight the racing is at the top level of enduro.
We send Ben Winder to his first EWS event in a number of years so he could see how the sport has developed and how it is staying connected to its roots. Of course seeing the world’s fastest racers battle it out on track was just a bonus…
The title race for the EWS series is held in the balance; the legendary Sam Hill is leading by just 110 points, chased by the young Frenchman Adrien Dailly. If Sam is to finish in the top four the title is his.
Finale Ligure is a fitting and apt location for such a showdown. A small town on the Italian Riviera that has been transformed into a mountain bike mecca over the past few years. It now boasts over 70 official trails, numerous shuttle companies, an ever-growing number of bike shops, fantastic food and brilliant gelato. Finale has also played host to the final round of the EWS series for its entirety, and with good reason.
I arrived in Finale Ligure just in time for the EWS this year, and after a few years of not attending many competitions, I was shocked by the size and scale of everything. The event is massive, full-size race setups, staff in all corners ready to answer any questions and the event village is smack bang in the centre of town. It’s arguably the most significant showcase of mountain biking in Europe these days, it’s the end of the season, and everyone who is anyone is in town, either to race, help out behind the scenes or just take in the scenery! It was incredible to see, the sheer scale of it is enough to blow anyone away. However, that’s not what surprised me.
The race stages here are insane, I like to think of myself as quite well informed, and also as a capable rider, but these made me take a step back. I’ve always known that an EWS race isn’t easy, but this was a big step up from what I’d seen before. It looked tough, really tough. The total distance is over 100km; stages make up 23.6km of that, the trails are technical, with brutal rock sections that would cause a stir at a Downhill World Cup, they’re fast, loose and quite frankly terrifying.
On top of all this are savage climbs that most riders would think are un-climbable, and if that’s not enough the longest stage was nearly 18 minutes long (Fastest time of Damien Oton). Riding flat out for 18 minutes non-stop is a feat in itself, but when you consider that would probably take a mortal rider between 30 and 40 minutes it’s even more impressive. These guys and girls don’t stop for selfies, a rest or an energy bar; it’s arguably one of the most intense high-intensity workouts out there!
Total race times stretched over the two days were just shy of 50 minutes in the men’s and nearly an hour in the women’s. That’s some serious time in the saddle to be going flat out for the win, and it throws up a lot of time for errors too, a mechanical or a small mistake is enough to throw you way down the rankings and ruin your weekend, but that’s the beauty of enduro racing!
The racers were pinned every step of the way, with prizes and places up for grabs there was no room for conservative racing here. I struggled to comprehend how they could be that consistent for that long. They were going at insane speeds through the most technical of sections, giving it 110 percent. It is truly something to behold to see first hand how riders were able to ride at that level all weekend long.
I spoke with a few people at the race, asking, how it compared to the rest of the series, and a lot of people were calling it the toughest, barring some of the weather conditions at previous rounds. This season has seen the weather throw some real curve balls right across the MTB race scene; Finale though was delivering the sunshine in spades.
Damien Oton, who took an early lead in the first stage, managed to hold it together for the entire race, he finished with a 15 second lead over Martin Maes, and a 30 second lead over Sam Hill. This meant Sam clinched the overall; he needed to place top four, from the young Frenchman. In the women’s event Cecile Ravanel continued her domination and took her 6th EWS win of the year, she was followed by Isabeau Courdurier and then Katy Winton.
The overall had already been wrapped up by Cecile, so this round was a victory lap for her. While she has been unbeatable this year, it is great to see the competition is heating up behind her. Isabeau and Katy were both separated by 30 just points at the end of a long season of racing; this is a battle that we’re expecting to continue into next year. Will they be able to take the battle to Cecile, though; we’ll have to wait until next season to find out, no doubt the ladies will be training hard all winter!
Lots of rider’s combine the event with a holiday, arriving in Finale you’re in a stunning seaside town on the Italian Riviera, warm weather, tasty gelato and incredible trails. Riders turn up here to race a world level event, and a have a well-deserved break at the end of a tough year. Before they get to enjoy their vacation though, there is 100km of the toughest trails on the planet to deal with!
Pro EWS racers know exactly what they’ve signed up for, the first stage resembles the Whistler Top of the World Stage, but it’s perhaps the amateur racers that face the greatest struggle. If you’ve been to Finale before you’ll know there’s a wealth of trails, ranging in difficulty, the ‘easier’ tracks are steered clear of by the EWS staff when choosing race stages though. Even the fun trails are made a lot more difficult under race conditions; the goal is to push the worlds best to their limits.
