EWS 2021 (and fantasy league)

Pinkbike Fantasy League

First EWS round is almost here, and the official thread must have got lost amongst the Amazon PSAs and shed topics.

9 rounds including 3 double headers all in Europe. Disappointed they’ve kept the Queen stage format, which in my opinion detracts from the main event.

Melamed was the man to beat last year, but Hill and Rude were missing. The Eurocentric nature of the series could suit the likes of Nicolai, Tordo, Miquel and Dailly. Jack Moir was stronger than most expected last year and has now had a full off season aiming for EWS. Ed Masters has done well in the French and Italian races in the past. Add Antione Vidal moving into elite and Martin Maes looking fit and that’s a very competitive field.

Last season we finally seen someone manage to beat Courdurier when Pugin won in Pietra. Charre then took her first victory at the next round. Richter has had some standout results in the past and now appears to have committed to riding full time. ALN and Korem also podium threats.
Plenty of Brits will be in the mix too; Winton is hopefully back fit and happy and with a point to prove. Baraona has been on form pre season and I think could be a wild card this year. Conolly has had a couple of podiums. Harnden is moving up to elites early (I think) – her results from u21 last season would have placed her 6th, 4th and 2nd in elites.

My predictions for the season
1 Rude
2 Daily
3 Maes

1 Courdurier
2 Baroana
3 Pugin

I’m really looking forward to this. I’m seeing this as potentially my future with my small boy for the coming years, obviously there’s a qualification process using UK based racing etc, but it’s all not possible for a couple of years until he hits 15 anyway. But if things with MTBing head where i think they’ll go, then EWS is where i see him… well, hopefully LOL… if he’s good enough that is.

But that does mean we’re paying a bit more attention to it on Pinkbike at the moment.

I think Jack Moir will be in that top 3 overall this season. Unfortunately for him I’ve stuck him in my fantasy team, which means he’ll no doubt have a series of mechanicals.

Looking forward to seeing how Elliot Heap gets on too. He’s managed some good results since he moved up from U21s so clearly has the pace, just needs to find that consistency and he could be a podium contender.

I think the women’s is going to be really open this year and really hoping Katy Winton can bag at least one win this season after the stressful off season she’s had. I reckon it’s between Cordurier and Morgan Charre for this first race though.
Really looking forward to it and keen to see the coverage from GMBN of a proper full season.

Really looking forward to this season.
Going to be tough to predict this year – so many good riders and not having raced properly for 12 months will be pumped.
Top 3 for Men:
Hill
Rude
Melamed

Women:
Courdurier
Connoly
Winton

Will be interesting to see where Maes is, Ed Masters has had a few decent ews showings so thinking he’ll be in the mix too and also think Shark Attack Jack could be a problem for the big boys.

Live timing and feed wouldn’t work for me, but looks like some tight racing with stage 3 causing a big reshuffle.

Racing didn’t suit the Frenchies as much as I’d thought but my fantasy still did well. HarrySimpson killed it, 5th in the global rankings.

Anyone know what happen to Sam Hill?
He was well down on the last couple of stages.

Anyone know what happen to Sam Hill?
He was well down on the last couple of stages.

There was a very brief interview with him on the Pinkbike instagram and I think he was saying he tried to hold a bit back and pace himself as he hasn’t raced for so long and ended up losing loads of time on the pedally bits of stage 3.

Stage 3 climb looked horrendous – check Jesse Mellamed’s onboard on youtube. I think that put Hill out of the reckoning.

Stage 3 climb looked horrendous – check Jesse Mellamed’s onboard on youtube. I think that put Hill out of the reckoning

I was exhausted just watching it !!!! IT was crazy.

Check out Jack Moir’s latest YouTube video. Stage 3 was brutal. He also has a chat with Sam Hill at the end of the race and sounds like he made a few mistakes on Stage 4 which cost him.

Yeah just seen that. Seen a couple of people mention they didn’t have much time between 3 and 4 so recovering from such a physical stage was tough.

Well I did a lot better in round 2. It helps if you check all the riders you’ve selected are actually entered.
Jack Moir just posted up his winning run of the Queen stage for round 2. Even with the GoPro effect you can see he’s absolutely hauling. It must have been disheartening for Jesse Melamed to see him cross the line just behind him, but I think he’d had at least a couple of spills so he may have been expecting it.

Congrats to @HarrySimpson for his impressive win.
Your early lead was difficult to claw back despite my best efforts (I’m thingswelike).
Really entertaining season with a fabulous winner!


SingletrackWorld: Top 10 (Total: 21)

Rank Team Points
1 flag HarrySimpson 6520
2 flag chillescarpe 6206
3 flag thingswelike 6122
4 flag ripsilver 6084
5 flag Yak-muhahahaha 6078
6 flag muggomagic 6051
7 flag chris0hudson 5923
8 flag mark-88 5872
9 flag ashfordakers 5842
10 flag GilesMartin1980 5557


Just off the podium for me with 4th place. Happy with that 🙌

is it too late to join? I would have got 3rd place in the singletrack league  🙂  my only chance of a podium this year!

lol i just joined. 3rd place assured   . eat my goal!

Shunted down to 6th!

**** howsyourdad Disqualified for not getting your entry in on time 🙂

Well if you’re allowed to join in now……😉

ouch

sorry i really didn’t know there was a STW league. no one here actually cycles!

no one here actually cycles

I’ve been doing my best to maintain some level of MTB related chat here!

My team did ok – Harnden and Moir proved wise picks. I had faith Baraona would come good so kept her in my team all year, shame it took until the last race before she brought in the big points. I tried various French men throughout the season but none of them did too much, then had Lukasik for the final two races including his DSQ.

Damn, I would’ve come 3rd if I’d joined