Booker and Adams prevail at Loudenvielle round of the UCI Enduro World Cup

Daniel Booker triumphed in a nail-biting back-and-forth at the UCI Enduro World Cup round in Loudenvielle - Peyragudes (France).

Booker prevailed in an arduous men’s race that was the tightest of all four Elite and Junior enduro events in Loudenvielle, taking his second ever UCI World Cup round just a few weeks after winning his first in Pietra Ligure, Finale Outdoor Region (Italy).
 
The Tasmanian laid down a marker on Nabias, as riders started with arguably the toughest stage of the day - a 3.6km descent of 730 vertical metres that got steeper as the trail went on, sapping arm strength all the way.

Booker edged out Alex Rudeau by two seconds, with round two victor Sławomir Łukasik a similar margin back in fourth, though the Pole would roar back on Privilege to take the overall lead by the narrowest of margins: 0.006 seconds.

Dan Booker won 4 of the 5 stages in Loudenvielle

“Very exciting to get the win here, I never had a super standout result here but I’ve loved the trails every year,” Booker said. 

“Today even if I made mistakes I was still carrying speed, I was happy and the trails were running good so it was a great day, I was loving riding.
 
“Nice to climb back up a bit, had a bit of drama in Poland so hopefully we can keep going with the first places.”

Booker was fifth on the stage as Matthew Walker (Pivot Factory Racing) pushed Łukasik closest with the top seven separated by 5.2 seconds on the stage, and miniscule time gaps on Six Pack left things as they were.
 
So, it was all to play for on a super-steep 1,100m stage four that threatened either no time gaps or massive ones with plenty of incident potential, and it proved the decisive separation between the two favourites with Łukasik down in 11th and Booker claiming back all the time he’d lost on Privilege.
 
That meant heading into stage five - the most technical of them all - Booker had seven seconds in hand over the rest of the field and he produced a champion’s ride to seal his triumph.

Lacey Adams leads the overall series after her win in Loudenvielle

Fellow Australian Lacey Adams (Yeti / Fox Factory Race Team) led the women’s Junior standings before today without winning a round, but that spell ended as she scorched to victory in France, claiming four stages out of five and beating Lucile Metge by an eye-watering 54 seconds overall despite crashing into a tree.
 
Only Metge’s Six Pack win by 1.7 seconds interrupted Adams’ dominance, as the Australian also claimed the majority of her victory margin (43 seconds) in the opening two stages to pad her overall lead.
 
“The race was awesome, I enjoyed every stage,” Adams said. 

“The track’s running amazing and super-stoked with coming first, such a sick venue. I did have a little off on stage five, I just hit a tree and hit my knuckle but it was sweet, just kept riding.”

Adams and Booker will return next weekend on a packed slate at Saalfelden Leogang-Salzburgerland (Austria) featuring all disciplines of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series for only the second time ever, as cross-country and downhill riders will also be in attendance.