How would you save EDR/EWS/"World Cup" Enduro

those really big prize checks. 

The format that was in place 3-4 years ago. Doesn’t need to be live, just good quality track previews, when Rick built hype about who was where in the standings etc, followed by a “how it went down” after show race that lasted 30 mins or so - I used to watch every one. I think splitting it back up over 2 days properly and ditch the queen stage idea. 

This combined with what Jack Moir recommended in the recent downtime podcast: reseed before the final stage and broadcast that live. Even it if is just the top 10. 

I always felt like EDR/EWS was never a great marketing vehicle in the form it had, and this isn't supposed to be a knock against the athletes in enduro but the riders most people look up to are in WC downhill so thats the one with a better chance to sell bikes for them. Its like they thought trail bikes were the bigger sellers so they needed racing on those bikes to drive the sales when it doesn't really matter, people will follow a brand but not really the exact model. Santa Cruz knew this from the get go and never went all in on Enduro like everybody else did, so they are still one of the top brands in that market but I would bet V10 sales are barely a blip because the DH program is there to sell Megatowers and Bronsons, not V10's. 

If they treated enduro as the racing it is and just tried to portray it properly then it might have had more success. You need to be able to watch the racing closely and see whats actually happening (like WRC) for people to really get in to it and appreciate it. What other sport exists where you can't really watch the actual action?

Can someone remind me what happened to the Vital slideshows with Sven Martin? Who was funding these and why did they stop?

@earleb i think our last year for EWS slideshows were 2019. it was never a matter of funding, it was a matter of viewer interest (or lack thereof) and the time it took to create them.

Don’t double up with WC DH races so you can give it the attention it deserves.  More diverse locations not just Europe and it former prison colony.  
 

 I don’t know I feel like it’s an afterthought compared to the rest of the UCI Mtb racing. 
 

Or just make it ebike only to put the final nail in coffin.  

I can only guess that its a combination of him and Anka having a kid recently, along with racing schedules being way more intense this year that he has had other priorities. Same probably goes for the other photogs, I imagine they have way more intense workloads during race week this year that those kinds of things fall by the wayside

is enduro on mtb really any different than world rally? the viewership for world rally has to be so small compared to f1. i don't ever see that changing and same would apply to enduro on a mountain bike.

the format of enduro alone prohibits anyone but a dedicated fan from really getting involved, ya know? it takes a lot of work to be a fan with multiple days and stages of racing and hard-to-read results sheets. i personally think constantly changing venues on a world stage is detrimental. i remember when ews first showed up, i thought finale ligure meant it was the last race LOL. i'm not from italy and didn't know finale was a destination. after a few years of consistency, the venue names became synonymous with track styles, but it took a while. if there's a new venue with an unfamiliar name every month (not just euro names, anywhere in the world, including U.S.), that makes a series tough to follow or identify.

with a "track race" (nascar or f1 or xc or downhill), it's easily understandable (holy crap, they go fast, first one or fastest one wins) and easily digestable (total race time is a couple hours or just watch top 3 runs or last 10 laps). at the same time, one can go into the weeds with stats, riders, bikes in a "track" format too.

side note: didn't everyone get mad when ews tried to make some shorter dh-race-like stages for easy viewing/broadcasting? they can't win.

They screwed the format though.  Who wants to watch stage one and sit around and wait for the results?

ews Whistler during crankworks was a good format with a few cameras showing the end of the final stage and live results and finish line interviews.

Sven and Boris are now working with James and the Misspent Summers crew. Haven’t seen any of their work on Vital all year. 

One of the key reasons the racers enjoyed racing EWS etc was the varied and new venues each season. Ex DH racers like Sam and Jared where over going to the same track like fort bill or leogang for the 10th year in a row and racing the same 2m wide patch of dirt and rocks. 

Finale Ligure has been an European MTB riding Mecca for decades. 

Agree that Enduro is closer to rally car racing and doesn’t lend its self to live racing so a 30 min highlight package works best. 

