Yesterday, Sunday, the time had finally come: The Enduro World Series started its second season in Nevados de Chillan. The drivers were able to practice the individual stages for three days and adapt to the conditions. Saturday morning the starting field took the lift up the mountain where the first timed stage awaited. After three stages, it was Jared Graves who led the field in front of Jerome Clementz. The Australian thus won the first day and was able to gain a comfortable lead of twelve seconds.
However, the sandy trails also took their toll. Fabien Barel went into the first race of the EWS 2014 as one of the big favorites. But he fell right on stage one and was only able to finish the first day of racing with severe pain. As it turned out after a thorough check in the hospital, he broke a vertebra in the fall and is lucky that no nerves were damaged during the second and third stages.
Anne-Caroline Chausson dominated day one with two stage wins and a second place finish. However, Tracy Moseley wasn't far behind. The two top favorites were only separated by three seconds, so there was excitement for the second day as well.
Jerome Clementz managed to turn the tables on Sunday. Graves was just leading up to the sixth and final stage, but with only an eleventh place on the last stage he lost a lot of time to Clementz. His third place should be enough to take the lead and continue his 2013 season. With just under eight seconds, he secured victory ahead of Graves. Florien Nicolai drove a consistent race and placed in the top 10 on all timed stages. He completed the men's podium. Martin Maes also had a good start to the season. The young Belgian clinched three stage victories and finished fourth.
Chausson maintained her lead over Moseley on day two. She set the best time on all stages and won. Cecile Ravanel managed to push Anneke Beerten from third place and secured third place in Chile. Beerten is fourth, followed by Isabaeu Courdurier.
Results
