Hello,

Enduro was back with a bang and a total mood change among riders, industry and fans this weekend in Pietra Ligure, Italy, at round one of the 2025 Enduro (EDR) MTB World Cup series.

For the first time since the Enduro World Series became the EDR in 2023, enduro racing went back to its roots with a massive course consisting of seven race stages across two days of racing.

That meant two days of practice beforehand; over the four consecutive days, riders faced more than 6,000 metres of climbing, even more descending (there were two shuttles up the mountain – one during practice and one on the first morning of racing) and 160+ kilometres on the bike.

It was a race of epic proportions and a true adventure in the mountains. And, importantly, just what riders and fans had been asking for.

There was an unmistakable and drastic mood change; riders feeling listened to created a sudden surge of positivity and a feeling of momentum back behind the series.

We were there following the racing and soaking up the good vibes, as well as instigating a pre-season gathering at our Finale Ligure office (just around the corner from Pietra).

Hope you enjoy flicking through the notes and photos below.

Cheers,

James
+the Misspent Summers team

PRODUCT: EVERYDAY LOGO T-SHIRT

GOOD VIBES ONLY: Epic racing at the 2025 Enduro (EDR) World Cup R1 in Pietra Ligure, Italy

• Rewind: read our pre-race newsletter from last week, including a flashback to the 2024 Finale Ligure EDR here
• Full results: head to our site to see the final results PDFs for elite and junior men and women here
• Pietra EDR micro report: the race was a proper journey through Finale Outdoor Region’s mountain biking. Jack Moir and Hattie Harnden dominated day one on Saturday. Harnden kept her lead to take the race win on Sunday, with Ella Conolly in second and Morgane Charre third overall. Meanwhile in the men’s, Moir slipped up and saw his lead vanish, opening a gap for other riders. By end of play, Dan Booker had delivered an unbeatable performance to take his first-ever EDR win ahead of Sławomir Łukasik in second and Alex Rudeau third. Melvin Almueis and Lucile Metge won the junior men and women categories
• Word(s): white shirt
• Won and done: Harnden searched for an enduro team sponsor during the off season but struggled to find anyone with budget, so she signed up to racing downhill World Cups full time for Reece Wilson’s new AON Racing team. Still, she wanted to race Pietra so got an enduro bike from Nicolai (not AON’s bike sponsor Gamux, because they only make DH bikes, but still a bike with a belt drive and gearbox) and showed up after a winter of DH training, won the race, dropped the mic and is now gearing up for Poland DH World Cup. Harnden says she won’t be racing any other EDR World Cups in 2025
• Bet on Booker: Booker, on the other hand, will be racing the full series of EDR World Cups as well as some other well-known enduro events like the, er, Fest Series
• Soundbite: ‘It’s going to be a great year, but it’s definitely going to be different’ – EDR R1 winner Hattie Harnden on moving to downhill World Cup racing full time as of DH World Cup R1 this week in Poland. Listen to Sven’s full post-Pietra interview with Harnden here
• Stats: Greg Callaghan’s recorded stats for the four days of riding (practice and race): 26 hours bike time, 176km ridden, 6,927m climbing, 8,972m descending, 10,997 calories burnt, 1,125 TSS on Training Peaks. Intake per race day: 700g carbs, 8 litres of fluid, 1 Red Bull and 2 Fisherman’s Friends

