Leogang Enduro World Cup Race Highlights | UCI Mountain Bike World Series

Hello and welcome. We are in a brand new venue for the UCI Enduro World Cup. Welcome to Leogang, Salzburg, Ireland. The race marks the first time the Enduro Downhill and Cross Country World Cups have come together in a single event, and what a place to do it. Leogang is no stranger to World Cup racing, but it's the first time the EDR racers have taken on these famous trails, and they are in for a huge day in the saddle. Six stages for the Enduro riders and 10 for the e-bike competitors. It was a brutal start to the race as riders left the start line for a three-hour liaison that would take them to the first stage of the day, the aptly named Pro Line. It was going to be tight racing on this one at just over two kilometers long. Stage one was a bike park charge down to the town of Hinterglem, although one person who wouldn't be in contention was Jack Moyer, who didn't take the start due to illness. Normally, a three-hour ride is a pretty decent day out, but only got us to stage one. It's a hard one to start. It's quite hard to get the flow. It's hard to relax in those high-speed berms, but I'm happy it's out of the way and we can get into the chunky stuff now. Man, that was dusty. It was just very hard to keep the speed, keep the flow, but kind of like pushing soup up hill with a fork. It's a bit daunting being bumped up into the top group with all the top girls there at the top, but hopefully it'll spur me on a bit more, give me a bit more fire in the belly. Reigning champ Isabel Cordurier took the early lead, but it wasn't enough to land her in the top three. Raffaella Richter was on fine form and bested Cordurier by less than one second to claim third place. Round three winner Morgan Schar was faster still to take second place, but no one could compete with Canyon's Gloria Scarzi. Excited for this race. I really like the stage for pushing. It's really hard, a lot of pedaling also. Fresh from her second place finish in Pietra, Scarzi won the first stage by nearly three seconds to take the lead. In the men's race, Ibis' Cole Lucas took the early lead, but his time of three minutes, 19 seconds wouldn't be enough to hold off a charging flat pedal beast Alex Rudeau, with the Frenchman crossing the stage finish in third place. Slavomir Lukasic finished a fraction faster to land him in second. I was in the zone, but bike park's not like, there's just nothing to it. So I just brake check a little bit too much in certain things, but that's a good start. So I like I'm in touch, which is all I really wanted to do. So the next ones will suit me a lot more and looking forward to those ones. But Reece Werner cemented his breakout season with the stage win, relegating series leader Jesse Melamed to fourth. Corners are a lot more blown out than practice, so maybe on the safer side, but I don't know. Good to start the day. It was a really long transfer and it's like 2.30 now and we just did our first stage, so kind of hard to get ramped back up, but should be well into it now. And here's how the men's race is stacking up after stage one with Werner out front and with work to do for reigning champ Melamed, who was back in 10th. Stage two would be one of the steepest in the race, dropping a chunky 460 meters and nearly four kilometers in length. It was where both Jesse Melamed and Isbo Cordurier said in the pre-event press conference they believed the race could be won or lost. Pivot Factory Racing's Morgane Char was the first to fall foul of the stage's notorious tech, crashing near the start and bending her bars in the process. But it didn't cost her too dearly. She still finished in third. I just crashed in a really stupid corner. Yeah, but then there is a lot of roads, a lot of rocks and I think it's quite easy to get a mechanical on this kind of track. Elsewhere there was a disaster for Chloe Taylor. Her first race in the top women's field and it would be ended by a mechanical. Got to the bottom, tried to put a tube in, tube went down, so that's bike racing unfortunately. Stage one winner Gloria Scarzi backed it up with a second place finish on stage two, despite cracking her rim on the way down. But it was Isbo Cordurier's stomp her dominance on the rest of the field, winning the stage by an unbelievable 11 seconds. I was maybe not going 100% all the time to save a bit of my arm and maybe that was helpful, but it's also the type of stage I really like. The stage results reflected the overall standings, with stage two going to Cordurier, who now led the race by six seconds, with Scarzi in second and Schar in third. The long technical track was catching riders out, including some big names. The one section that I really liked, all the media was there and I was like, okay, just let it eat and it was good and then I just started swapping. Overconfident think I could just turn into the corner, so I just like, yeah, crossed my bars and went over the front. In the men's race, Ewan Deneau of Giant put in a strong showing and he was rewarded with fourth. And despite this moment on stage two, Alex Rudeau would go a second faster to take third. But Rhys Werner went faster and slotted into second place. Slavomir Lukasic had a disaster on the first corner and Mechanical would see him limping his way down the stage. I wasn't sure what I should do, if I should continue or not, but cruise down was pretty sketchy. But yeah, that's the racing, that's the racing. However, Yeti Fox teammate Richie Rude was having better luck and would take stage two by five seconds. That win was enough to hand Rude the race lead, pushing Werner into second and Rudeau into third with four stages left to go. And here's how the results