Pinkbike Primer - The New EWS Venue in Les Orres
Round Five, The Great Unknown
Enduro's elites head to southeastern France for round five
Another week another new venue. This time we're in Les Orres, a small ski village above the town of Embrun in the south east of France. Les Orres was on the European Continental Series last year and it's making the step up to the World Series this weekend. The race last year fell just after La Thuile so a lot of top riders made the short trip over to scout this venue including Kevin Miquel, Greg Callaghan and Zakarias Johansen.
With all but 2 trails set in the bike park, there's a lot of chairlift liaisons this weekend meaning riders should be charging on each stage, no need to save energy when you can recover on the way to the next stage. Expect eight rocky, alpine stages with stunning backdrops spread over two days of furious racing. Let's get into it:
Image Credit: Richard Bord - shot at European Continental Enduro Series 2018 - Les Orres
The Course
Day 1
Day 2
ECUREUIL: 3.3km
Riders are straight in first thing on Saturday morning with no liaison but instead a run from the top of the chairlift at the Les Orres 1650 ski village. They will have to ensure they've warmed up well and be fully awake for this rude awakening.
GRAND CABANE: 5.3km (Queen Stage)
The Queen Stage comes as the second stage of the day. Stage 1 drops riders back into the main village and from there they take a different chairlift followed by a short, flat transition to reach the top of stage 2. This is the longest stage of the weekend with more than a kilometre lost in vertical and starts the riders on their long road out of the bike park down to the town of Embrun.
BELVEDERE: 3.4km
Stage 3 winds down from below the ski village towards Lac de Serre Poncon. It's rated as a blue so there shouldn't be too much to challenge the riders.
TORNIQUET: 1.8km
The longest liaison of the race (7km) takes riders down through the town of Embrun and up the other side of the valley for the final stage of day 1, Tourniquet. It's the shortest stage of the day by some distance but as fatigue sets in riders will still have to be on high alert.
LES CRETES: 5.1km
Day 2 is centered in the bike park with only one big transition for the riders to worry about and it's this transition that brings riders to the top of the valley for Les Cretes. This is another super-long stage with the most vertical lost in one go all weekend.
MYRTILLES: 3km
Riders hop straight onto another chairlift and then drop straight into Myrtilles.
MAGIC WOOD: 2.8km
There's a small transition back to the village then the last chairlift ride of the day as riders get taken to the top of Magic Wood, one of the marked bike park trails.
COOL RIDER: 1.3km
Magic Wood drops riders out at the start of the final stage of the weekend., Cool Rider. This is the shortest stage of the weekend so is unlikely to affect the standings too much but a loss of concentration here could definitely ruin a rider's weekend.
What Happened at the Last Round
With Martin Maes' suspension hanging over the pits, Richie Rude made a winning return in the men's field with Sam Hill seemingly back on form in second on his new bike. Florian Nicolai secured his new-found spot at the top of the overall with third.
Isabeau Courdurier is now halfway to a perfect season having won four from four so far this year. Andreane Lanthier Nadeau earned her best ever result with a second and Noga Korem took third.
Results
Elite Men:
1st. Richie Rude: 35:28.350
2nd. Sam Hill: 35:47.310
3rd. Florian Nicolai: 35:53.990
4th. Ed Masters: 36:07.890
5th. Dimitri Tordo: 36:29.150
Elite Women:
1st. Isabeau Courdurier: 40:56.040
2nd. Andreane Lanthier Nadeau: 41:30.550
3rd. Noga Korem: 41:47.160
4th. Melanie Pugin: 41:55.410
5th. Morgane Charre: 42:47.840
See the full results here.
Dimitri gritted it out to take his best result of the year in 5th.
The Standings
MEN
1st // Florian Nicolai // FRA // 1740
2nd // Sam Hill // AUS // 1520
3rd // Ed Masters // NZL // 1460
4th // Kevin Miquel // FRA // 1450
5th // Dimitri Tordo // FRA // 1390
6th= // Keegan Wright // NZL // 1355
6th= // Remi Gauvin // CAN // 1355
8th // Robin Wallner // SWE // 1250
9th // Jesse Melamed // CAN // 1210
10th // Wyn Masters // NZL // 1205
1st // Florian Nicolai // FRA // 1740
2nd // Sam Hill // AUS // 1520
3rd // Ed Masters // NZL // 1460
4th // Kevin Miquel // FRA // 1450
5th // Dimitri Tordo // FRA // 1390
6th= // Keegan Wright // NZL // 1355
6th= // Remi Gauvin // CAN // 1355
8th // Robin Wallner // SWE // 1250
9th // Jesse Melamed // CAN // 1210
10th // Wyn Masters // NZL // 1205
WOMEN
1st // Isabeau Courdurier // FRA // 2160
2nd // Noga Korem // ISR // 1620
3rd // Morgane Charre // FRA // 1400
4th // Andreane Lanthier Nadeau // CAN // 1250
5th // Bex Baraona // GBR // 1020
6th // Ella Conolly // GBR // 945
7th // Anita Gehrig // SUI // 840
8th // Becky Cook // GBR // 825
9th // Rae Morrison // NZL // 675
10th // Melanie Pugin // FRA // 625
1st // Isabeau Courdurier // FRA // 2160
2nd // Noga Korem // ISR // 1620
3rd // Morgane Charre // FRA // 1400
4th // Andreane Lanthier Nadeau // CAN // 1250
5th // Bex Baraona // GBR // 1020
6th // Ella Conolly // GBR // 945
7th // Anita Gehrig // SUI // 840
8th // Becky Cook // GBR // 825
9th // Rae Morrison // NZL // 675
10th // Melanie Pugin // FRA // 625
Weather Forecast
It's a hot one in France but with a chance of rain for this weekend's race.
