Who Can Win the Overall Title - EWS Zermatt?
After 44 stages in 7 races on 3 continents, it's all going to come down to one day of racing in the Swiss Alps to decide the fastest enduro racer in the world. While Isabeau Courdurier has already wrapped up her overall in emphatic style, the men's race remains wide open with Nicolai and Hill currently the hot favourites. Let's crunch some numbers and see who needs to do what to win the title.
Elite Men:
Mathematically, anyone down to Remi Gauvin could still win the EWS overall with a perfect weekend but it would require disasters for the two front runners, Sam Hill and Florian Nicolai. Barring race-ending mechanicals or crashes, it's likely that one of these two men will lift the overall crown on Saturday.
At the moment, Sam Hill has 2740 points while Nicolai sits 60 ahead on 2800. The form is probably with Sam Hill, who finished 2nd in Whistler and Northstar (compared to Nicolai's 9th and 14th) but Nicolai will be in more familiar terrain in the high Alps and can definitely expect a good result.
One thing to note is that Nicolai must end the season on more points than Sam. If they tie then Sam will take the title as he will have had the best result at the final round, which is how the title is decided according to Section 9.1 of the EWS rulebook.
If neither rider wins the Queen stage, here's the equation:
· If Hill finishes 1st, Nicolai must finish 2nd
· If Hill finishes 2nd, Nicolai must finish at least 4th
· If Hill finishes 3rd, Nicolai must finish at least 7th
· If Hill finishes 4th or lower, Nicolai must finish within 5 positions of him.
· If Hill finishes 2nd, Nicolai must finish at least 4th
· If Hill finishes 3rd, Nicolai must finish at least 7th
· If Hill finishes 4th or lower, Nicolai must finish within 5 positions of him.
There's one curveball that Zermatt could throw into the mix though, the Queen stage. If either rider wins this they will be granted a bonus 40 points in the overall. Zermatt's Queen stage is the very last one of the race so we won't know who was won the overall until the very last rider of the weekend. Neither rider has won a Queen Stage all year but given it could happen, here are the updated sums:
If Hill wins the Queen Stage:
· If Hill finishes 1st, Nicolai cannot win
· If Hill finishes 2nd, Nicolai must win
· If Hill finishes 3rd, Nicolai must finish 2nd or 1st.
· If Hill finishes 4th or lower, Nicolai must finish within 1 position of him.
· If Hill finishes 1st, Nicolai cannot win
· If Hill finishes 2nd, Nicolai must win
· If Hill finishes 3rd, Nicolai must finish 2nd or 1st.
· If Hill finishes 4th or lower, Nicolai must finish within 1 position of him.
If Nicolai wins the Queen Stage:
· If Hill finishes 1st, Nicolai must finish at least 3rd
· If Hill finishes 2nd, Nicolai must finish at least 8th
· If Hill finishes 3rd, Nicolai must finish at least 11th
· If Hill finishes 4th or lower, Nicolai must finish within 9 positions of him.
· If Hill finishes 1st, Nicolai must finish at least 3rd
· If Hill finishes 2nd, Nicolai must finish at least 8th
· If Hill finishes 3rd, Nicolai must finish at least 11th
· If Hill finishes 4th or lower, Nicolai must finish within 9 positions of him.
Other competitions:
Elite Women
Courdurier already has her title sewn up and now has her eyes set on completing a perfect season. Who would bet against her now?
Under 21 Men
It's pretty much all sewn up for Antoine Vidal in the Under 21 men's race. The only way he loses now is if he scores no points for the weekend and New Zealand's Brady Stone wins the race and the Queen Stage.
Under 21 Women
Leah Maunsell. Photo: Caleb Smith
Canada's Lucy Schick is most likely to take the title in Zermatt this weekend but can still be beaten by Ireland's Leah Maunsell. A sixth-place will guarantee the North American the title but if Leah doesn't win then Lucy will also win it by default.
Author Info:
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JK, I think USADA and all the anti-doping agencies should ban only the really “unfair” and or harmful ones. Masking agents - maybe.
In Maes case, that was total B.S., he should have been left alone due to circumstances and corroboration by those doctors that gave him that life-saving drug to help his antibiotics work better.
Cannabis should not be considered as something giving anyone an advantage except for calming one’s nerves, and likely the rider would probably have used it a few days or week prior to the race.
agreed. and if we wanted to go through the useless exercise of classifying banned substances, it's not like he was on EPO, HGH, blood doping, etc. Not saying higenamine and oxilofrine don't have their advantages but as an armchair pharmacist it seems minor... also he came back as strong as ever and is kicking ass. i don't think there's any way he'd risk his entire career especially now that (i assume) he's going to be tested even more often.
indeed. the whole premise is that you take a fast privateer and give him/her more support and see what happens. to not wrap things up would be chickensh*t. not that we're owed anything. I'll bet we get another episode out of this season tho and i've enjoyed the series and appreciate the work that goes into it.
it would be great to have the series continue and choose a new privateer for next year. not a slight on Adam, he's gotten two years of support that other privateers haven't now, but let's move on... maybe grab a fast lady who's nipping at the heels of the sponsored riders. +10 for someone with good camera presence. I'd bet sponsors would be jumping at the chance for some positive publicity.