are looking after two stages with podium contenders Melamed and Schar, both crashing and losing time as a result. Stage three would be the biggest test of the day for enduro racers. A four kilometre long monster of a stage dropping all the way from the high alpine, some 708 metres down to Salbach and the valley floor. Edouard Cordier would complete the energy sapping stage in eight minutes, 42 seconds. It was only enough to be rewarded with third place. Morgane Schar was able to shake off that stage two crash to take second. But it was Italy's Gloria Scarzi who went the distance to take her second stage win of the day by just 0.3 seconds. And that stage two win was enough to keep Isabeau in the race lead, but with Gloria Scarzi now just five seconds back at the halfway point, this race was far from over. Morgane Schar rounded out the top three but was now over 17 seconds adrift with three stages left to go. At the men's race, Richie Rude continued to make use of the immense power at his disposal, muscling his way to a third place finish. Yeah, stage two was good. It was pretty rough, and I felt pretty tired at the bottom, but I had a good stage and won that one. So stoked on that and had a clean stage three. Didn't feel like that great on it per se, like speed wise. It was good and it was safe. So yeah, heading back to Leogang now. Forbidden's Reece Ferner would go even faster to take second on the stage. Series leader Jesse Melamed continued to find form as the race progressed, winning stage three but only by the slimmest of margins, just a single second ahead of Ferner. It wasn't enough to displace Ferner from the top of the leaderboard. With three stages left to go, he led the race by two seconds, but with the ever-present threat of two-times champ Rude behind him in second place. Alex Rudo was a further six seconds back in third, and just a tenth of a second behind him was series leader Jesse Melamed in fourth. The stage was set for a dramatic second half to an already thrilling race amongst Leogang's tiring peaks. Meanwhile, over in the e-bike race, riders had just reached the halfway stage off their race and were through stage five. In the women's competition, it was none other than Tracy Mosley who drew first blood when she took the opening stage of the day by just one second ahead of Orbea's Flo Espinera. Former champ Laura Scharl had a shocking start to the day, finishing herself 15 seconds back after stage one. The Miranda team rider was never going to settle for that low and rallied on the following stage to find herself sitting in third at the halfway point in the race. By this point, Timo had dropped to second in the overall standings, Flo Espinera having won stages two, three, four, and five to take full control of the race and put herself 20 seconds to the good as the race entered its final stages. In the men's race, it was Miranda Factory Racing's Tiago Ladeira who came out swinging on the first stage, winning the stage by less than half a second ahead of fellow Portuguese competitor Emmanuel Pombo in second. Kevin Marey would round out the top three. However, Ladeira's reign was to be short-lived with Andrea Garibo and Kevin Marey both on a flyer and leapfrogging him in the overall. Italy's Garibo would finish stage five sitting in third place and Marey moving up into second. However, none of them could compete with a resurgent Fabien Barel. After a disappointing stage one, Barel put the power down to win stages three and four, which was enough to see him go into the second half of the race with a commanding 20.4 second lead. And here then is how the e-bike results are looking with five stages left in the monster of a race course. Back to the regular enduro bikes and a quick pit stop for the riders at the technical assistance zone, and then it was a short blast down stage four. Morgan Schar and leader Isavo Cordurier put down impressive times, but it was Raffaella Richter who took the win. With both stages left to go, it was still Isavo Cordurier who led the race, but only seven seconds ahead of Gloria Scarzi in second place. Morgan Schar rounded out the top three, but with 18 seconds to find on the final two stages of the day. In the men's competition, Reece Ferner came out on top on stage four, taking his second stage win and propelling him into the overall lead in the process. There was no room for relaxation though, with Richie Rude just five seconds back in second place and Alex Rudeau now 10 seconds back in third. In the e-bike race, it was the women who crossed the finish line first. The second half of the race saw Canyon Collective's Ines Thoma find her form and win four of the five stages, but it wasn't enough to bag her the win. Tracy Mosley's strong performance in the first half of the race saw her rewarded with third place. In contrast, Ines Thoma played the long game and her race only got better as the stages went on. The strategy paid off and she found herself on the second step of the podium, but no one could touch reigning champion Flores Benira of Urbea Fox Enduro Team, whose consistency more than paid off as she took her first win of the season. It was hard to keep like the concentration for all the stages. There were plenty and doing almost 10 hours from start to finish, but at the end of the day, yeah, everything went well. Meanwhile, the EEDR men were also home safe after an eventful final five stages. Alexandre Fayol, Kevin Marie and Alex Marin all took a stage win apiece. Mick Hanna had a solid day. He ended up taking the second spot on the podium, but no one could stop Fabien Barel. He won the final two stages of the day, finishing the race ahead of the rest by an unbelievable 27 seconds. Mick Hanna proved the