After nearly 3 hours of climbing the hills behind Finale Ligure, the riders reached the top of stage 6 of the Enduro World Series with Barel leading into the final stage after a win on stage 5. Special Stage 6 though is the one stage to rule them all. With a total of 8.5km of flow, climbs, tech, and fast descents, it has everything. It sorts the men from the boys, or the lucky from the unlucky, today it proved the decider with Fabien Barel showing how tough he is and taking the stage win and the overall race win.
Jared Graves managed a solid second place result only 8 seconds back from Barel and pushed it to take the Enduro World Series title in a professional manner, “I kept a cool head, I didn’t push too much, I hopped over every rock and stayed safe.” Despite his safe riding style second place was his and he managed to show his supreme 2014 season form.
Anne Caroline in the women’s race completed her weekend of domination and took the win, with Tracey Molesey taking the overall title for 2014.
Upsets in today included Richie Rude who lost his chain on stage 6 and Cedric Gracia who crashed and then destroyed his front tyre.
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[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/mtbmag/barel[/soundcloud]
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/mtbmag/jerome[/soundcloud]
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[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/mtbmag/nico-lau-stage-6[/soundcloud]
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/mtbmag/dan-atherton[/soundcloud]
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/mtbmag/joe-barnes-stage-6[/soundcloud]
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/mtbmag/t-mo[/soundcloud]
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/mtbmag/ann-caroline[/soundcloud]
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Jerome Clementz came home after a good ride and felt that he was back in the race groove somewhat with a place well inside the top 10 riders.
It was an emotional time at the end of stage 6, Fabien Barel came home and Franco the race director informed him of his victory. He had trouble holding back the tears, took a few quiet moments for himself, and rode back into town victorious, it was a tough road to this win, yet all the hard work paid off.
