It’s not the easiest list of names to just post up but the Enduro World Series teams (and rider) list is up and it’s STACKED to say the least. There’s only four Kiwis registered in the teams and Yeti’s has two of them: Rosara Joseph along with teammate Cam Cole. (I definitely think Giant blew it letting her go; I’m willing to place money on Rosara crushing Kelli Emmett). The Cannondale OverMountain are there with Mark Weir, Ben Cruz, Moeshler and Jerome Clementz, Canyon are in with newly acquired Fabien Barel and UK pinner Joe Barnes, Commencal have stepped up with the usual suspects and recent New Zealand visitors Remy Absalon and Nicolas Quere, Nicolas Lau is in with the Cube Action Team. Giant have signed up with a predominantly North American team of Carl Decker, Adam Craig, Kelli Emmett and Aussie Josh Carlson. GT Factory Racing’s Dan Atherton wouldn’t miss this series and I’m sure bad parker Brian Lopes feels the same—it’s kinda cool to see him in the mix as well as Anne-Caro—and keeping on the DH Front, the entire Syndicate will be racing as well as Lapierre, including Blenki. Trek possibly has the biggest team with T-Mo, J-Lo, Ross Schnell, Rene Wildhaber, husband and wife Heather and JHK and then there’s the Specialized team of Curtis Keene, and four-cross racers Anneke Beerten and Michael Prokop.
The one thing that stands out when you look through the teams is there definitely seems to be a stronger lean to DH heritage than XC. Why is it that a big bunch of World Cup DH racers can fit these races into their schedules but there are pretty much zero World Cup XC racers in the mix?
Anyhow you can check out the full team list on the Enduro World Series site over here.
The Teams are…
BMC Switzerland
Cannondale OverMountain
Canyon
Commençal
Cube Action Team
FRM Factory Racing
GIANT Factory Off-Road
GT Factory Racing
GT Skoda
IBIS
Lapierre
Norco
Orbea
Santa Cruz Syndicate
Scott Enduro Team
Specialized
Trek Factory Racing
Urge Team
Yeti
There’s a big issue looming here thats got the potential to blow the current regulation of MTB apart (which might ultimately be a good thing). The UCI has clearly indicated it intends to enforce one of its more arcane rules where all UCI licensed riders would risk fines and suspensions for racing unsanctioned events – EWS is unsanctioned as are the grassroots events we have all grown up with here in NZ. This has the potential to put World Cup athletes like Blenki, Cam etc and their professional teams in an incredibly difficult position.So watch this space – an important part of the culture of our sport is the accessibility to the masses of our top athletes at events they choose to attend, right down to the most informal club level event.
Where’s Justin?
Trek… Justin = J Lo