For once, the weather forecasts do not promise Italian beach weather for the grand finale of the Enduro World Series in the Italian bike mecca of Finale Ligure. Storms and rain even forced the organizers to close the tracks for Friday's training. The rainy weather also had consequences on Saturday, the first of the two race days. The race is shortened by one downhill stage - unfortunately one of the most beautiful of the weekend.

Both race days demand an unusually high level of calf power from the athletes, as the stages are designed to be more pedal-heavy than average - in some cases even similar to cross-country. However, the long pedaling sections do not lead to any major changes in the classification. It is the usual suspects who dominate the stages. In the men's race, Australian Jared Graves is the fastest rider over the two days of racing, around one second ahead of Frenchman Fabien Barel, who finishes his career in second place. In third place, but only six hundredths of a second "slower", was E.T. - Nicolas Vouilloz, the world's best downhill rider of all time. It is almost unbelievable that after 35 minutes of racing, there are no larger gaps. Richie Rude, the overall leader, only needs eleventh place after the two days of racing to ride to series victory in the dry. Fabien Barel and Jérôme Clementz landed in the places of honor with a clear points gap.

The Swiss enduro guard reported similar results to the race in Spain. René Wildhaber was the fastest Swiss rider in 16th place and managed a top 10 in the final stage. Gusti Wildhaber also improved compared to the race in Spain. Although the Cube rider was unable to ride all the routes due to a cold, he finished in 34th place, with Ludo May right behind him. In the overall standings, René Wildhaber is in 18th place, Ludo May in 37th, Gusti Wildhaber in 73rd and Rudy Biedermann in 86th place.

Two well-known riders from another corner also appear on the ranking list: Mathias Flückiger and Nicola Rohrbach are testing their enduro skills in Finale and are doing remarkably well. According to the two, they had hoped for more, but 45th and 47th place in a field of enduro specialists is a respectable result.

In order: Final winner Jared Graves, Fabien Barel in his final appearance, the men's podiums from the race and overall standings. ©Matt Wragg - EWS

Moseley leaves the racing stage with victory
Britain's Tracy Moseley was as good as a lock for overall victory before the race. But for once, the door to victory was wide open for others. French rider Cecile Ravanel took the lead on the first day of the race and finished the day just behind Moseley in second place. On the second day of racing, however, Moseley closes the door in Ravanel's face. Even a mishap can no longer slow her down - even if she no longer believes she can win the day.

Thus, Tracy Moseley takes the overall victory in the third year of the Enduro World Series - this time ahead of Cecile Ravanel and Anneke Beerten.

Ines Thoma's third place in the daily classification was a surprise. The former German cross-country rider has often finished fourth and fifth in the last two years. In Finale, she now makes it onto the podium in the world series for the first time. As in the previous year, she is in fifth place in the overall standings.

In order: Tracy Moseley on the way to her final win, the official afterrace beer - prost and the race and overall podiums. ©Matt Wragg - EWS

Once again close to the top five is Anita Gehrig. But two fifth-fastest and one fourth-fastest stage time are not enough. The second and fourth stages don't really want to go well, which accounts for the decisive time difference. Even though the disappointment of missing out on fifth place is great, Gehrig still achieves a very good result with seventh place. In the overall standings, this means sixth place for her.

As in Spain, Nathalie Schneitter is also at the start in Finale. However, she doesn't just ride along here either, but does remarkably well with eleventh place.
Although she is riding well, Carolin Gehrig is in trouble this weekend. Several small crashes prevent another top 10 result: she finishes 13th but is only 17 seconds behind tenth place. In the overall standings of the Enduro World Series, she is in eleventh place.www.enduroworldseries.com