Jesse Melamed rode to Enduro World Cup (EDR) bronze this weekend in Val di Fassa, Italy. His aggregate time of 34 minutes and 59.353 seconds placed him behind a golden performance from Slawomir Lukasik (34:41.943) and silver medallist Richie Rude (34:55.801).
Overall men's elite series leader Lukasik kept rolling as a number of his opponents faltered. Rude's hopes of victory were dashed when a punctured tire cost him nearly 13 seconds, while Melamed prevailed on a stage to vault himself into the top three.
"Four big days of riding wrapped up in the hot, high mountains of Val di Fassa," said the Whistlerite on his Instagram account. "I thought they did a great job with the course this year, some classics, some freshness, and some good loops linking it all together. It took a lot of mental and physical fortitude to get through it all so kudos to everyone on that. Thanks to the organizers and the fans for adding that extra something special to it all.
"Lastly, stoked with the continued Canadian presence at the top of this sport. Six in the top 21 elite men (more than any other country), three inside the top 15 elite women and a third place in junior men, [Rhys Blair]. Buncha beauties."
Meanwhile, Lukasik had this to tell reporters: "I was super happy after the first day. I felt that I could push really hard and it was a smooth day. I then struggled to sleep and I was really tired in the morning. I tried to push as hard as the day before, but it was really hard with the heat and also the track was sketchy at times. I had fun riding so I tried to stay smooth and had good momentum through the whole day. The altitude wasn’t the big issue, the bigger issue was the heat and it was a really hard day."
Ella Conolly (40:23.277), Nadine Ellecosta (40:51.747) and Simona Kuchyňková (40:59.273) occupied the ladies' elite podium in that order, with Elly Hoskin finishing as top Canadian (42:18.980).
"I’m really happy to win here," said Conolly in a press release. "It’s really cool to win in a place where I’ve not been on the podium before. It’s nice to finally have a good race here. On day one I was struggling. There’s not a lot of flow on the trails, so you have to generate speed all the time. I was trying to be patient and carry speed, but obviously it wasn’t attacking enough.
"I wasn’t that happy with my riding after day one. I watched some videos last night and saw how riders were attacking and sprinting out of every corner. Every stage [on Friday] I feel like I found that intensity which has been really nice. It has been super hot and we’re at altitude so the sun feels really intense as well. Between every stage I was trying to stay on top of eating and drinking."
Click here for more results from Val di Fassa.
