2025 EDR #1 - Pietra Ligure

It will be fantastic if she becomes, “the voice” of EDR for the beginning of the season. It feels as though the riders all like her, and she has the experience to talk about what is going on throughout the race. I am cited to see how she progresses through her season.  When peanut comes along, maybe someone will help,and pick up the torch if the are recovering from something along the way, or do a guest spot with her. 

This could be very good for Enduro. 

Pit bits from Pietra Ligure: https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/pit-bits-pietra-ligure-edr-world-cup-2025.

Thata great coverage from practice. I'm encouraged!!

Day one results:

Stage One Men

Stage Two Men

Stage Three Men

Men's Overall After Three Stages

Stage One Women

Stage Two Women

Stage Three Women

Women's Overall After Three Stages

Junior Men's Overall After Three Stages

Junior Women's Overall After Three Stages

Stay tuned for more as the race concludes with four more stages tomorrow!

Kudos to irish legend Greg Callaghan. He is the only rider still compiting that was on the first ever race back in May 2013 in Punta Ala. At the end of past year he was also the one with most races finished on EWS/EDR history. Isabeau was close and now that she is not racing, Greg stands alone as the one that has seen "all". Good to see him on top 

Hup the parish. 

Heh is the gates prize just for dh?  

Real talk tho, what is Hattie racing on?  I thought gamux was only a dh sled?

Could be this? 

@cameron.hoefer that would make sense.  I know other companies have messed around with just doing a new link to convert to an enduro bike.  That’s rad though if they are going to use her and the ion team for prototyping 

Spoiler alert:

Don't read this shit if you're trying not to spoil results.

Seriously.

I'm not joking.

Last chance.

Fine. Whatever, man.

...that bike seems to working well for her, too! I'm not sure what the story is. It seems like Hattie just rips and knows how to go faster than other people. We'll have to see what happens on day 2 of Pietra but she's in a pretty good position, I think.

Sidebar: I don't think it has anything to do with the gearbox thing; she was fast as shit before. I DO wonder, though, how much riding way more downhill has raised her upper limit of comfortable trail speed. I imagine pushing yourself to go faster than you had been previously on nearly every run all the time during her training for downhill translates to the "riding smart" speed - as is the nature of Enduro - being raised a little, too.

Full action recap from day 1 of racing - pretty sick highlights package with all the on-track action and trackside reactions you could ask for!

not available in NZ. dont tell me i gotta VPN to watch race highlights lol

FWIW I rode my SJ15 all last week around Finale/Pietra with my friend/local guide, Jordan Newth, who rides an enduro full-time, and we chatted a lot about what bike is best for the area. The trails are rough and long enough to warrant an enduro bike/bigger fork and shock some of the time. However, they generally aren't that steep, and you rarely have long sections where you can really open it up. There are plenty of tight, slow descents that make having a smaller/lighter bike appealing. Not to mention how much climbing is available if you're willing to pedaling vs. shuttling.

Jordan rides the enduro because he guides 6 days a week and needs a bike that overall is capable and won't beat him up. But if the goal is holding a high average speed, and you have the ability to hang on to a smaller/more efficient bike, it would totally make sense to ride a bike like the Stumpy in Finale/Peitra. 

I had my bike built with a Lyrik, downhill tires, and enduro wheels. If I was racing, I would have tossed on a Zeb but lowered it to 160mm, probably an Ochian to keep my feet from bouncing around, and maybe a burlier shock. *I haven't ridden the SJ15 very much with other shocks than the Genie, so I'd have to do some testing to see if a different shock would be better. The Genie is pretty impressive, but doesn't give you many compressions adjustments which would be nice for adapting to different stages. 

TLDR a Stumpy or a similar 'trail bike' in Finale/Pietra makes sense to me considering the terrain and climbs. 

Onboard with Jacko for the first day of racing - 

Live timing for day 2 of racing - https://live.ucimtbworldseries.com 

The Nicolai should be heavy and slow to accelerate. She was on GMBN and talked about the Nicolai. She uses a 15 mm stem if i remember correctly, introduced to her by Reece W this year. She likes the high responsiveness and said she think she will benefit from it in tight corners. 

I think she's just a beast. As Sven Martin said on the Moving the needle podcast regarding what to expect from her this year. The transition to Enduro was a big leap for her, from Enduro to DH it's not as big a step.

https://youtu.be/gOg53i_68N8?si=prAyEMmfExxKDswa

Wow, that was a tight and eventful race indeed! Congrats to Dan Booker who secured his first ever EDR World Cup win with just 0.3 seconds to spare, and to Hattie Harnden who showed she is the one to beat at the moment in the women's field (she'll need all the speed she can muster as she gets set to take on the DH World Cup in earnest as well this season - starting next week in Poland).

Final race results:

Men

Women

Junior Men

Junior Women

It looks like Rudeau switched back to a standard Fox 38 instead of the USD fork that was shown in his instagram post. 

I wonder if he decided that the RSU fork rode better for Pietra, or if there was a mechanical of some sort and the Fox folks didn’t have the replacement parts they needed on hand?

0.3 seconds over 48 minutes of racing is 0.01 PERCENT difference in time, that is unbelievable. I cannot wait for the next rounds have in store.

isn‘t a fork a part that can‘t be swapped during a race without signficant time penalty?

After watching the recap from day one, it looks like Rudeau switched to a 36, so I guess the answer is that he we wanted a little less travel and a lighter fork. I can’t post the screenshot I took for some reason but you can see it pretty clearly at 14:45 in the recap video.

On another note, I’ve been really encouraged by the coverage so far this year! The practice highlights, and particularly the day one recap with interviews at the end of the day, feel like they do a much better job of capturing the vibe of the event than a lot of the more produced coverage of years past. I hope they keep going this direction and add to it. 

@Sspomer any chance that the Vital slideshows of old could make a return? Having the audio stitched in with them did a great job of telling the story of the event and I really miss them. 

I’m pretty sure he would have switched it before the race started. It only showed up in his kinda “promo” style instagram post. It’s linked on page one of this thread. 

Would love a detailed bike check for Hattie and how she maxes the pros/minimizes the cons of her setup (a super capable but heavy/less efficient bike for a race w/1500m climbing). 

Awesome race though, would've loved to have watched the final stage.

It’s wild how tight it is!

It’s great for Booker, but I can’t help but feel bad for Lukasik. That’s the second round that he’s missed the top step by less than half a second. Last year in Poland he was off by 0.095!

In both instances, that’s got to be just one tap of the brakes, one missed pedal stroke, or being an inch off line and clipping a rock that slows you down just the tiniest amount. It’s really kind of mind blowing! 

"Privateer" Booker wins on flats on an SC Bronson after taking the final stage. 

HH wins on belt driven gearbox alum monster of a bike. 

Fantastic and unbelievably close racing! 

We need a bike check on both of these bikes.

2 days of racing, long stages, riders wearing packs, crazy techy transfers, huge variety in bikes/gear. Glo would be proud!

Maybe there is hope?

Just need to work on the female entries. 4 racers in Jr women is not good.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the third Enduro World Cup event in a row won on flats: the last two ones were the World Champs in Val di Fassa won by Alex Rudeau and Loudenvielle won by Martin Maes who switched to flats especially for that race.

2nd (and final) day racing highlights:

It’s been a blast following the race!