Continued below…

• Tight at the top: the seven timed stages totalled 3,169m descending and nearly 20km length, with several gazillion variables along the way. Despite that, the gap between first and second in the elite men’s was just 0.374s. Bonkers
• Backpacking: both elite winners raced with backpacks on – a visual sign of the shift from the last few seasons of shorter, one-day races, where top racers almost never raced with backpacks, to the new-old-new-style in Pietra with no outside tech assistance during racing and massive days on the bike requiring racers to prepare accordingly. (Rumour has it Jack Moir is considering rebranding from Shark Attack Jack to Backpack Jack now that wearable luggage is back in fashion)
• Big days out: the hefty four days of practice and racing reminded us of Tracy Moseley in the Finale EWS in 2013 when she shunned the shuttles and rode the entire practice by pedal power instead of shuttling to the top, as was allowed in the rules, because, in her own words, she was ‘determined to do it … I hate shuttling’. She won the race and the series overall
• 100,000 reasons: Harnden is the first-ever elite enduro winner on a belt-driven bike (with a Gates Carbon Drive belt where other bikes have a chain). Unfortunately, the €100,000 prize up for grabs in the Gates Belted Drive contest only applies to DH World Cup races. Still, Harnden recently won the iXS Euro Cup race in Fort William, Scotland, ahead of a list of well-known DH regulars. She’ll have her eyes on the prize in Poland at DH World Cup R1
• Privateer power: we’re not sure you can really call them privateers as they have sponsors, but Booker and Rudeau, two of the men’s top three, and Conolly in the women’s, are on their own programmes without team support and with no team listed in the results
• Sponsor dream: Yeti / Fox Factory Race Team, on the other hand, had four of the top-ten elite men and 50% of the junior women on their team
• Flatistics: the Misspent Summers maths department has just calculated that two thirds of all elite men in the top three were on flat pedals. In the women’s, one third of the top three was on flat pedals
• First but not not last: Jesse Melamed punctured on stage one and ended dead last on the stage more than four minutes behind the stage winner. But in the spirit of enduro, he fixed the flat (with some help from his competitors) and carried on the day. His fortunes turned and his commitment paid off when he won the last stage of the day, just in front of Dimitri Tordo, who had also punctured on stage one and never given up either. Those are the stories we like to hear

More below…

• Long game: Finale Outdoor Region has hosted world enduro races every year since the very start of the Enduro World Series (EWS) in 2013. The area has seen dramatic EWS finals, Trophy of Nations team events, massive crowds, two-day races, one-day races, sun, rain, pain (2024). It’s known as the spiritual home of enduro for a reason, and this year it stepped up and delivered an example of just how exciting and adventurous the sport can be. The point of this bullet point? No point, you just gotta love Finale
• World first: Pietra Ligure was the first Enduro World Series or Enduro World Cup season opener in history where Isabeau Courdurier wasn’t on the start list. Courdurier has hung up her racing boots – at least temporarily – while she is pregnant. Far from stepping away from the sport, Courdurier was in the media race at Pietra and following the action from the sidelines for her new YouTube channel. Check out IsaBike TV for unique insight from the 2024 Enduro World Champion
• Shirt sleeves: Rudeau raced in gleaming (except for when muddy) white kit all weekend, showing off his World Champion stripes and jersey won at last year’s first-ever Enduro World Champs
• Grit and Glory: series organiser and broadcaster WBD Sports announced a new eight-part enduro docuseries that will air after the season and ‘give viewers an exciting and intimate glimpse into the world of professional enduro mountain bike racing, following a select group of elite athletes as they battle it out in the UCI Enduro World Cup on the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series circuit’. It does seem that the post-race roundup videos have been canned (with only raw/lightly edited footage on the MTB World Series YouTube page), and there was no sign of presenter Josh Carlson at the event, but a new approach to the racing coverage seemed welcome by all the racers we spoke to
• Tech check: inverted Fox RAD prototype forks; electronic suspension; gearbox World Cup wins. There’s a lot of product development on the EDR circuit. Is enduro the F1 of mountain biking?
• MIA: if you have any hints to the whereabouts of Greg Callaghan’s helmet peak, last seen on stage seven, please think about reporting to the relevant authorities
• Noise makers: the chainsaw to spectator ratio on the final stages of the final stage was estimated at 1:1. It was rowdy!
• We’re impressed: our thought of the weekend is that it’s nuts how hard the top enduro racers push throughout a race. At the start of the monster stage one (over 12 minutes for the stage winner, Moir) they still have energy to smash the turns and sprint to the line. On the weekend’s final metres of the final stage, they sprinted out of the turn, scrubbed the roller and powered across the finish line. Pro athletes you inspire us – thank you
• Next up: racers are already in Poland for round two of the EDR World Cup (or round one of the DH World Cup), taking place this weekend. Stay tuned
• Representing: thank you to Misspent Summers-supported riders Morgane Charre and Socratis Zotos for representing us in the race
• Thanks: a huge thank you to everyone making our racing coverage possible. To Boris, Seb and Sven for their outstanding photography, all the contributors and writers, the brands supporting our work and you for reading
• Get involved: if you like our stuff and want to contribute, every order on our store helps us continue recording the history of mountain biking. Massive thanks to everyone supporting Misspent Summers!
• Final word: one last thank you to the race winners for not doing shoeys on the podium after four days of dust, sweat and mud

Further reading:
A note from Brazil XC World Cup R1 2025
Bermed Out

Notes newsletters are compiled with the help of many contributors. Thank you to everyone who chips in – we love doing this stuff and you make it possible.