The season has started
The competition season has started. After enjoying the joys of winter, last March, I traveled to Central and South America. The first destination was Costa Rica, 10 days of ride on the most beautiful trails in the country. The idea was to take pictures to illustrate a photo story for magazines. The trip with a local guide went really well and I look forward to showing you the result.
Enduro World Series Manizales, Colombia
Then the serious things started, we headed to Colombia for my first race of the season. This was the second round of the Enduro World Series. Not having entered the first round that took place in Chile, I was looking forward to meeting my fellow riders, the partners and teams on the tour. The rain and the wet stages made the show of the weekend even more crazy. After a rather difficult race in terms of conditions, I finished at a good 44th place, very satisfied with this performance. To have a look behind the scenes of an enduro race, watch a video of my Colombian experience.
Riva del Garda Festival & Bike Days Solothurn
After a few days resting after my travel, I headed south for an enduro race at the Riva del Garda Bike Festival in Italy. You will find an article on e-mtbnews.desummarizing an organized tour with BMC during the festival in Riva Del Garda. And then I participated at an electric bike race organized as part of Bike Days in Solothurn. It was my first electric bike competition; an interesting concept but still very different from traditional races.
Enduro World Series Olargues, France
After four weekends spent between events and competitions, it was already time to head towards the south of France for the 3rd round of the Enduro World Series. Olargues hosted this race and the organizers offered us technical and physical stages. A competition that was very difficult for all riders. After two days of trainings, the organisms were already tired and we had two days of competition ahead of us. The first day of racing did not necessarily happen as I had planned, with a puncture on the top of the stage 3. I had to repair to finish the stage and obviously downgraded to the bottom of the overall standings. The next day, I woke up with a big tiredness. Little hope for me to get back in the standings after my mechanical of the previous day but I decided to take the start anyway. It rained very hard all night and the ground conditions were extreme. After two stages, I decide not to finish the race, for fear of hurting myself on this rocky and wet ground. I still draw a positive experience of this race and I am already looking forward to my next race which will take place on the island of Madeira in early June.
