Hello,

Enduro World Cup racing went to an unusually hot, dry and flat-out fast Loudenvielle, France, last weekend for the third round of the 2025 series.

The set of five stages looked wholly different to previous years, with the sunbaked ground a stark contrast with the grimy, greasy mud we’re more used to seeing in Loudenvielle (the 2024 EDR here was a proper mud-fest).

We’ve compiled some of our notes and favourite photos by Boris, Seb and Sven below.

We hope you enjoy looking through them.

Cheers,

James
+the Misspent Summers team

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REAL FAST: sunbaked notes from a dusty Loudenvielle, France, Enduro (EDR) World Cup R3

• Always start with a tangent: just a note on these notes newsletters and why we do them: we find this a fun format to report from racing but, also, this work informs our yearbooks. You are seeing behind-the-scenes of our print products – the broader image edits, scribbles and thinking aloud; the start of something bigger and more permanent. If you like the newsletters, please consider buying our books too
• Rewind: read our pre-race newsletter here and flashback to our boggy notes from Loudenvielle 2024 here
• EDR R3: the sun beat down on Loudenvielle all week, with only some minor showers. Thursday’s practice day was scorching and riders battled the heat to ride the five stages that mixed high speeds out in the open with some steeper sections of heavy braking. Saturday race day – this, like round two in Poland, was a one-day race – came around quickly and again under blue skies
• Ella Conolly put her stamp on the elite women’s race from stage one right to the end to take her first-ever elite EDR win with a winning margin of 40 seconds (she won an elite Enduro World Series race in 2022, but hadn’t won since the series rebranded as the Enduro World Cup in 2023). Morgane Charre, ever consistent, took second place and Winni Goldsbury, in her first elite year, rounded off the top-three for her first-ever elite podium after recovering from a recent concussion
• Dan Booker looked unreasonably comfortable at warp speed, winning four of the five stages on his way to his second-ever EDR win (his first was at round one in Italy). Alex Rudeau, the 2022 winner here, took second place and Slawomir Lukasik took third
• Booker threw the goggles
• Jack Moir crashed out in spectacular style but came away relatively OK
• Melvin Almueis and Lacey Adams won the junior men’s and women’s categories
• Full results here
• Soundbite: ‘What most people didn’t see was the last two weeks of Winni following the return to play protocol and putting her head first. She took it seriously, did it properly and was cleared to race. That in itself was an achievement and [getting on the podium] is the icing on the cake’ – Charlie Murray gives some insight into Winni Goldsbury’s comeback from concussion to podium
• Video: watch the raw highlights from racing here

Continued below…

• Word: heatstroke
• Shake it: after going MIA for a little while, the enduro shakedown is back for 2025. What is it? It’s an officially organised chance for riders to shred a trail that isn’t in the race early in the week; to get a feel for the terrain, bring people together, and for media to get some, er, media of the riders on course. Riders have been asking for this, but not many turned up to the Loudenvielle shakedown (was the trail too far away, or everyone too busy in preparation for racing?). Hopefully more people show up in future so it continues being a thing
• Packing stats: Dan Booker won the elite men’s race with a backpack on. So far this season, three out of six elite EDR races (men’s and women’s) have been won wearing a backpack (both categories at R1, none at R2, one at R3). Enduro is 50% backpack
• Some say never go full backpack: but who said they’d never wear one, only to walk into a store at round one in Italy and buy a backpack for the race?
• Flat stats: the Misspent Summers mathematics department is back with more groundbreaking analysis: 50% of all elite podium places in Loudenvielle were filled by flat pedal riders (Booker and Rudeau in men’s; Charre in women’s). Based on one race only and ignoring the rest of history, enduro is only ½ clipped-in
• Pre-enduro enduro: bit of a tangent, but watch Big Jim’s Big Boozy Bike Trip to Braemar for some insight into endurance mountain biking before mountain biking existed
• Opinion: reseeding needs rethinking with receding rider numbers
• Noise makers: 10/10 for the fans lining the lower sections of some stages and revving it up with chainsaws, bringing some DH World Cup vibe to the enduro side of the valley
• Greg’s stats: after two days on the hill (practice and race), Greg Callaghan’s numbers look like this: 11 hours 54 mins activity, 87.5km on the bike, 3,048m climbing, 5,469m descending, 3 Fisherman’s Friends consumed
• Hot stuff: temperatures in Poland for round two were down in the single digits, as low as 1 degree Celsius; two weeks later in Loudenvielle, the heat went above 30 degrees. Bit of a shock to the system for riders and media alike

More below…

• Fact or fiction: the interactive athlete course maps (Loudenvielle one here) are a big improvement from, er, whatever it was that existed or didn’t exist before (just need to make them easier to find). Could an all-encompassing app with news, info and results be on the cards soon?
• Summary: everyone enjoying everything. Almost no complaints from riders – great trails, event, racing
• Missing in action: elite women’s round two winner Elly Hoskin never planned to race the full season and was back home in Canada shredding the loam while her competitors were soaking up the sun in Loudenvielle
• Also MIA: watch this MTBWS interview with 2024 EDR series overall winner Hattie Harnden on her switch to DH racing this year
• All bets off: we asked for your feedback on last week’s news of betting company OlyBet sponsoring the French World Cup rounds. Thanks to everyone who got back to us. The verdict: Misspent Summers readers offer a balanced view of the move. Karl B said: ’Regarding the betting company sponsorship, it’s a hard one for me. At one end I want the sport to progress and the racers/teams to be able to survive. I think the enduro is the best thing on two wheels. Love the enduro! And on the other end, betting causes a lot of trouble to those that deal with gambling addictions … But it’s good news that more eyes (sponsors) are looking into the gravity world. We need it.’ Cathal M’s view on the betting deal reflected many people’s concerns: ‘Mountain biking is such a youth-oriented sport, so having gambling companies as sponsors just seems irresponsible. Whether you have a moral objection or not, betting – and especially online betting – is a massive driver of addiction and financial problems for so many. As such it should be approached with caution’. With OilyBet greasing mountain biking’s wheels, let’s hope our beloved sport doesn’t slip off a moral cliff. (Seeing riders tumble through OlyBet-branded crash netting in Loudenvielle seemed someway symbolic)
• Note from the b-zone: ’offline MTB media gambling among friends is OK, got it?’
• Mad trip: elite enduro World Champion Alex Rudeau was on the podium at round one of the series in Italy but then absent at round two (despite an official communication saying he would be racing). Had something gone wrong? Nope – all was going to plan and Rudeau was away racing in the first of two 2025 Trans Madeira six-day races, which he won by over seven minutes from second-placed Brendan Fairclough. He was back for EDR round three and scored another podium, putting him fifth in the overall standings despite missing one of three races. Will he be in the battle for the series overall by the end of the year?
• Rider opinion: listen to the recent Downtime Podcast episode with Greg Callaghan and Morgane Charre, Enduro Is Back, Is It Bigger and Better Than Ever, for some insight into the first rounds of 2025 EDR racing and changes to the series for this year
• Representing: thank you to Misspent Summers-supported rider Charre for representing us on another enduro podium
• 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

 

Further reading:
A note from XC World Cup 2025 Round 3
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.