The beautiful race tracks around the picturesque town of Ainsa, which are packed with enthusiastic spectators, do not bring the Swiss enduro riders the desired luck, but at least there are rays of hope. Richie Rude (USA) takes the race luck for himself. Four out of seven stage victories even allowed the young American to take a "slippery slope" to emerge victorious after two days of racing. This allows Rude to further extend his lead in the overall standings. He is now almost a comfortable 300 points ahead of Frenchman Florian Nicolai, who finished ninth in Ainsa. Behind Rude, Yoann Barelli (FRA) and Martin Maes (BEL) occupy second and third place. For the young all-rounder Maes, this is his first podium finish this season, having already finished fourth twice.

In order: Richie Rude, Yoann Barelli and Martin Maes. Photos ©Matt Wragg - Enduro World Series

In 19th place, René Wildhaber does not win any flowers, but achieves a respectable result. "I rode the race with enough of a safety margin as I didn't want to risk too much," explains Wildhaber. The Trek rider is back in the rebuilding phase in this not-so-easy season, with a number of injuries. In the overall standings, "Wildi" is in 20th place.
Gusti Wildhaber describes his race as not entirely satisfactory: "I lacked puff on the physical stages and on the fourth stage the tires ran out of air. Nevertheless, my twelfth-best time on stage three gives me a good feeling."
Gusti Wildhaber finished 41st, which can still be seen as a ray of hope.
Ludovic May was more sober about his 52nd place: "My race wasn't good at all. I was always looking for my racing speed." But it wouldn't be Ludo May if he didn't also find something positive in this messed-up weekend. "Even if I wasn't fast, I still had a lot of fun on these cool tracks," says the Frenchman with a grin.

René in training, Gusti Wildhaber at the start of stage three and Ludo May. Photos ©Matt Wragg - Enduro World Series

Carolin Gehrig with a personal best
In the women's race, Britain's Tracy Moseley once again shows her class and wins her fifth World Series race in a row. She beat the two Frenchwomen Cecile Ravanel and Isabeau Courdurier by around 30 and 60 seconds respectively. With this victory, Moseley is almost the overall winner of the series. Even if she did not finish in the top 20 in the final race in Finale Ligure, she would still have her third series win in the bag.

Tracy Moseley, Cecile Ravanel and Isabeau Courdurier. Photos ©Matt Wragg - Enduro World Series

Anita Gehrig is looking very much like an exploit this weekend. She finished the first day of the race in fifth place and achieved her best stage result ever with the fourth-best time on the second downhill stage. But the second day of the race was nothing like the first, as she explains: "I rode far too stiffly and probably lost a lot of time. My disappointment is correspondingly great and the last stage, on which I could have made up a lot of time, was not counted due to the monsoon-like rainfall." Although she failed to set a new personal best, the damage was limited, as her good eighth place shows.
Carolin Gehrig, on the other hand, achieved a personal best. On the first three stages, she improved from ride to ride and remained just behind her sister in each case. The start to the second day was not great for her either. However, she quickly recovers and also achieves a top result in the end with ninth place. "I'm really happy about my best EWS result and also about my best stage ever. Every second of this race was a pleasure despite the exertions," enthuses Carolin Gehrig, adding: "After this race, I'm looking forward to the final race in Italy even more."

Cross-country specialist Nathalie Schneitter raced into tenth place just behind the Gehrig twins. Still in eleventh place after the first day of the race, she increasingly improved and rode the sixth-best time on the last classified stage.
There is also an "old acquaintance" on the ranking list. Silja Stadler, who was one of the top 10 downhill racers in the world for a number of years, is getting a taste of racing again after years away from racing. The Swiss physiotherapist, who looked after Jolanda Neff this season, did well in Ainsa and finished her first World Series race in a respectable 19th place.

Anita Gehrig, Carolin Gehrig and Nathalie Schneitter. Photos ©Matt Wragg - Enduro World Series

Before the winners of the Enduro World Series are crowned, the Enduro entourage travels on for one last time this season, stopping off in Finale Ligure on the Italian Mediterranean coast. On the first weekend in October, the singletrack mecca promises one last thrill, but also a big party to mark the end of the season.