So far, the women's race stories have been quickly told. Not so at the last stop of the 2018 Enduro World Series in Finale Ligure. The previous series dominator Cecile Ravanel (FRA) was not only in trouble on the first two of four stages, she also crashed spectacularly and was 16 seconds behind her compatriot Isabeau Courdurier. But then the two-time World Series winner returned to her usual strength and won the third stage by nine seconds.

On the final descent - the infamous "Downhill Uomini" where the time gaps are usually small - the Frenchwoman gains another 13 seconds on Courdurier. She wins every race in the series and therefore also the overall standings with the maximum number of points. Courdurier is bitterly disappointed to have come so close to her second World Series victory, but is delighted with her second place in the overall standings.

Scotland's Katy Winton is too far away to challenge for second place overall. On the contrary, she has to fend off Noga Korem from Israel, who is within striking distance. She does so successfully and retains her third place in the final classification.

Gehrig twins in fourth and ninth

On the first stage, Anita Gehrig didn't want it to go her way. She lost a lot of time due to a mistake on the counter climb and was initially in eighth place. But then the Swiss rider turns up the heat and makes up considerable time with a fourth and two third places on the stage. This allowed her to improve from fifth to fourth place on the final descent.
In the overall classification of the Enduro World Series, Gehrig is in eighth place - a good result considering that she is missing two races.

Carolin Gehrig is not getting up to speed as desired and is somewhat perplexed as to why. However, her fifth-best time on the final downhill run is a minor disappointment. In the end, she finished ninth in the race and tenth overall. She also missed out on two rankings in the final standings due to injury.

A second, first time

Two years ago, Carina Cappellari had her EWS baptism of fire. Back then, the downhill specialist finished 16th in the Enduro World Series race in La Thuile. This year, the Swiss champion was encouraged by the Gehrig twins to take part in Finale Ligure. It is unusual for pure downhill athletes to complete a "day tour with race loads", and so the race in Finale will be Cappellari's second premiere. She mastered this challenge with flying colors and finished in 26th place. It was not to be her last foray into the enduro racing scene, even if the discipline would remain a change from downhill racing.

The fourth Swiss rider in the World Series final is Alba Wunderlin. She finished the race in 33rd place.

Total dominance

In contrast to the women's race, the men's race seems almost boring. The US American Richie Rude lined up stage win after stage win and won the final by a good 20 seconds ahead of the two Frenchmen Damien Oton and Kevin Miquel. However, despite his third win of the season, Rude is not able to make any headway in the overall classification. The two-time series winner came off badly in the first race and is one point short of the lead.

Like last year, Sam Hill takes the overall victory. To clinch it, the Australian would have had to finish lower than ninth place, as his nearest rival, Belgian Martin Maes, was only 131st. Although he finished the first stage in second place, he touched a tree with his hand. The hand then swells up and Maes struggles through the remaining stages with severe pain. As a result, he not only lost second place to Oton, but also slipped off the podium altogether. Third place on the podium went to Frenchman Florian Nicolai.

Best performance in the last race

Swiss rider Patrick Lüthi rode to his best ever World Series result in 37th place in the penultimate race in Spain. He improved once again in Finale Ligure, finishing in 27th place and 53rd overall
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Somewhat behind him, Maxime Chapuis finished in 33rd place. Not what he was capable of. In the final ranking, however, the Frenchman still makes it into the top 30.
Gusti Wildhaber, on the other hand, is very satisfied with his performance. After his foot injury and the resulting break, Finale is the first race that Wildhaber competes in and finishes well in 38th place. Despite missing four races, he finishes 35th overall.

Final to the last

Since 2013, when the Enduro World Series was held for the first time, the last race has always been held in Finale Ligure - six times. This era is now coming to an end. Next year, the final race of the World Series will be held in Zermatt. A premiere, as it is the first Swiss race in this series.

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