Masters and Ravanel slide to EWS Round 1 victories

The Southern Hemisphere has been heating up in the past few weeks aso riders from the Enduro World Series (EWS) have been migrating south, ahead of the first rounds of the EWS in New Zealand and Australia. We've seen the Yeti Factory Team out at Hidden Vale

The first round of the 2017 Enduro World Series kicked off in Rotorua yesterday, as part of the Crankworx festival which runs each year. It’s been 2 years since we last saw the EWS circus in the Whakarewarewa forest. With conditions some are saying were the hardest of any EWS race to date, it was a testing start to the series for 2017.

The Kiwi boys put on a massive display of dominance taking all three podium spots. With Wyn Masters taking the top step, his brother Eddie in 3rd and Rotorua ex-local Matt Walker taking 2nd.

All seven stages were transformed from hero dirt during practice into something altogether more brutal come race day. The pro men’s field left the stage last and bore the brunt of the changing conditions.

Speaking after the race Wyn Masters said: “There were some stages today that I’ve never seen that tough and it was just a struggle – the ruts swallowed the bike and the rider. I had a few crashes but I managed to hold it together and somehow I took the win and lived up to my name.”

In the women’s race Cecile Ravanel (Commencal Vallnord Enduro Team) looked unstoppable – she may live in the south of France but she seemed perfectly at home in the mud. She won six stages, with only Katy Winton (Trek Factory Racing) standing between her and total stage domination – with Winton taking her first EWS stage win. Ines Thoma (Canyon Factory Enduro Team) put in a consistent ride to take home second on the day and Anita Gehrig (Ibis Cycles Enduro Race Team) did the same to take a well deserved third.

Cecile said: “I was a little bit nervous this morning because of the rain, I live in the south east of France and there are never these conditions – if it rains I don’t ride! I enjoyed it though and I’m happy.”

With over 60km of riding and 2000m of climbing over the 7 stages and their liaisons it was never going to be an easy day. Throw in the steady down pour lasting the first couple of hours and conditions were set to be diabolical. With the top seeded guys leaving last, it meant there was a clear advantage to the un-seeded part time EWS guys that went earlier in the unseeded group. This group of riders had the ability to ride a track that had at least some resemblance to the track they had practiced. This included the World Cup DH guys like the Masters brothers, Matt Walker, Josh Bryceland, Jack Moir and a whole host of local talent. Taking nothing away from these guys they have all had great Enduro results in the past with Wyn taking 3rd in 2015.

The best Aussie story of the weekend was hands down Sam Hill’s 4th place finish over all. 

Sam being a seeded rider he rode in the group of final guys. Managing to stay on his bike and blast his way down trail that saw the world's best struggle. Whilst this is not surprising, as most people are aware of Sam’s ability to use his flat pedals as an advantage in adverse conditions. It’s still a massive start for Sam to get the jump on some rather large names so early in the season for his first full year racing EWS.

Jack Moir was another notable Australian, slip sliding his way into 6th. It’s clear Jack has a lot of enduro potential should he choose to rider more through the season.

The rest of the Aussie all seemed to have day’s they would rather forget.  Jared Graves (35th)  had stages that were soul destroying. He also rode through to a 4th, 3rd and 2nd placed stage finishes towards the end of the day.  It at least means he is on track and sounded super keen to get to Tassie to make amends.

“Running around looking for a stick to clear your front wheel so it will roll and you can continue is… not ideal” said Graves.

Chris Panozzo was 33rd, and Connor Fearon finished 42nd claiming that “this race was life changing”. Paul Van Der Ploeg started his year-long EWS campaign with a 62nd.

Ben Forbes DNF’ed with a broken set of bars.

In its debut race, the new Master’s Women category was won by Melanie Blomfeld of New Zealand, with Mary Mcconneloug in second and Sarah Beadel in third. In the Master Men Karim Amour (BH-Miranda Racing Team) romped to victory once more, with Sean McCaroll in second and Nigel Page (Chain Reaction Cycles Mavic) in third.

Martha Gill was all alone in the U21 Women’s race, but she definitely wasn’t complacent and still posted some incredible times that would have placed her in the top 15 in the women’s race. Chilean rider Pedro Burns won the U21 Men, with Killian Callaghan in second and local Lucas Cole in third.

Wynn’s victory means GT Factory Racing lead the team points table, Canyon Factory Enduro Team lie second with Ibis Cycles Enduro Race Team sitting third.

The series now moves over the Tasman sea to Derby in Australia for round two and the Shimano Enduro Tasmania on April 9.