Wicklow 2017, my first Enduro World Series!

Last weekend I raced at my very first

Enduro World Series event in Wicklow, Ireland. Although I had raced many cross-country world cups before, an enduro world cup is quite different and I didn't know what to be ready for until it was all said and done. So here's a recap of my week overseas with the Devinci Global Racing team, which were kind enough to let me join the team for that race.

MONDAY

Flying from Montreal to Dublin airport overnight. It went smoothly, with no bagage fee for my bike bag, which is a big win in itself! Also, the vegan meal on the plane was pretty good even though AirCanada Rouge kinda sucks. (No TV yo!)

TUESDAY

The bus expedition to get to Wicklow was a little more complicated but I made it after some walking, asking strangers for info and getting wifi in cafes. Nice welcome into the Devinci house, bike building, little spin to the local grocery market and then straight to bed!

WEDNESDAY

Pretty chill day at the HQ, cool morning spin around with a stop at a super nice coffee shop in a botanical garden and some exploration around tiny Wicklow streets to get some data into my phone (Instagram doesn't take care of itself!) and then more grocery shopping, cause it's my favorite afternoon activity, for real. And then an evening of wasting all my brand new data.

THURSDAY

This day was exciting, cause after a cool spin on the back roads I got to the venue and got to do some track walking! It was my first time doing a real track walk and I absolutely loved it. You get to see the stages with a cool head and just gather some info without getting to nervous about it and at the same time you get so amped to ride. I walked up stage 5 and down stage 6 from Theo's recommandation, and they were straight up the coolest stages.

FRIDAY

First day of practice!! I was lucky enough to meet with the XC-Mafia (a bunch of cool ex-cross-country riders who are now living the dream on the enduro circuit) and do the morning practice with them (stage 1 and 2). It really eased me into practice and took a load of stress of my mind to be with chilled yet experienced riders. Im the afternoon the stages were crowded and got us separated so I did stage 3 and 4 by myself but actually had a blast cause at that point I had build up some confidence and was happy to ride my own speed.

SATURDAY

Practice on Saturday was reserved for stages 5 and 6, which were the most gnarly but fun ones (to my opinion). Only thing is, when we woke up it was rainy. And it kept raining for the whole day! Not gonna lie, at this moment I was quite nervous about riding the many rock and roots shoots of stage 6 and the rock gardens of stage 5. I went into practice alone, so that I could chill if I needed to look at the features but did see my fellow quebexican friends ALN and Antoine prior to riding and they gave me good recommandations and motivation. As soon as I sent it down the first 2 shoots of stage 6, all my nerves and fear went away and left all the space in my little heart and head for adrenaline and excitement. I ended up having so much fun riding I just wanted to ride those fun slippery trails all day, but I didn't cause it was the eve of THE day.

SUNDAY

The real day was upon me. I wasn't too nervous, I knew I had done what I had to do to get as ready as possible for what was to come and I was just ready to have fun and do my best (sounds quite cheesy ehh, but true). Stage 1 was brutal. I felt like I had never ridden my bike before, kept sliding right and left, bumping here and there and crashing on trees, rocks and roots. I wasn't alone on that train, the dryer day following the eve's rain made the mud peanut butter like and the hundreds of people riding on the same trail made it quite hard to navigate. Anyways, went into stage 2, 3 and 4 more carefully, I crashed less and my riding was cleaner but I wasn't going as fast I should've or could've, I was too conservative to my opinion. After a quick lunch and bike wash (thanks to the team mechanic!!) it was time for stage 5 and 6, I was excited and thought I could make up some time on those. At this point (after ~4hr of riding) I was still feeling good physically, but I think my technical brain was feeling otherwise, I had silly crashes in places I rode perfectly in practice and that bugged me a little, but that's racing ehh. I ended up in 23rd, in a big field of 42 women, I was aiming for top 15b but I'm still really happy about how the day/week went with lots of learning, experience and some more confidence in the bag.

My work was done, my notes were taken and I was ready to go home to do my homeworks. I now have two months to get ready for my next EWS round, in Aspen, Colorado.