This past weekend, the EWS shipped of to Aspen, Colorado for Stage 6.
2016 world champ Richie Rude finished in the lead on day one, having taken stage two by over ten seconds, yet seemed to falter in stage three then fall fast down the leaderboard during day 2, with Sam Hill taking the overall mens win. Cecile Ravanel stormed to a win in the womens category, taking first place in three of six stages, and only ever sinking to third place at worst.
It seems Rude had one of the worst races of his life. On day one, he crashed but recovered to take the overall lead (no video of that crash, but here’s one he had last year – even world champions get taken out by sniper rocks). Day two did not get off to a good start though, with a puncture on Stage 4, which he kept rolling on for a while but never really recovered from; Martin Maes overtaking him. He then had a massive crash on Stage 5 and rolled down it, falling all the way to 95th place for the stage and only pulling it back to 31st in stage 6, taking him to a 37th place finish overall.
Brits didn’t fare amazingly in this stage of the EWS either, with our best results Katy Winton 5th woman, and Abigale Lawton 3rd U21 woman, but outside of that UK riders struggled to even get into the top tens. Here were the podiums:
1. Cecile Ravanel (France)
2. Isabeau Courdurier (France)
3. Casey Brown (Canada)
1. Sam Hill (Australia)
2. Martin Maes (Belgium)
3. Jared Graves (Australia)
Many photos, plus a full report and video from the EWS below.
Here are the full results, and they’ve made a quick roundup video that you can find below too.
(No video? Here’s a link)
Full release:
“Hill and Ravanel win Enduro World Series in Aspen Snowmass
Round six of the Enduro World Series, the Yeti Cycles Big Mountain Enduro presented by Shimano Aspen Snowmass, will go down as one of the closest fought races in EWS history.
After four stages and almost 70 km of trail, Jared Graves (Specialized Racing) led Sam Hill (Chain Reaction Cycles Mavic) by just 0:00.32, but in the end the race no one could hold off Hill as he claimed the last two stages to win the race. Martin Maes (GT Factory Racing) fought back to take second place, with Graves finishing in third. Hill now leads the series rankings by 40 points, with Adrien Dailly (Lapierre) in second and Greg Callaghan (Cube Action Team) in third.
Speaking after the race, Sam said: “It was awesome, six amazing stages here in Colorado and I just had a good time and tried to stay as consistent as I could. I hadn’t raced an EWS here before so I wasn’t too sure what to expect and I wouldn’t have expected to win here. My goal now is to try and win this thing at the end of the year.”
In the women’s race Isabeau Courdurier (SUNN) took the first stage of the race, but no one could stop Cecile Ravanel (Commencal Vallnord Enduro Team) who went on to win three stages and win the race by over 47 seconds. Casey Brown’s (Trek Factory Enduro Racing Team) strong performance over both days saw her clinch third place. Ravanel cements her lead in the overall rankings, whilst Winton moves up to second place and Ines Thoma (Canyon Factory Enduro Team) moves back to third.
Cecile said: “I liked the trails a lot better than last year, much steeper and more natural and I enjoyed being here. I hope to keep going like this for the rest of the year and take the overall series win.”
In the U21 men Killian Callaghan’s lead in the series rankings was bolstered by another win, with Duncan Nason of the USA in second and Max Leyson in third. In the U21 women it was Samantha Soranio who won every stage, Lia Westermann came second and Abigale Lawton third.
Karim Amour (BH-Miranda Racing Team) continued his winning streak to claim another win, Brian Lopes came second and Mike West third.
Team of the day was Rocky Mountain Urge bp, which leaves them second in the overall rankings behind Ibis Cycles Enduro Race Team, with Canyon Factory Enduro Team in third.
The series returns in two weeks for round seven, the Crankworx Canadian Open Enduro presented by Specialized. “
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I think Katy Winton deserves a much stronger call out. She took the win on Stage 6 and her result moved her up to 2nd in the overall series standings. I’d say that’s a pretty amazing achievement.