Hot damn, Sam Hill has taken home another win at the Enduro World Series (EWS) round 4 in Petzen (Austria) and Jamnica (Slovenia).
The first ever EWS stop to take place in two countries over two days saw Hill dominate trails in both countries over the weekend. Round four marks the halfway point of the 2018 Enduro World Series and is the first time an EWS race has crossed borders – running trails in both Austria and Slovenia. Riders got to traverse directly through Peca Mountain using lights to guide their way.
Featuring six stages over two days, riders were faced with an incredibly diverse range of terrain. The fresh trails of this Eastern European mountain bike heaven came alive over the weekend as 500 of the world’s best enduro riders descended on the region.
Rain earlier in the week made the fresh loam as slippery as it gets, especially as the dirt made way for the network of spider web like roots to come out to keep things challenging. Over 56 minutes of total race time, and an underground mine shaft liaison made sure that this weekend would be one racers would not soon forget.
Hill was locked in a battle all weekend, winning 3 of 6 stages convincingly, including the penultimate stage 6, a 13-minute lung buster down the steep, technical tracks at the Petzen gondola. With over 3000 feet of descending, it was enough for Hill to build on his 1.6-second lead considerably and take home the overall win by 10.58 seconds. When asked how he felt going into the last stage with only a small margin, Hill said, “That should be plenty.”
“This weekend was awesome, I really enjoyed the tracks and stages here and had a close battle with Martin Maes all weekend. I was really happy to beat him on the last stage and take the overall. I just tried to stay focused when it came down to the last one, which is about 15 minutes long. I had to keep my cool.”
With Cecile Ravanel taking the top spot and Isabeau Courdurier not too far behind, all in Womens EWS seemed business as usual, but the big news from the weekend’s racing was Casey Brown, who’s epic style landed her in 3rd place on the podium.
Josh Carlson was the 2nd fastest Australian coming in with a solid 23rd place. And Leonie Picton pulled a solid 21st to be the fastest Aussie female.
Full results can be found here: www.enduroworldseries.com