Image Credit: Richard Bord - shot at European Continental Enduro Series 2018 - Les Orres
Thursday, July 4 - Practice Stage 1, 2, 3, 4
Periods of clouds and sunshine, a couple of showers and a thunderstorm // 22°C // 60% precipitation // wind 9km/h
Friday, July 5 - Practice Stage 5, 6, 7, 8
Partly sunny, a thunderstorm around from late morning on // 25°C // 51% precipitation // wind 7km/h
Saturday, July 6 - Race Day 1: Stage 1, 2, 3, 4
Intervals of clouds and sunshine; very warm // 27°C // 25% precipitation // wind 9km/h
Sunday, July 7 - Race Day 2: Stage 5, 6, 7, 8
Times of clouds and sun, a couple of showers and a thunderstorm // 25°C // 62% precipitation // wind 9km/h
Weather forecast from Accuweather as of July 3.
Periods of clouds and sunshine, a couple of showers and a thunderstorm // 22°C // 60% precipitation // wind 9km/h
Friday, July 5 - Practice Stage 5, 6, 7, 8
Partly sunny, a thunderstorm around from late morning on // 25°C // 51% precipitation // wind 7km/h
Saturday, July 6 - Race Day 1: Stage 1, 2, 3, 4
Intervals of clouds and sunshine; very warm // 27°C // 25% precipitation // wind 9km/h
Sunday, July 7 - Race Day 2: Stage 5, 6, 7, 8
Times of clouds and sun, a couple of showers and a thunderstorm // 25°C // 62% precipitation // wind 9km/h
Weather forecast from Accuweather as of July 3.
The Schedule
Image Credit: Kike Abelleira, shot at 2017 French Enduro Series Round 5, Les Orres
Thursday, July 4
• 11:00-13:30 Stage 1 Training
• 11:45-14:00 Stage 2 Training
• 12:30-15:00 Stage 3 Training
• 13:45-16:15 Stage 4 Training
Friday, July 5
• 11:00-13:30 Stage 5 Training
• 12:30-15:00 Stage 6 Training
• 13:00-15:30 Stage 7 Training
• 13:30-16:15 Stage 8 Training
Saturday, July 6
• 8:30-17:00 Race (Stages 1-4)
• 18:00 Awards
Sunday, July 7
• 8:30-17:00 Race (Stages 5-8 )
• 18:00 Awards
Note: All times are local and subject to change by the event organizer.
Follow Along
Image Credit: Kike Abelleira, shot at 2017 French Enduro Series Round 5, Les Orres
Pinkbike will be providing you with the best daily coverage from our team in Les Orres, France this week. Tune in to Pinkbike to catch photo epics, videos and results from practice and race day, as well as tech bits and news.
Following the Enduro World Series live can be a struggle with remote stages and hundreds of riders tackling trails at the same time. We're lucky to have Polygon rider Dan Wolfe bringing you behind the scenes action from each round LIVE through the Pinkbike Instagram stories this year. Find what's going down on course during training and race day through our Instagram. Be sure to follow @pinkbike to keep up with the action.
Pinkbike Predictions
 | The venue looks to be pretty similar to last week and there's not much that can change in a week so we expect the fastest riders in both fields to be right up there again. In the men's series, Sam Hill has been getting better and better each week and the next step for him is to get back into that winning groove this weekend. He won in La Thuile last year in similar terrain and it has been too long since we saw him at the top. Richie Rude is obviously carrying pace at the moment so expect him to do well as well. For third place I've gone for Ed Masters, he's having a great season and is missing the downhill to be here in Les Orres so has plenty of motivation to aim for the podium to back up the one he got in La Thuie a year ago. On the women's side, Isabeau Courdurier has an extremely healthy lead in the overall and will now be turning her attention to a perfect season, that means going all out for the wins. I think her streak is going to continue and we'll see her notch up number 5 this weekend. Noga Korem seems to be the most consistent of the rest of the women but really places 2-7 seem to be anyone's this year. It's going to be fascinating to see who will step up and grab the podium spots this weekend. |
ELITE MEN
1 // Sam HILL
2 // Richie RUDE
3 // Ed MASTERS
1 // Sam HILL
2 // Richie RUDE
3 // Ed MASTERS
ELITE WOMEN
1 // Isabeau COURDURIER
2 // Noga KOREM
3 // Andreane LANTHIER NADEAU
1 // Isabeau COURDURIER
2 // Noga KOREM
3 // Andreane LANTHIER NADEAU
Fantasy League
Don't forget to complete your EWS Fantasy team before the race starts on Saturday. If you don't know who to pick, check the Start List . There are prizes for each round, so if you haven't already, make sure to build your team today! If you've already got a team in the mix you're in the running to win the Grand Prize, so visit the Fantasy homepage to make sure you have the fastest team possible for Round 5.
The Fantasy Enduro League is Presented by Shimano.
MENTIONS: @shimano
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That said this season has had races that are a lot shorter than other years. I remember EWS Corral being 100km with no lifts/ trucks. Rotorua was 63 I believe. Maybe they are trying to make it easier for the non-pro racers.
Maybe the best would be a season with varied rounds, some very long and physical rounds and some others like the ones this season has.
@whitehonky @stevemokan @P-Munari
I do not know this little ski village, but obviously they paid a lot to get an ews event to compensate the lack of snow in winter. Such a pity.
But i think Sam will take it home after feeling comfortable on the new prototype 29er Mega now!