Enduro World Series: The "world champion" returns to the podium

In the third race of the Enduro World Series in Olargues in the south of France, Cecile Ravanel takes her third win in a row. In the men's race, two-time series winner Richie Rude takes victory after a 2017 season that was one to forget. Carolin Gehrig takes fifth place after a strong race and a puncture. Daniela Michel wins the Masters category

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French rider Ravanel (Commencal Vallnord Enduro Team) put in her typically dominant performance, winning seven of the eight stages spread over two days of racing. And for her, the more difficult the routes, the greater her lead. She takes well over two minutes off second-placed Isabeau Courdurier (Intense-Mavic Collective/ FRA). Third place was snatched by the German Ines Thoma (Canyon Factory Enduro Team). On the second day of the race, she benefited from her consistent performance on Saturday and a strong chase on Sunday.

On Saturday, Carolin Gehrig (Norco Twins Racing) was in a promising second place. However, she suffered a puncture and several crashes on Sunday. These incidents mercilessly hit the clock, opening the door for her direct rivals. Nevertheless, the Swiss rider still manages to finish fifth, which sees her move up two places in the overall standings, also to fifth place.

In the women's masters category, Switzerland's Daniela Michel takes the win.

Rude puts "winning break" on hold

In the men's race, Richie Rude (Yeti Fox / Shox Factory Racing Team / USA) and Adrien Dailly (Team Lapierre / FRA) went head-to-head for victory on Sunday. Before the final stage, the two are separated by just one second. However, Rude completed the final descent faster and won a race in the Enduro World Series for the first time in a long time. After two years of dominance, the 2017 season was anything but good for Rude.
Behind him, Martin Maes (GT Factory Racing / BEL) and Florian Nicolai (Canyon Factory Enduro Team / FRA) also fought a neck-and-neck race for third place. In the end, Maes came out on top.

The Swiss enduro guard had nothing to report this time. Gusti Wildhaber has to sit out due to injury and Maxime Chapuis has to settle for 53rd place. On the other hand, Patrick Lüthi and Stefan Peter rode to personal bests, finishing 43rd and 51st respectively.

Fourth race in two countries

For the fourth round of the Enduro World Series, the entourage moves to Petzen / Jamnica. An Enduro World Series race will take place there in the Slovenian-Austrian border region for the first time on June 30 to July 1, 2018.

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