I would say 30-60 min would be best,  show some good highlights talk to riders.  
 

wait I know how to save it,  Have Rob and Elliot do their show about the enduro too.  😂

I agree, the Whistler EWS always did a good job of livestreaming and hyping up the crowd for the last 10-20 riders on the final stage. It felt like a World Cup at the bottom. I also disagree with Spomer, because I think the constant change in venues was one of the best things about being an Enduro fan. In DH, all the athletes grouse about the same old track, year after year, but in Enduro it was always a curiosity for me where the next race would be- where even is Petzen and Jamnica, where's Loudenville, etc? I tuned in to see the spectacle. Watching EDR riders on more of the same beat-up Austrian bike park trails near Leogang every year is not a compelling story.

To be fair I think that doubling up can work if it's done right. Both DH and EDR riders were keen on the tracks at Loudenvielle, and the same again now at Les Gets/Chatel. 

The issue, as ever, is coverage. It does seem like that has dipped a bit this year but as everyone says it's more WRC than F1, and even with the budgets in WRC they still don't have live coverage, or delayed broadcast coverage of every inch of stages. 

On the note about "only" being in Aus and Europe this year, if they had a full global calendar I'm willing to bet it would be a lot more than just Ibis, GT, and Devinci pulling out next year. They don't have the budget for relatively compact Euro-centric logistics, so how would that work if they were on 3 or 4 continents vs. 2? 

People blaming Ibis and co. pulling out on the UCI "killing the sport" is laughable. The industry is screwed at the moment, and racing isn't key to doing business but is a massive cost for them. 

Most brands are having to cut their margins and sell bikes with big discounts to get stock moving, so per bike they're making less. That means having to sell even more bikes to try and cover the costs for your race team, and realistically how much marketing boost do you really get when your riders are placing 10-30th in the EDR? Outside the big names and those with vlogs/YT subscribers I can't imagine most riders are really driving sales that much. 

As far as improving enduro goes:

- Pick a format and stick with it, rather than doing a new format change every year. Since 2020, each year the format has altered. It doesn't need to. They have enough experience and feedback to know what is popular and feasible. 

- Get the basics right. Actually putting out previews, rider interviews, and proper highlights packages from each round, like they used to. Having your live timing actually work, like it used to. It's the same people running it, I don't really know why they seem to have forgotten everything they learned before. 

Given all of the incessant whining and generally unconstructive feedback scattered across various forum topics and comments sections this question has been on my mind a lot lately. Enduro brought me back from an almost 20 year hiatus from racing bikes and for the last 10+ years has been the catalyst for skill development, pushing myself athletically, traveling the world and expanding my comfort zone in so many ways. I've raced countless local enduros, a handful North American rounds of the EWS and multiple week long blind Trans style races - all as packfill in the vetex or masters class. All of that is to say I actually love this racing format and I remain a consumer of a lot of Enduro related content but am not blind to the challenges for the sport and MTB in general.

Before I start my diagnosis of the issues and offer potential solutions I want to add that given the current economics of the bike industry there is very little positive change likely to happen in the next couple of years and we should probably all settle in for some grim times for racing/coverage/team riders across all disciplines. If you want to do something immediate - support your preferred vendor by replacing some worn, or not so worn parts, convince a friend or loved one to get into the sport or take up bike commuting be an active and positive member of the community. As a industry insider it sucks to see your friends laid off.  
With that out of the way let’s go back in time a few years and start with what made Enduro the next big thing and how that was lost, assuming it was lost and we didn’t just get distracted by new shiny things. 

Part 1 - Enduro's Not Dead It Just Sucks Now. 

What happened to the stories? We, the media, the brands and organizers all stopped telling the stories of the events. You don't need a 30min YT video to explain who won the race. Most of us can read a results sheet. How was the race won/lost? Who helped who bang a dented rim back into place with a rock? Friends of mine became internet famous for Mcgyvering wheels back together and securing podiums ffs. Maybe the economics of telling stories have passed us by but I for one enjoyed every single one of the Vital slide shows produced, some more than once and welcome a day where that kind of story telling returns to our sport. 

