Wild & Reckless - Enduro World Series Millau, France Practice - Mountain Biking Pictures

View as: Slideshow | One Page

Round five sees the EWS land in France. For the first time, the EWS join s forces with the Natural Games, a celebration of adventure sports including climbing, kayaking and paragliding. Located in the south of the country, Millau offers offer exciting racing on rocky, natural, ancient and technical trails that typify the riding style of the region.

Riders got one practice run on each stage to keep things natural and as close to the French Enduro style of blind racing as possible. The race features two days of battle across eight stages.

Tracy Moseley with the proper technique for a tight, awkward corners on a much drier and hotter media recce day. -Sven Martin

The stages suit Jerome and he knows what needs to be done. Can he snag another podium, this weekend? I feel this will be a round where even a win is within reach. -Sven Martin

The Santa Cruz crew are well-looked-after by Allan Cooke, who does a lot more than just massive whips. -Sven Martin

Rae Morrison getting to grips with the slip and grip of the loose fine rocks and dirt. She rode this out like a boss. -Sven Martin

Damien Oton not too far away from home hovering over some awesome natural trail features. -Sven Martin

Jared Graves on the awkward stage four. Full of tight, steep switchback turns with a bit of greasy dirt between sections. -Sven Martin

Smart money is on Cecile Ravanel this weekend. The course is wild, awkward and French- her cup of tea. -Sven Martin

Theo Galy has won this event in the past. He's also on something new from Devinci. Notice the different shock layout, Metric shock and room for a in frame water bottle. <br />
Weagle Split Pivot, too. -Sven Martin

Francois Bailly-Maitre loving the natural flow you can find in this French style race. Wall-riding around the bomb hole. -Sven Martin

McKay with a long way to drop to the valley floor and stage finish in sight below. -Sven Martin

Katy Winton has the right mental approach and positivity to tackle this big two-day race. -Sven Martin

Richie Rude has looked fast in places but also frustrated. The key here may be to not ride too fast for what the track allows, which is usually not Richie's style. -Sven Martin

Josh Carlson on the flat-out, fast stage two. Wide, rough and fast straights into tight turns will keep riders on their toes. -Sven Martin

Ines Thoma fresh off a Trans-Provence win. That race is also wild, natural and awkward at times. Perfect prep for this round. -Sven Martin

Remi Gauvin on stage two, a fast straight-forward rollercoaster to the valley floor. -Sven Martin

Josh Lewis keeping things alternative and fun out there in practice. Natural jibbing, EWS style. -Sven Martin

Iago Garay leans one over an an awkward hip, first run blind. The SCB boys don't walk the course but they get trail feature tips from loud shouting photographers. -Sven Martin

Ludo May on the tight, natural stage three which, although a short stage, could decide the race. Not from a stage win but from a stage disaster. -Sven Martin

Some struggled to thread the small channel between the rocks. Mark Scott ignored the gap and sent the lump and bump instead. -Sven Martin

Isabeau Courdurier has been ill the last few weeks. Hopefully she has regained enough strength to battle for the next two long days. -Sven Martin

We have had probably twenty different rain showers during each day of practice. Rain one minute and sunny the next. After a week-long heat wave, the EWS has come to town to please the farmers. -Sven Martin

Some things just arn't meant to be, no matter what country you are from. -Sven Martin

Justin Leov not afraid to send it to flat, full gas. -Sven Martin

Stage eight has some great natural flow and obstacles galore. There is this drop to flat that is rollable, but only at a snails place. The chin bars on the full face helmets were put to good use today. So were the fork seals. -Sven Martin

Liaisons are going to be long and tough tomorrow and then long, tough and wet on Saturday. -Sven Martin

This stop of the EWS is part of the bigger Natural Games festival. Some spectators took it a bit too literally. #tucked -Sven Martin

I'm betting Sam Hill will win stage three. Maybe the whole race. Flat pedals will come into play on the steeps linking the greasy switchbacks. -Sven Martin

Ludo May streaking. -Sven Martin

The Gehrigs, perfect training partners each constantly pushing the other. -Sven Martin

The famous Millau Viaduct looms large over the race area. Once the world's highest bridge, it stands at 343m tall and 2.5km long. Similar start to some of the race stages. -Sven Martin

Large Griffon vultures ride the thermals between rain squalls looking for the weak, frail and faint of heart. -Sven Martin

No longer the wild card for the win. This year he has quickly become the favorite for the win. The young Frenchman, Adrien Dailly, is sitting in third in the GC but has won the most stages this year. -Sven Martin

Marco Osbourne growing up, wising up and speeding up all at the same time. -Sven Martin

Loui Harvey from Nelson NZ stoked to take a year off from teaching and professional Rugby to give the EWS series a full go. So great to see so many competitors from so many countries traveling the world living their dreams. -Sven Martin

Riders meeting before all the racing kicks off tomorrow. Riders liking the single practice run format. Single runs to preserve the natural trails, keep it fair between amateurs and pros and also respect the French style of Enduro format as close to blind and natural as possible. Stay tuned for the action! -Sven Martin