Cycling: Three of a total of eight Enduro World Series races have been completed. Since the early start of the season in New Zealand in March there have been many surprises, changing winners, ups and downs. Next weekend, the riders will be heading to France, the country of origin of enduro sport.
This coming weekend, the riders in the Enduro World Series will once again be in full swing. With Samoens, the first French stop of the EWS is on the programme. The cornerstone for today's enduro sport was laid more than ten years ago in the French Alps and so people like to go back to the origins of the discipline.
After New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland, it is the first race for the riders where alpine terrain awaits them. With steep and stony stages, it is considered to be extremely demanding and provides unexpected surprises due to many defects. The race format in France also differs from the previous races. There is no training on the previous days and each driver has a sighting run before each stage. This means that the drivers are allowed to drive down the stage before the actual timed race.
There are a total of five stages on the two days of racing, which will be announced on Friday. The third stage on Saturday will be driven without training. It will be part of the bike park, which all riders can visit until Thursday evening.
With this information, you can finally look at the ranking list. With rank 4 in Rotorua, 2 in Ireland and a win in Scotland, Justin Leov is currently leading the men's ranking. Greg Callaghan closely follows him in second place, but injured himself in training a few weeks ago and has to sit out the rest of the season.
However, a big favorite is making a comeback in Samoens. Jared Graves was injured before the first race in New Zealand and also had to skip stops 1 and 2. Recovering in the past few weeks, he has been seen again in enduro racing where he has been in top form, taking wins ahead of teammate Richie Rude.
He has the stages in France and is therefore one of the riders to have on the list of favourites. But you should also focus on Jerome Clementz and Fabien Barel. In their home country they want to win in front of family and friends. They are currently in 4th and 6th place.
But there is another Frenchman. Florian Nicolai is currently in third place. The Rocky Mountain team rider performed consistently well in the early races and is currently just 120 points behind leader Leov.
Tracy Moseley and Anne Caroline Chausson continue to be the ones to beat in the women's category. Already in the first two years of the EWS they dominated the general classification and Moseley secured two EWS titles. Chausson and Moseley are currently separated by just 50 points, with Moseley having the advantage. However, first and second place are separated by exactly that 50 points and so Chausson could equalize with a win.
There is no way around them, even if Anneke Beerten and Cecile Ravanel are longingly hoping for their first victory.