Located in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, this race ended the 2019 European Continental Enduro Series and was the 4th and last round of the 2019 French Enduro Series.
After a pretty good season, Alex Rudeau won the race and the 2019 overall French Cup in front of the 2018 Champion Louis Jeandel. In the Women field, Laura Charles won the 2019 overall title but finished 2nd this week-end behind the unbeatable Melanie Pugin who won 2 races out of two but missed the 2 other races. Czech National Champion Milan Mysik won the overall European Series thanks to his consistency while Josefine Bjorkman is the new European Woman Champion.
Three different stages on Saturday, 4 timed stages (1, 2, 3, 3) including a blind stage (1), and three different stages on Sunday, 3 timed stages (4, 5, 6) including a blind stage (4). All of these were made with 67kms of single tracks and trails, 5430m down and 1550m up, in the beautiful area of Loudenvielle. Weather conditions were very good with no rain at all and mostly two sunny and warm days despite the cold mornings. The stages offered some loamy dirt when in the forest and dry and dusty trails higher in the mountains mixing a good amount of steep parts and tights turns.
These colors on Saturday morning meant 2 things: early wake-up and cold temperatures.Loudenvielle valley from the top of Stage 1.Used by the riders to reach the start of stage 3 and 5, the new "Skyvall" gondola were inaugurated this last August.Built in 1997 for the James Bond movie "Tomorrow never dies", the Peyragudes altiport was named "007" in 2017 to celebrate the 20 years anniversary of the movie.This Mondraker Foxy RR was ridden by Pierre Real. It was his 3rd race with this 160mm motion fork and seemed to like it.The Pyrenees mountains.Alex Rudeau won the race and the 2019 overall French Cup while Laura Charles took the 2nd place of the weekend and also won the 2019 overall. What a cute couple!RESULTSMen
1 - Alex Rudeau _ 44:04.889
2 - Louis Jeandel _ 44:10.380
3 - Florian Baladier _ 44:50.573
4 - Youn Deniaud _ 45:06.648
5 - Eliott Baud _ 45:06.711
Women
1 - Melanie Pugin _ 50:43.136
2 - Laura Charles _ 52:00.913
3 - Estelle Charles _ 53:04.20
4 - Axelle Murigneux _ 53:10.88
5 - Camille Perillat _ 54:10.145
Full results here