capabilities of the new prototype Shimano drive unit when the Yeti rider finished the race in second place, while Tiago Ledera of Miranda Factory Team took third. It wasn't planned to race. The goal was really to only do the first one and show off the bike and was great success, etc. And I was like, OK, I'm going to do the second one and go. And it kind of worked out. I challenge myself a lot in the morning and try to attack and you work out again. So, yeah, I guess I'm going to sign up for the third one as well. So it's pretty cool. Back to the enduro race and stage five was the penultimate of the race. Morgane Char took third place, just as she had on the previous stage. But it was Trax Harriet Harndon who found some extra speed. The British rider managed a top 10 finish in her first downhill World Cup less than a week earlier and was back to flexing her enduro muscles to take second place on the stage. But no one could touch Isabeau Cordurier. She won the stage by four seconds with just one stage left to go. Isabeau Cordurier led the race by an impressive 15 seconds. Gloria Scarzi was hanging on in second place, while Morgane Char was a further eight seconds back in third. In the men's race, Charlie Murray of Specialized made his mark on the race by taking a third place finish on stage five. A consistent couple of stages from him saw him jump up the rankings. However, one man sliding down the overall was the series leader, Jesse Melamed. Losing his chain saw him fall outside of the top 10 on the penultimate test. Richie Rood pushed hard. A second place on the stage meant he had now closed the gap to Werner to just two seconds. But it was Alex Rudeau who claimed stage five victory by less than half a second ahead of Rood. With just one stage left in the race, Alex Rudeau sat third in the overall. Richie Rood was second, and it was Rhys Werner who led the overall. But with just two seconds between Werner and Rood, Rhys had a job of work to do on the final stage if he was to take his first UCI Enduro World Cup win. It all came down to this. The famous downhill track with crowds lining the sides would decide the race. Could Werner fend off Rood and Rudeau for his first ever UCI World Cup win? Could Isbo Cordurier hold on to the top spot and regain the lead in the overall? It's a weird spot to be in, leading into the last stage. I've never been here before, but kind of a good nervous, I think, excited, and hopefully finish off strong. It's a downhill track. It's really fast. So keep the speed, and we arrive at the last. Yeah, it's been pretty good. Now it's a bit late to finish a day, so it's almost eight, and we are going into the last one. It's a short one, so you want to avoid mistake on this one, I guess. And yeah, just looking forward to be done. Yeah, I think we're having a good back nine. Get home safe, but we can't slack. We've got to still keep the throttle wide open. Yeah, just an unfortunate mechanical, which is too bad because I was really turning my day around and trying to fight for the podium, and I was pushing, and I felt like I was riding pretty well. So these things happen. It's been some hairy moments. Just, yeah, pushing, pushing a lot today. Loving the tracks here. A bit steeper than the last round, and yeah, just in the mountains, so it's epic. With less than a kilometre left to race, the famous Finnish Bolivlia gang awaited. Melanie Pujan took her best result of the day with a third-place finish. Raffaella Richter had been strong all day and came second on the last stage, securing her fourth in the overall. Morgan Schar would win the stage and earned herself third place on the podium. All eyes went to the top of the hill. Could Isabou hold off Gloria Scarzi? The La Pieza collective rider had done it. She took her second win of the year, and with it, the series lead. It's been pretty tough to manage, but I knew I had to push really hard on stage two because it was the one that suited me the most and the one I wanted to, yeah, if I had a chance, it was on this one. So I'm super happy I could put a good time on this one and then manage my day trying not to make too many mistakes and crash in the bike park. The top 30 men were the last to drop into the stage. Riding consistently, Charlie Murray held on to the position in the overall. He would finish the race in fourth. Just three racers were left at the top of the stage. Rideau had a solid run. The fans waited as just two men were left to drop in. Not many riders can beat Richie Rude in a straight out charge down the hill, but Reece Ferner had done it. He won the last stage by 0.71 seconds to Lukasik and 0.77 to Rude. Honestly, a pretty sick day, start to finish. Started good, kind of won the first stage, and besides stage five, I think I was either first or second. I don't know about the last stage, but yeah, just like solid, consistent day and yeah, it feels pretty unreal to actually put it together. So there we have it. Here's the final results from the fourth round of the UCI Enduro World Cup. Isabel Cordurier takes her second win of the season ahead of the seriously impressive Gloria Scarzi. Morgan Shaw was third, Rafaela Richter was fourth, and Hattie Harnden was fifth. In the elite men's race then, Reece Ferner tastes victory for the first time in his Enduro career ahead of Richie Rude, Alex Rudeau, Charlie Murray, and the superb Dan Booker. And in the overall then, Isabel Cordurier takes control of the 2023 points leaders jersey. And in the men's race, Richie Rude hangs on to his overall points leaders jersey in what is looking like a promising charge to his third title. We'll be back next week when we head to Italy for round five of the UCI Enduro World Cup in Val di Fassa Trentino.