Pair of podiums at EWS Pietra Ligure

In the second and penultimate Enduro World Series (EWS) event of the year, riders took to familiar ground in Pietra Ligure, Italy for a wild weekend of racing. Although a location steeped in Italian heritage and pride, it was the French who would own the event, making a dominant show on the event’s top spots across many categories.

For Trek Factory Racing, the top results were a win by Hattie Harnden in the U-21 category, and a second place by Florian Nicolai in the elite men. Katy Winton would finish up in 15th, and Pedro Burns in 26th.

Although normally a sunny affair, the event took on some rain and thunderstorms. This made no difference to Hattie.

“With the weather suddenly changing to a day of intermittent thunderstorms, the tracks also kept changing,” said Hattie. “The rain made the stages super slick and even easier to make mistakes. However, I enjoyed every minute of the race, even the savage pedal oriented sections. There’s something very enjoyable about sliding around in muddy conditions.”

Florian excels in this terrain, and had a marvelous time in only his second EWS with the team.

“What a race, second EWS with the team and first podium,” said Florian. “It’s  always a good time, after a long first transition my body was tight from the two first stages. I tried to stay in the bike for stage three, so I just stayed in my ‘bubble’ and tried to give my best in the physical section.

I couldn’t see anything in my goggles by the end, but  I had the impression I was riding super fast. I checked the results and everything was looking solid. I said to myself “stay focused, you can do it ” and I did a really quick last two stages with the best time in the last one.

I would like say a big thanks to all the team, Andy my mechanic, Ely for his management , James for being the best cook in the series, and big congratulations to my teammates for staying positive all weekend!”

The weekend was massive with over 1,900 meters of climbing, and variable conditions. For Katy, it didn’t go to plan.

“Absolutely gutted about the weekend, it was an extremely disappointing result,” said Katy. “The team was amazing though and I can’t thank them enough for all their hard work behind the scenes! New week, new race, and another chance. Looking forward to a better performance!”

Pedro Burns arrived just in time from Chile to race this weekend.

“When I just started stage one I realized it was very slick so I tried to have a clean stage without mistakes and crashes and at the same time go as fast as possible, which was harder than it looked,” said Pedro. “I slowed down the rebound on my suspension before stage two and I felt better, but when we got to the bottom I saw results and I wasn’t where I wanted to be. On the way to stage three I motivated myself to go really full gas, just in time for the rain to arrive. I was feeling really fast on stage three, and just before the end I had a big mistake that cost me lots of time!

We went to pits, I rested my mind, and finally I could find the race rhythm I was looking for.  Rode clean and fast on stage four and I was feeling good and ready to stage five, at this point everyone was tired because the long day on the bike! I did another good stage on five and finished the day in a 26 position. It’s good to be back racing after the longest split I have ever had! Now I am focus on the next weekend to do it better!”

Be sure to keep in touch with the team as they head into another week of racing in the same vicinity.