This is where some of the 'non-pros' and amateurs may begin to understand the magnitude of what they’ve signed up for, and let’s face it if you’re not in full-time training, this race is going to be exceedingly difficult. It’s meant to be hard for riders who’ve trained for years for this type of riding.
Enduro is a very demanding discipline on body and mind, after two days of practice on some of the most demanding trails in the world, riders were physically destroyed, with 23.6km of stage practice under their belts. Saturday is the moment that the physical struggle turns into a mental one, riders were setting off already very fatigued, and faced an enormous 100km ahead of them, they’re required to give it everything just to make it to the finish.
Riders must overcome the physical pain, the daunting remainder of the race, the inevitable crashes and the feeling of being totally beaten by a mountain bike course. Every racer I spoke to had at least one crash. Riders need to overcome all these mental problems to be able to make it to the bottom. The likes of Sam Hill, Cecile Ravanel and Damien Oton needed to turn this pain into a victory.
It’s the final race of the year in which the worlds best battling it out to clinch the overall title; this race was never meant to be easy. However, this does beg the question, why is it possible for anyone to enter a World Event? I spoke to many riders over the course of the weekend, and some felt it was too tricky, the liaisons were too long, and the stages were too hard.
This was the case for some of the less experienced competitors. However, the length and technicality of the course was only able to separate the top three men by just 30 seconds. Over a 50-minute racecourse that’s a pretty close race and shows the skill level of the worlds best. Riders face a raft of challenges over the course of the race and have to avoid punctures, crashes and mechanicals.
The EWS team have created an entry system that’s about as all-encompassing as they can, there are prequalified racers, which are based upon the previous seasons ranking and four spots per official EWS race team. Also, riders who’ve raced an EWS qualifier event and ranked high enough in their respective categories at the end of the year rankings. Twenty Wildcard entries are allocated which are decided by the EMBA board.
Finally, and this is the real magic of the EWS, there’s a public lottery which fills up the additional places, these entries are chosen at complete random and could include high-level riders that didn’t meet the criteria for the other entry systems, equally if you apply it could be you or me! This is the where anyone has a chance of entering, and is possibly the fairest system that stops the series from becoming an elitist tour only accessible to riders that have deep enough pockets to travel far and wide and enter an EWS qualifier.
When you look at the other end of the results, sheet the difference between first and last place is 40 minutes, which is quite startling. The race is arduous, tough, long and technical. This begins to beg the question, should the race have a stricter entry policy? Should the event be open to the public lottery, should it be made easier for them?
The public lottery entry section is in my eyes the beauty of the EWS; our very own Ewen Turner got to enter one of the events last year through this system. He’s an incredible rider who rides pretty much every day, fitness isn’t an issue for him, and he trained hard for the race. The week before he placed pretty high up in the Megavalanche, then a week later he was scratching around at the bottom of the results list in La Thuille feeling humbled.
The issue is that the difference in ability between the likes of Sam Hill and your average Strava KOM is just so vast these days. Pro riders are training every day, both on and off the bike; it’s a full-time job for them that they take very seriously. The sport has changed over the years and to compete these days you have to be an athlete. Ewen is quick, but he has a job, a family and a life outside of biking, he can hold his own with the best of them, but the fastest racers in the world, no chance.
Does that mean we should get rid of the public entry? Definitely not, the chance to rub shoulders with and race the same tracks as your heroes creates a unique proposition in mountain biking. What other event or even sport allows you to jump in and compete against the worlds best? You don’t get the opportunity to jump in the ring with Floyd Mayweather or run the 100m against Usain Bolt, no matter how much of a super fan you are.
Perhaps the Mayweather analogy is apt, as Finale is sure to beat you up! However, as Ewen testifies, while he may not have lit up the timing screens on his venture into the world of the EWS, he wouldn’t have changed it for the world. The public entry is unique and should be treasured, just be aware that if you sign up for Finale as an event, you should be expecting perhaps the hardest 100km of riding you will ever undertake.
One thing I know for sure, everyone who finished the final stage was equipped with a massive smile and a sense of achieving something. A tough, challenging weekend in Italy, when you look at the whole package of the event, it made me think everyone should be allowed to take part! Next year I’m signing myself up!
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By Ben Winder
