Are there any highlights for you?
Yes, Whistler for me was amazing.
Which one in particular? I mean, stage 5 was amazing wasn’t it?Stage 5 was from ‘Top of the World’. I think I prefer ‘Khyber – Stage 1’. It was more natural. When we were lost in the forest, not in a Bike Park, the racing was a bit more adventurous. I love this. We had to go for four stages without assistance. You need to bring everything you need, be careful not to break anything. Here or in France, it’s easier. You go flat out, you have a puncture, you go back to the pits, you can fix it quickly. But in Whistler if you broke your cable you had to change it by yourself. If you smashed your derailleur, you had to do three stages singlespeed.
Stage 5 here in Finale was bonkers. Amazing?For me, it was like a videogame. Non–stop. You just keep turning “wow, wow!” and you keep the flow. The beginning was in the woods with flowy turns, some roots, then at the bottom in the canyon with roots.
There’s all the crowd shouting…Yes, it was amazing this year. Especially here. So many people on the side of the track. It’s crazy. I really see the similarities from car rally driving. You can see people going walking, going stage to stage.
There were people in the track in some places.Yes, when I was the first going down there were some people walking on the trail. When they heard me coming they were just running and jumping to the side. Same with the photographers… behind bushes, taking lines and just missing them. It’s kind of exciting. Before we were just racing by ourselves in the forest, now there are people coming out and cheering. It is exciting.
On a more serious level, what kind of lessons do you think Enduro will have learnt from this year?That there is a lot to do with it. There is a lot of potential. We made the next step this year with the World Series. It brings the sport to another level; for the riders, for the people that follow and for the brands around.
It was not a perfect year, for sure. There were a lot of small mistakes. But I think these mistakes will help next year, help to take big decisions, to make good rules that everybody understands, rules that will be the same throughout the series. We now know what we like and what we don’t like from each of the different race formats/rules, so we can take the best.
So you don’t think it matters if there are different organisers with their different philosophies of what an Enduro race is?Yes, we see this year the philosophies were different. Enduro was growing in each country. If you look at line choice and the taping of the course, in Europe you get tape. If there is no tape, you can go where you want between the tape. In the US, even if there is a trail and no tape, you stay on the trail. This is the way they do. So I think for the future we should find a way where we all stay on the trail. For me, it’s the best.
Without tape?Yes. Also, the taping should be done in a way that is clear, with no place for interpretation.
There are different ideas on this. There’s much more trail respect in the US, I think.Yes, it’s a philosophy. I think in France we got this from the motorbike (moto enduro) and this is free. In the US, it’s more respecting the trail. They have more environmental stuff.
That’s quite a big challenge though.I think they should just find a good balance. So the rider knows they have to stay on the trail, and the organisation should put tape in a good way so there is no cutting of the track.
The thing is, when you’re racing, and you’re in that mind–set, you are making decisions really quickly, tape or no tape. Surely if there’s no tape you’re going to go for those different lines. It doesn’t matter?Yes. So that means you don’t have to tape everything, you just put gates like they do in some races. You don’t have to put a kilometre of tape. Just gates, so you have to go through the gate. I don’t think riders are cheaters. They’re just using the rules.
You just have to make decisions really quickly.
Yes. If you see a mark, you race against the clock, you have to go around it.
Do you think maybe they should have split times in the future between the stages?That would be nice.>>
