Is Enduro “Too Hard” For The Wrong Reasons? | Pinkbike Weekly Show Ep. 25 

Wow, some really negative comments! Come on people, mountain bikers are supposed to be cool. To everyone involved (esp. Christina and Henry), I loved the show, and I feel super grateful to have such thoughtful and high quality content for FREE. Much love from Pennsylvania🤘

Isabeau sees the writing on the wall and suspects 2024 may be the last full season of EDR. Discovery has wrecked EWS/EDR with their absolutely awful coverage. I really wish Pinkbke or Red Bull would've gotten the media contract for the MTB world cups. PBs coverage of EWS was light years better than Discovery's, and Red Bull coverage of downhill was way better.

IMO pro Enduro racing should be hard. Tight liaisons is apart of Enduro racing and helps separate Enduro from downhill. Being able to decend aggressively while fatigued is a skill and more closely resembles a normal trail ride. Wasn't that the point of Enduro? To race bikes we actually want to ride on a daily occasion, unlike pure XC or DH bikes. Enduro is a great test bed for mountain bikes. The rules of racing can really push the direction of product development. Keeping the liaisons tight can help develop more or better bikes that fly uphill and still decend well. Just like how rule changes in F1 have steered the cars towards fuel efficiency.

All the penalties kind of signal that it was in fact too tight

In regards to enduro being hard. It's hard but in a different way than XC is. Even as a slow amateur, I did 1 big enduro and 1 XC race last year. The enduro was a harder day overall, you're doing big climbs over and over again even if you're not racing up them, and then you're 100% full gas over the entire race stage. The XC race was 90 minutes of hard effort in one go, but since you're racing the whole time, pacing is a thing so you're not full gas the entire time and there's strategy of saving your "matches" for when you need to drop big efforts.

My Silky Gomboy has served me well. More than a few downed small trees have been cleared during rides.

Good episode this one, enjoyed the content and like the format.

for enduro , i rather have them relax the liason and tighten the coverage

Have a folding saw, good stuff!!

The idea of Henry on an Orange makes me happy

Yes, it's supposed to be the hardest race but that doesn't mean an unresonable course organisation , especially in terms of the tight delays. You want them to be fit but not kill the athletes at the very first round! No wonder Stage 4 got cancelled when you end up treating the athletes like mules. The figures that Christina presents speaks for themselves. Athletes warned the organisers that this would happen yet they didn't listen. I'm sorry but the new ESO/UCI organisation from last year have proved time and again where their priorities lie amongst all the different disciplines under their management, most notably in terms of their budget and coverage allocated to EDR. You just have to look at the comments under the appauling highlights video to understand the issue - came out 2 days late, a weird mash-up of EDR and E-EDR (when everyone would like 2 seperate long-form videos of both), lack of a compelling narrative, etc. If I was a sponsor, I'd be sadly asking myself if my money is worth spending elsewhere. I mean just the fact that they're bringing another round back to Leogang this year (literally a full bikepark for "Enduro") after the feedback from riders last year is a bit of a joke. Overall, Enduro and E-Enduro is one of the fastest growing market in terms of mountain bike sales, yet it seems that anyone competenant in what made the EWS great seems to have been moved over to DH and XC.

Have you guys not heard? UCI Enduro is going through its last death throes. They're dropping it within the next few seasons, no idea why?

Loosen up the tight liaison times and add another stage

Do those microphones weigh that much? Looks like the booms do double duty as cranes. Alternatively: “Help, we’re trapped by a giant robo-crab!”

My Orange Alpine Evo rides beautifully. Better than any linkage bike I've owned. Hard to explain why but it's predictable, linear and seems to offer traction everywhere. I never notice bottom outs and it matches the front end performance perfectly. I suspect Orange may have bowed more to industry pressure to offer MORE BEARINGS than any real performance benefits for the average rider. But then again, what do I know, I just bimble down the local trails...😂

How about Iago Garay racing again after having a brain aneurysm last season?

UCI Flexed around and found out they don’t want Enduro. 😢

I’ve raced the BME which for us in USA is the best and hardest. I feel like it’s supposed to be hard and challenging. But… poor weather and the quest to be the hardest really makes the enjoyable challenge… miserable & expensive & to some extent a regret. As a privateer it dissuades you from participating. Race fees and repairs suck. Midweek races that allow you to repeat stages are more fun and affordable.

Tbh… I don’t watch now that discovery controls things. But… I appreciate your coverage. Imo if they hand out that many penalties maybe something isn’t right. Racing should be hard but it should be fun for the riders too.

I'll just put it out there tight times for the liaisons is complete B.S.!!!! To me Enduro is people riding the bike up and then racing down the stages... If I want to see people racing bikes up and down all day I'll watch an XCM race... Well the coverage for those is just as awful as the one for the EDR... It sucks and could they please bring back Rob Warner and Tracey Hannah for the DH races? They did a much better job... Okay rant done... ;-)

There’s a reason why Orange failed. Their linkage design is just not as good as others. You have to run air shocks only and stuffed with spacers just to make it work

'I love this thing. Its 6 inches long....' Yeag Ill let my self out lol

Is 2,000 meters of climbing a hard day for pro riders? Those aren't crazy numbers. And they rode a lift for one climb? Am i missing something?

Hi

I think they've pushed it too far for the liaisons - They're already doing a monster amount of climbing and length - The fact of the amount of penalties and DNFs is starting to ruin the racing - Its about endurance fast stages with little practise and a big day out not Downhill racing eith XC racing in between.

Anyone know why they canceled one of the pro women stages?

Enduro must be hard. It's in the name of the sport. One thing which should be changed, tho, is the coverage of what is going on between stages. People must see how hard is it for athletes. Maybe show some data with elevation, the average HR of riders, the time it takes them to pedal up. 40km and 2000 climb sounds a lot for some people, but 2000 elevation can be different. It can be short and steep, it can be long and less steep. I am a complete amateur but when I ride 70-80km and do over 1600m of climb with avg of about 14-15km/h I don't feel dead afterwards. Sure, they go full blast downhill, it requires a lot fitness, but they are Pro, doing 2000-3000m+ should not be end of the game to them. Bottom line is: it must remain tough but the challenge of riding should be shown more to viewers to appreciate the effort put it.

First like

I want to like this, but I still miss the 1.0.Just talk shit about bikes. Be better than SportsNet.

Here's a suggestion Pinkbike Team; get rid of the annoying 'progress loading bar' at the top of the screen. Thanks.

Here we go again. The dynamic duo! Henry and Christina. Damn, can't stand them both! It's sad what happened to Pinkbike. I guess the good ol' times are finally over. I miss the old Pinkbike crew! Everything is going "downhill",...

No one actually cares about enduro since Sam Hill left. Fact its that simple. Enduro is boring. Cool you can ride a bike. Just like everyone else.... dh for ever!!