The first-ever round of the UCI Enduro World Cup descended on Maydena Bike Park in Tasmania over the weekend. Kona Super Grassroots rider Elliot Smith was one of many Kiwis who made the trip across the ditch to take part along with his Process X CR DL. After learning that his 2022 points would no longer count toward the 2023 enduro season, Elliot would be racing in the amateur Open class on the Saturday before Sunday’s main event.

Whoever finished in first place in the Open would receive an automatic upgrade to the Pro ranks for the rest of the EDR season, if you managed second or third, you’d qualify to race in the Pro class at the following round only. The pressure was on!

Stage one did not go to plan. Elliot was on what felt like an awesome run feeling great and hitting all his lines when things went terribly wrong. A huge crash took him down, flinging his bottle and pump off the bike and twisting his bars. He gathered his things, pulled his bike back on track, and continued his run. The mistake put him 39 seconds back on the first-place finisher. Hungry for redemption he took the stage win on stage two.

Motivated more than ever and knowing he had the pace, he pushed hard on stage 3, perhaps a little too hard, as another little small off-the-bike moment cost him more time, he would finish 16th on stage three.

Stage four was a short section of the most recent Australian National Downhill course, understandably it was a clean sweep from Aussie locals with Elliot taking the first non-Aussie spot in 5th place. With just one stage remaining Elliot rode the fine line between speed and safety, finishing the stage in second place, just .16th of a second back from 1st.

In the end the crash on stage one lost Elliot too much time, he tried his best to claw back the minutes back but would eventually finish in 11th, 37:77 seconds back from first place. His results on stages two, four, and five have shown him he has the speed he just needs to keep the rubber side down. Luckily for him, he has another chance at redeeming himself this week at round two of the Enduro World Cup in Derby.

“I had a very up-and-down race on Saturday. A sizeable crash on stage 1 set me back a good 40 seconds and I spent the rest of the day trying to claw back at it. This resulted in a stage win on 2, a slight crash on 3, a fifth on 4, and a tight second on stage 5. Glad to know that the speed is there, excited to see how it goes in Derby” – Elliot Smith