Enduro was and is a participant sport. The inclusion of amateur level racers in the initial years of the EWS created a built in fan base and the move towards the UCI and more and more exclusivity over the years resulted in those hardcore fans felling less connected to the sport, in some cases jaded and potentially more negatively vocal towards current EWS media output.   

The allure of The Venue and Sick Tracks is at least in part related to the ability to tell the story and was a significant part of what cool about the EWS. If we have learned anything lately from some of the more vocal keyboard warriors it is that you can not tell the quality of a place from a shitty helmet cam. Even in HD. 

The last few years seem to have lost a consistency of the challenge. This was a core aspect of the glory days. The races are obviously still hard but these are professional racers that are not being tested to their potential.

Know your audience. Like any small niche group the media coming out of the early years made you feel like a part of the scene and not the audience.  

Internet people are just dicks now. Were we nicer then? Lower expectations? 

Part 2 in 5, 4 ,3, 2

I remember about 6 years ago now people were saying dh is dead and enduro is king.  And much like team robot said it came down to interesting venues people aspired to.  
 

it’s totally fine to do two years at a venue and have a couple venues as regular repeats.  Or to go back to a venue like Tasmania after time away.  
 

the other issue is it needs to be a format that excites racers and fans alike.  Madeira has how many kilometers of fantastic tracks. The amount of racing and bike time people got to go to one of the most remote places on the face of the earth is laughable.  Should’ve been 2 days practice and 2 days racing making the most of that area has to offer.  That’s the format of ews that was exciting to racers and fans alike.  

Part 2 - We are our only saviors 

By definition Enduro is a niche sport with a knowledgeable core fanbase. Lean into that and TELL THE F'N STORIES. This industry is full of creative, passionate people - Organizers need to enable them to do their thing and get out of the way. Hire Sleeper CO to produce a 3 part series in the style of Earthed. Ask Sven (or Sven 2.0 or whoever) to take some photos and talk to a few riders and put together a thing at each round and have it live on the event website. Send out a couple of skilled folks with dad cams and give the people the RAW flavor they crave and then do that 2 or 3 times an event. At the very least watch the Chatel practice vid and copy that every round. Focus the recap video on the stories and feel of what it is like to race an EDR and let the stage results and track outline be the filler. See Earthed. We will remember the rounds where someone fixed a wheel with a rock and a couple of zip ties and can always search roots and rain for results. Experiment with new tools or preferred media. Produce a podcast for each round AT each round and include the personalities involved in the actual racing while the race is still fresh in their mind. Put out race adjacent content in the off season to keep people engaged.  

Wherever possible allow for full amateur participation. In cycling sport strong amateur race participation is generally reflected by strong professional racing and organization - see the rise of gravel or events like Leadville for examples. Bring back the built in fanbase. If you are interested in the sport and have the means enter your local. If you don't race volunteer. The local series of today are likely to be the host organizations of the EDR future. 

Lean into classic venues with quality tracks and/or places that are actively trying to grow their MTB based tourism but seek out 1 or 2 new venues in interesting/romantic/exotic areas to add some spice for the riders and the stories. Support the venue and trail builders/organizations with fundraiser/expo space, industry trail day and pre/after race support. DO NOT leave the locals with blown trails and a bad taste. Tell the story of the venue and the tracks. Bring back video stage previews. 

Create a challenging race that tests the skill and fitness of the best while not making it a death march. This is tough while encouraging AM participation but, from experience, is doable and each venue will add unique challenges of place. 

Again - this is a niche audience of core enthusiasts. Don't dumb it down or spoon feed. Make content focused on the stories and feel of racing. Invite the audience to participate in racing. Create an official fantasy league.  

Stop being dicks. Building a version of OUR sport (not EDR specifically at this point) that we all want to be part of is a group effort and shit talking the people that are actually doing the work is probably the worst way to go at it. People read some of this shit (not this post WAY TOO LONG) and may get turned off from tuning into coverage or participating in an event because of some throwaway words in a comment section. So you think the tracks suck on some grainy YT video? No one cares, keep it to yourself. Think the cost of the local enduro series is too high? I totally understand but putting these events on is extremely expensive and takes a lot of effort and manpower to make happen. Have you tried volunteering instead of complaining on PB? I haven't and that sucks but I would imagine an organizer may be willing to comp an entry at a future event in exchange for a day of hard work.

