At the start of the Enduro World Series, almost the entire enduro world elite will meet on the other side of the globe, on the North Island of New Zealand in Rotorua. Almost the entire world elite because some big names have been injured in the run-up to the event and are therefore missing. René Wildhaber was forced to take a break a month ago with a broken metacarpal bone. Two weeks later, Jared Graves, the defending champion from Australia, dislocated both shoulders and Ludovic May broke his collarbone in Rotorua.

Despite these retirements, the race is no less high-caliber, especially as some top downhill riders, such as Sam Hill, are also at the start. The landscape around Rotorua is also spectacular. The start is in the Te Puia Geothermal Reserve, where geysers spew out water up to 30 meters high. After that, the stages mostly take you along the rooted trails in the primeval forest.

From the first downhill stage, Frenchman Jérome Clementz takes the lead and extends his lead with three best times by the end of the fourth of seven stages. The 2013 Enduro World Series winner then lost some time. From the second half of the race, Clementz's compatriot Fabien Barel turns up the heat and moves into second position. He set the fastest time on stage five, but was unable to catch Clementz and finished second. Barel is closely followed by the two New Zealanders Wyn Masters and Justin Leov. Masters, who mainly races downhill, celebrated an extremely successful World Series debut with his third place.With four Kiwi bikers in the top 10, the New Zealanders can make good use of their home advantage. With five riders in the top ten, the French are once again proving themselves to be a major enduro power. The first to break away from this line-up of nations is multiple downhill world champion Sam Hill. He set the fastest time on the last downhill-heavy stage, which puts him in tenth place at the end. Gusti Wildhaber, the only Swiss hope in the men's field, suffers a kind of lumbago during the second-last downhill stage and is unable to continue the race.

Photos© Matt Wragg/Enduro-World-Series

The usual suspect women
As in the previous year, Anne Caroline Chausson wins the opening race. The Frenchwoman has an eight-second lead until after stage three. Then her main rival, the Brit Tracy Moseley, crawled back to within a second and made the race exciting again. During the fifth stage, however, Chausson turned the tables again and pulled away from Moseley. In the end, there were around 14 seconds between the two.

The two leading riders already have a lead of over a minute on Cecile Ravanel, who is in third place. Lorraine Troung has made a good start to the season. Wearing the BMC team colors, she achieved the fifth-best time in two stages. However, she was unable to maintain this performance consistently, which still put the Romande in a good eighth place.

Anita and Carolin Gehrig started the Enduro World Series opener with high expectations. However, the first stage did not go according to plan for either of them. Carolin finishes in 23rd place and Anita in 26th. The twins were able to improve again, but too irregularly to achieve a satisfactory result. Anita comes 15th and Carolin 21st.

Photos© Matt Wragg/Enduro-World-Series

Two month break
After the season opener in Rotorua, the enduro riders will have a break of just under two months. Then it's back to Ireland - the Emerald Isle - for the second race of the Enduro World Series. By then, René Wildhaber and Jared Graves should be back in action. For Ludovic May, however, time will be tight until his collarbone is fully resilient again.

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