Isabeau Couldurier and Charlie Murray narrowly won the second round of the EDR World Cup in Poland today. Over the course of 27 minutes, 23.465 minutes, Courdurier and Harriet Harnden were separated by just 0.236 seconds, with Harriet Harnden firmly in second place after a great weekend. The story might have been different if Courdurier hadn’t crashed in Stages 1 and 2, but she crashed and that’s racing.
The men’s race was incredibly close, with Charlie Murray’s time of 23:42.034 just 0.095 seconds faster than Poland’s Slawomir Lukasik. Sławomir ended the day with three consecutive stage wins, but missed out on his first home UCI Enduro World Cup win by 0.095 seconds.
At Fort William we expected the podium to be decided by a hundredth of a second, but we saw Vali Herr win by just half a second, while Loïc Bruni was beaten by Troy during the race. -He set an amazing time of 1.84 seconds against Brosnan, and his time was 4 seconds. :06:104.
Apart from the men’s XCC World Cup at Mairipora, which went to a photo finish, this was the closest World Cup race this year.
Well, I’m speculating here, but those days are really, really close. In fact, they were so close that there’s a good chance they’ll win Sunday’s downhill race by a wide margin.
2. Canadian men are showing up in a big way.
Finn Isles was the only Canadian male rider to finish in the top 20 at the Fort William World Cup, finishing 3rd, while Carter Woods was the only Canadian male rider to finish in the top 20 at the XC World Cup, finishing 15th at Arasha. Ta. However, at today’s Enduro World Cup, Jesse Melamed (5th), Jack Menzies (6th), Kasper Woolley (7th), Elliott Jamieson (14th) and Remi Gauvin (15th) , six Canadian men finished in the top 20 in the elite category. ), Rhys Varner (19th place).
We’ve talked a lot about France’s dominance in enduro, but at Bielsko-Biała only four French riders finished in the top 20, and the top French male rider was Adrian Daly in 8th place. .
On the women’s side, French women have dominated for years, but are now seeing stiff competition from British women, with five French women and five British women in the top 20 in the Polish round.
3. This year we may see a record overall victory with four straight wins.
For the first few years of Ysabeau Couldurier’s racing career, she was overshadowed by the consistently dominant Cécile Ravanel, who won three overall titles between 2016 and 2018. In the 2018 season, Isabeau finished second to Cecil in every race.
Even with Ravanel retiring from enduro racing in 2019, Couldurier had a perfect season, winning every race in the 2019 Enduro World Series. In fact, as you can see from her “Roots and Rain” page, Couldurier has never raced in an EWS or EDR World Cup since she started racing in 2015, with the exception of her one DNF at Rotorua in 2017. He has never finished outside the top 10 in a race. , she won four of her seven UCI Enduro World Cups.
Ruud also won three overall titles in 2015, 2016 and 2023, tying Sam Hill’s consecutive overall wins in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Couldurier currently leads the women’s overall with the narrowest margin of 893 points. Harnden scored 891 points and Ruud currently sits in second place with 859 points behind Charles Murray’s 871 points.
4. A professional team is truly a dream.
Jesse Melamed and Jack Menzies were able to race in Bielsko-Biała on new bikes, days after their Finale League race bikes were stolen from their team van near Vienna, Austria, on May 13th. It’s really remarkable that the Canyon CLLCTV team was able to get together in less than a week of his time and put both riders on new bikes. Not only that, but they finished 5th and 6th so they were obviously 100% at ease with their fresh horses. It’s impressive to see the team’s mechanics and riders tune so hard and be able to put together a new bike that feels exactly like the race bike from the previous weekend.
Not only that, Melamed said in an Instagram post before practice: “The stress of the situation was completely gone and I was able to focus on the work I needed to do when the time came.” It’s great that both riders were able to focus on their jobs and not worry about what they would ride in practice on Thursday. There is no doubt that our mechanics and support staff felt the added pressure this week.
It would have been incredibly stressful for a privateer in the same situation, and even if they were able to get one to Poland, it would have been incredibly stressful for a privateer to find the new race bike perfectly matched the feel of the previous race bike. It’s unlikely. And build it in time.
5. Charlie Murray’s win was long overdue, but not completely unexpected.
Charlie Murray’s first Enduro World Series race was in 2018, with a disastrous first stage in Lo Barnechea, Chile, where he finished 128th overall. He was 48th in Manizales the following weekend, but skipped races three through six and finished the season in 74th place at Ainza Sobrarbe and 77th at Finale Ligure. The following year, in 2019, he competed in Rounds 4, 5, 6, and 7, with his best finish being 26th at Northstar in California.
In 2020, the ranking rose further to 20th, 14th, and 6th. In 2021, he finished third in the second race in Val di Fassa, marking his first EWS podium. In 2022, he finished the season consistently in the top 15 with 5th and 4th place. In 2023, he leveled up again, finishing every race except the first in single digits, but still remained in the spotlight without finishing on the podium.
He started the season in second place and then won the championship. Given his consistency last season and the fact that he seems to have improved throughout the season, there’s no doubt that competitors will be keeping an eye on him this year.
6. Chloe Taylor’s podium was a long time coming, but it was completely unexpected.
This is Chloe Taylor’s fifth year racing enduro at international level, and her previous best result in the Enduro World Series and EDR World Cup was a 10th place at Pietra Ligure in 2023 last year.
Although she has made steady progress, she has not had a single-digit race result in the past five years. In any case, she joined forces for Bielsko-Biała’s new Gowan Girls team, winning a decisive first place on Stage 2 in wet and changeable conditions, third on Stage 4, and consistent throughout the day. It was great to see the results come through.
7. Things are looking up for YT Mob and Jack Moir.
Last week we mentioned how unlucky YT Mob’s enduro riders were to suffer three injuries in one year, but this race was a great comeback for Jack Moir with all three riders finishing the race. I did. Moir finished fourth against Bielsko-Biała, a week after being forced to miss the final league match due to a washout injury that affected his grip strength.
Caspar Woolley moved up to 7th place, and it was a decent race for Christian Texter, who finished 26th.
Other facts:
• Mirco Vendemir’s fourth place in the Finale Ligure proved otherwise just Because it’s the 11th place hometown.
• Martin Mace was unable to repair a puncture suffered at the end of Stage 1 and was forced to withdraw.