We’ve just got off the side of the hill here at the first ever Enduro World Series race and what a day it has been. The experience, preparation and sheer speed of Fabien Barel and Tracy Moseley paid off with clear wins in their respective categories, Fabien winning by 12 seconds over Jerome Clementz and Tracy by almost a minute from Emmeline Ragot.

There are still riders finishing the final stage of the race but at this point none of them will be able to challenge at the top end of the results sheet.

Anne-Caroline Chausson unfortunately had a big crash early in the day and is in hospital with one or two broken ribs, get well soon to her. On a lighter crash-related note, Britain’s Josh Bryceland had one of the strangest of the day on the first stage as he crashed over the bars and in the process lost a shoe in the bushes… Don’t you hate it when that happens?

It was exciting stuff watching some of the world’s most talented and proven mountain bikers battle it out with relative unknowns such as Martin Maes (who finished fourth overall and he’s still at school!) and more interestingly to see some of the sport’s big names suffer somewhat in a discipline which is unknown to them. Steve Peat was unfortunately one of those riders as was 10xWorld Champion Nicolas Vouilloz, both finishing outside the top 15.

We’ll have a full report later and a rider’s report coming this week so stay tuned.