Finding ROI in event marketing is a black art at best. What I will say is that a healthy market needs healthy racing at all levels and if there is excitement, engagement and participation the industry will support that effort. You know....if people start buying bikes again. If not we can all take up complaining about jogging. 

everyone in here is a diehard fan who embraces the exotic nature of racers going to unique places to race bikes and sample the culture. i think it's awesome, too, even if i didn't know what finale ligure was 10 years ago. i learned what it was and so many destinations were presented to my ignorant eyes as a result. brines, however, is asking how to save it at the world-class level. i still say consistent venues that become synonymous with the race format (enduro) are key. of course, add one or two new ones per season, but as much as people moan about fort william or leogang or mont-sainte-anne, those races generally have stronger viewership online and they have massive in-person crowds b/c they're recognizable and a staple of the region. i'd wager that's why whistler EWS was so popular, too. besides a one-day format (awesome, easy to follow), it's THE mountain bike destination and so many people can say "i've ridden that trail" in a stage.

Run it at the same place as DH world cups, but run the final stage down the same world Cup track right before elite finals!

Ha, I'd thought that about Finale, too. And the first time I saw Jamnica I thought, "oh cool, a race in Jamaica". I don't think it matters much if there's consistency in where the tracks are.

I'm probably the wrong person to ask, or maybe the right one, because I have no attention span for TV. I barely make it through watching top 30 in DH. I follow no sports besides WC DH and can't stand watching tv or movies. I'm useless for Nielsen ratings. But the suspense of the DH race is what I love. I enjoy watching the finals more when I've been able to watch the course previews, Raw, WynTV, and Cathro on the buildup over a few days before and have a sense of what's going on in the race and what to expect on the course and where runs might be make/break. And so what would hook a tv crowd I reckon is highlights from what's happened all week, rider thoughts on the track/venue, then the 15 best runs. Not necessarily the top 15, but the 15 most exciting.

Then, put some combo of Ben Cathro, Eliot Jackson, Tracy Hannah, Wyn in the booth and trackside as announcers (better yet, Rob/Nigel/beer). They have all done fabulously. Eliot in particular is an amazing combination of knowledge, detail, and excitement, and I reckon him and Tracy would be  Fine, whatever, keep Rob, but I don't know why the MTB internet is chewing on Cedric for interrupting when Rob was the king of interruption. I think Ric/Cedric are just as competent as Rob/Claudio were.

So I'd consider a watchable products to be  20-30 minutes of background, trackwalk, practice highlights, followed by 30-45 minutes of race runs.

I'm catching up on my YouTube queue and happen to be watching the Val di Fassa EDR highlights (30min video) right now. We have Ric giving the summary, same as the EWS era. For some reason they don't show stage results just cumulative times (which is important but stage results are cool to see). Can't put my finger on why, but I completely agree that the video summaries used to be a lot more captivating a couple years ago. I used to know who was leading the series, approx. point gaps etc. and look forward to coverage. Now I look at the results each race and then catch up on video summaries via Moi Moi and eventually the official highlights. Maybe it's just social media saturation, but coming into a round of EDR I'd have to go check who is leading, top 3 etc. in the series as I have no idea even though I follow Jesse and Jack fairly closely on social media.

DH I still watch every race same day, and while I dearly miss Rob Warner and co. in the booth, still really enjoy the coverage.

I can't highlight the right section of your quote, but Sven is doing exactly what you're talking about there, but for Misspent Summers. They're putting out little online zines/recaps every day from the DH and enduro World Cups, and Sven is interviewing riders which they're then posting on social media and possibly YouTube.

I imagine the reason this is happening through a small, independent publisher rather than ESO is that as Vital found the audience for photos is small compared to video. Video is king in terms of how people want to consume content, it's monetisable, it's arguably easier to produce, etc. - they only have so much media budget so I assume that's why they have their own in house video crew then they let others do more photo-forward coverage. 

