Round four of the UCI Enduro World Cup (EDR) rolled into Leogang, Austria for the first time. The town, made famous for its DH race was hosting a massive day out for Pro riders chasing valuable EDR points, there was no open racing taking place in Leogang. Kona Super Grassroots riders Elliot Smith and Austrian local Noah Hofmann were ready to make their mark on this new venue with their Process X‘s, unfortunately, things didn’t go totally to plan for either rider. Elliot in only his second pro EDR race was trying to find the right balance between riding smoothly and not pushing so hard as to make mistakes and Noah would face a race endy mechanical. You can check out Elliot’s report below.
The fourth round of the 2023 EDR series in Leogang was a treat. I learned a bit more about my riding and a lot more about racing in Europe. After deciding that I had pushed too hard in Pietra Ligure, causing crashes and putting me dangerously close to not achieving my goal (of qualifying for the remainder of the year) I devised a plan to avoid that. That plan was simple and it was to not push as hard. With this in mind coming into Leogang, I felt confident in putting together a clean race day of smooth and hopefully fast riding.
Practice day eventually came around and we finally saw the stages. It was a really mixed bag, with some monotonous flow for stage 1, high-pace jank and tight turns for stage 2, a long kinda bike park very enduro stage 3, Uber weird taping on stage 4, a hiking trail for stage 5 and it was all wrapped up with a minute of the old Leogang DH track. I liked the stages, I particularly gelled with stage 3 and was excited to put it together on race day.
Coming into the race I felt pretty good, but also nervous about the daunting 74km day ahead. I started off how I wanted, smooth and safe and not too far off the pace. Stage 2 was a little messy but still smooth. After stage 3 I was happy with how smoothly I was going, but the results did not reflect it. Stages 4, 5, and 6 rolled around and all had very similar outcomes. Smooth, safe, slow. As it turns out I think I’d dialed it back a tad too much, to a point where it seemed like I didn’t have the drive to be out there racing. I was missing lines, braking too early and just riding slow at times.
After these first two races in the pro class, I’m struggling to find the balance. I’m hoping I can find it here in Canazei! I’m super excited for the final weekend of this block of EDR racing in an epic location here in the Dolomites!
Fellow Kona Super Grassroots rider Noah Hofmann was on a great run in the U21 class but a failed fork saw him withdraw, unfortunantly he was unable to complete the days racing.
Above Photos: Sven Martin
