The Super Enduro is a six–event Italian race series that concluded its fourth season late last year. 2011 ended on a high with the biggest turn out for a single race yet, as 450 riders descended on the town of Finale Ligure in northern Italy to do battle on one of the most demanding courses to date. With a stacked field, industry support and a UCI presence, the event not only completed a great year for Enduro racing, but also marked the beginning of the next chapter for the format; the world stage…
From Dirt Issue 120 – February 2012
Words by James McKnight. Photos by Christoph Laue.
DOWN BY THE MEDThe stunning Mediterranean town of Finale Ligure is synonymous with European cycling, attracting nearly 15,000 mountain bike tourists per year alone and providing some of the best year–round singletrack riding in the continent. Epic forests spread back from the coastal hills and disappear into the Maritime Alps, hiding in their midst a huge and ever–expanding network of top quality technical riding.
For the Super Enduro finals the organisation made a special effort to end the season on a good note and went out of their way to provide top–notch facilities and a challenging course. The series’ format puts official practise on Saturday and the five timed stages on Sunday; with no uplifts available competitors must ride between each stage. A selection of rocky, unforgiving seaside trails and smooth forest singletracks were used to demonstrate the huge variety of riding around the town and its hills, resulting in long transfer stages (the connecting roads/climbs in–between timed stages) that made the entire ride length over 50km’s.
With practise on Saturday, riders had a big task on their hands; to make it around the entire circuit without blowing their energy for the following day. The way that many riders chose to attend to this issue was to practise in the week leading up to the event – some were uplifting the stages daily! Whether this is a good format I cannot say – perhaps a little difficult for the competitors who have to work in the week or travel from abroad, but open for all so therefore ‘fair’ in the rules.>>