Yes, Misspent is doing great work but what I’m getting at is a cohesive multi media narrative coming from a single source. In this case the media company that owns the rights to the series. I feel like what is lacking is a sense of community that was fostered in the earlier days of EWS. We felt like a part of the thing and now that is lost. Which was likely inevitable. After reflecting on my earlier long winded comments I think we save Enduro by not saving World Cup Enduro. Let EDR continue down the path of getting more niche and euro focused with increasing limited coverage to the point that it is more like marathon racing or cross country skiing than World Cup Downhill and then focus on/participate in stand alone events that can become iconic. This is pretty much the route of marathon, at least in North America and gravel is likely to further evolve into this model. 

In terms of iconic enduro events, we already have quite a few like the Trans Madeira, Stone King Rally, and events along those lines. Even just in the UK specifically we have a few stand-alone iconic events. 

In some ways I'm glad that the cool media is being put out by independent publishers. Misspent tell it how it is and get interesting articles, videos, photos, zines and books out without having to keep anyone sweet. Whenever the organising body puts out media it always feels like officially-sanctioned "fun" rather than actually fun stuff. 

There's a lot of independent media for EDR now, so I think we're pretty well covered in that regard, but the official video coverage does need to be better. I think I'd rather they focussed on that than trying to do a facsimile of what Misspent, Vital or someone else might be doing. 

that was golden era.. Ric would even interview weekend warriors,like myself ; )... Anyways.. I raced Chatel... and vibes were weird... organization is not as good as the golden years.. I guess more was demanded to the local organization.. not good communications.. but plenty of riders in open racing..we were joking that we all would need a battery to race next year ( ebikes were doing the same race except 1 additional stage I think).. The first 3 tracks were out of this world... unreal.. but this is local merit.. nothing to do with UCI/ESO.. 

Bring back EWS100! (surely that would increase the interest?)

Motorracing has shown that manufacturers do not make a successful series. F1 and Le Mans/WEC showed that. When you have private teams, them stopping racing means closing up the shop. They go through hell and high water to keep racing through sponsorships. When manufacturers come they either fail miserably (Toyota and Honda in F1) and pull out (Toyota, Honda, BMW in 2008/09) or achieve everything and call it quits as there is no more point in spending the money (Porsche in 2018-ish in WEC). And with manufacturers the costs spiraled to insane levels in motorsports due to a spending development war.

Only if you make the team a sound business it will be safe when it comes to bad times in the economy, which is shown by all the privateers that kept racing through the financial crisis in 08/09 and the following years. Or it has to really be worth it like for Mercedes that in the winning years apparently spent ~30 million € a year for the F1 team and supposedly got one or two orders of magnitude more worth from the program marketing wise. And the Mercedes team, while a factory team, is more or less a private team anyway as it's owned in one thirds by Mercedes, Toto Wolff (team principal) and Ineos, so Mercedes doesn't have a full stake in it.

So, TL;DR, would having proper private teams (like what Pivot and Specialized factory teams are in essence) solve the issue? That way the teams would have a bigger incentive to stay open even if the factory decides to drop the sponsorship. Outside sponsorship would help immensely as well in this regard... The current state of media coverage is a pain in that regard though.

It's up to the riders to make themselves relevant in the current market not up to the brands or the race series.

If a rider outside the top 5 doesn't have a strong social presence and a way to actually sell the product they use. They will be cut from their team or simply die a slow death on a brand that no one cares about.

The customer or consumer of MTB parts isn't into racing for the most part. So the racer needs to cross over from racing to reach the proper audience. Bobo sells more bikes a year vs 99% of any EDR rider. Richie is the only one who moves product from the USA. 

Cool thing is. You can still ride your bike every day. You don't need EDR or teams to keep you stoked. Just cool bikes and cool bike parts. Money helps too. This sport isn't for younger types who don't have solid paychecks. 

raw from chatel today just to bring a little enduro stoke

I believe open racing is a watered down ews100.. only one stage less for amateurs this past race in Chatel. No lack of participation..