5 Things We Learned from EDR World Cup Finale Ligure 2024 by sarahmoore - Pinkbike (2024)

1. It's really hard to find the sweet spot when designing an enduro race course.

Finale Ligure had Crankzilla 2014 vibes with tight transfer times that made just getting to the top of each stage a struggle for many riders. In addition to tight times between the stages, it was a hot day, which added to the challenge.

After a flat on Stage 1, Evan Wall said that the effort to make it up to Stage 2 with the tight transition time after putting a tube in meant that he wasn't able to fuel properly and "left me with brutal cramps and fatigue that I wasn’t able to recover from for the rest of the day." Helping your fellow racers with their mechanicals has always felt like part of the spirit of enduro racing, but with tight liasion times, it's not something that can happen. Even without a mechanical, Remi Gauvin said that it was "one of the biggest fitness races we have ever had in my opinion." Even Matthew Fairbrother, a glutton for punishment, said that it was "a savage race, full gas from start to finish, liaisons were tight, stages were pedally, combined with the heat made for a good battle all day long. Loved it and hated it."

Women's race winner Harriet Harnden said that she much prefers "dropping into a stage when my muscles are still warm from the climb. Rather than waiting, getting cold and having to put a max effort out on the stage from cold," but it's worth keeping in mind that she used to be a cross-country racer.

None of the other women seemed to feel similarly, with Isabeau Courdurier saying that "it was the most physical day we had in a while and at one point it felt like an enduro marathon where you can’t even stop to properly feed yourself." Women's 3rd place finisher Ella Connolly said she "raced up to get to the stages on time then tried to do something that resembled racing on the way down" while 5th place finisher Rae Morrison called it an "absolute savage day out with long stages, tight liaisons, the heat, and a crash".

On the other side, we've had races in the past couple of years where riders have said that the days aren't long or physical enough. In 2015, the year after the infamous Crankzilla, we saw lots of lift access at the Whistler round, before a middle ground was found in 2016. Treading that line between an adventure and a gruelling XC marathon on long-travel bikes is a fine balance.

In this case, the race was too challenging, with 14/98 (14.3%) of elite men not finishing the race and 9/31 (29%) of elite women DNF. For comparison, last year at the same venue, only 5% of men DNFed and 8.1% of women.

2. A rider in their prime is a rider in their prime, regardless of what discipline they race in.

Despite what some might have said in the past, that enduro is the category of racing that downhillers go to once they're done with downhill, the average year of birth of the podium for the top 10 in enduro and downhill is almost the same. The average year of birth of the top 10 Elite Men in Fort William was 1995, which is only a year off what it was in Finale Ligure at 1994. If we compare that to the XC side, which you might think would be older, the top-10 in the men's category at the last World Cup in Araxa had an average age of birth of 1995.

For the women, the average year of birth of the top 10 enduro racers was 1994, while in Fort William at the first downhill round, riders were four years younger on average in the top ten with the average year of birth at 1998. The XC riders at the last round in Araxa were closer to the same age as the enduro riders, with 1995 being the average year of birth of the top 10 Elite women.

So do they go to E-EDR now then? Well, guess what, while the oldest riders of the spread might be in the E-EDR category, the average year of birth of the top 10 Elite men racing eMTB is still 1995. There were only seven women in the E-EDR category, with that having the oldest average age at 1991.

3. Hattie Harnden is only the second non-French female rider to win in Finale Ligure.

While on the men's side, we've seen French, Canadian, Australian, American, and French winners in Finale Ligure in the past nine years we've seen racing on the Italian hillside, on the women's side, the race has been won by French women in seven of the past ten years. Now however, Harriet Harnden is the second British rider to defeat the French in Finale Ligure after Tracey Moseley did so in 2013 and 2015.

However, despite the French women's dominance in Finale Ligure, Isabeau Courdurier has still never won in Finale Ligure. While she's won the overall three times and has countless wins, she missed out on yet another win at the famed venue with her second place. She announced in the press conference before the race that she'll be sitting out the 2025 season to start a family, but hopefully the desire to finally taste victory in Finale Ligure be enough to bring her back between the race tape.

4. The YT Mob enduro squad can't catch a break.

Jack Moir broke his hand during a training ride in February 2023 and then washed out during practice ahead of the Finale Ligure round this year and was forced to sit the race out since he didn't have the grip strength to hold onto the handlebars. His teammate Kasper Woolley injured his spleen during a training ride in March 2023.

Three injuries since March of 2023 is a lot for a team of three (Moir and Woolley are joined by Christian Textor on the team) in under a year and we hope to see all the riders fit and healthy for the rest of the season.

5. There's a big local's advantage in enduro racing.

Unlike downhill, where riders race the same tracks year after year and get ample time to memorize every line on one track, you get very limited time to practice in enduro and the trails that are a part of the race course each year change a huge amount. While there's still the boost of the home crowd in downhill, being a local to an area and knowing every trail on Trailforks makes a much bigger difference in enduro racing.

We've seen it before with Marcelo Gutierrez taking second at EWS Manizales in Colombia in 2018, a third place for Ines Graham in the Tweed Valley in 2022, and even Pinkbike's own Christina Chappetta taking 6th place at EWS Whistler in 2018, to name a few.

At Finale Ligure, Italian champion Mirco Vendemmia finished an impressive fourth in the elite men's category riding for WeRide Exept Factory team. His best Elite result before this year outside of Italy was a respectable 21st, but last year he finished, 56, 49, 13 (in Finale Ligure), 34, 34 and DNFed twice.

Other facts:
• Despite a foot injury just a month ago, there was no slowing down a charging Hattie Harnden as she went eight seconds faster than 2023 series champion Isabeau Coudurier.
• Tracy Moseley podiumed in the Finale Ligure EWS in 2013 and 2015 and is still racing in 2024 in the E-EDR, with a second place finish this past weekend.
• EDR and E-EDR are on separate days, but since they share a highlights video, it means an extra day of waiting for the race highlights.
• Stage 4 was cancelled due to an incident on the Rocche Gianche course.
• It's as hard as ever to follow the live timing.
• Greg Callaghan got 7th in his first EDR as privateer, one of his best results in a while.