The first race of the Enduro Mediterraneo series / WorldBikeParks

Video and recap of the first race of the Enduro Mediterraneo series.

7 May 2014

The first race of the Enduro Mediterraneo series 2014 took place in Xanthi, with many riders visiting the area for the first time. The weather was brilliant, with short rain showers, the crowd was awesome and the trails & Special Stages were amazing. A record number of 127 participants registered for the race with about 30 foreign athletes from Bulgaria, Germany & France.

The next race on the 28-29 of June in Steni, Evia. More info @ www.enduromediterraneo.com

The Xanthi race finished with great success, leaving the best impressions to Greek riders, and also all the foreign participants. The trails in Xanthi enchanted the riders and the weather provided many changes to the terrain during the weekend.

127 participants registered for the race from 5 countries such as Germany, Italy, France, Bulgaria and of course Greece. We are so delighted that Enduro Mediterraneo is becoming more international thus showing us the way we should go from now on. Despite the 127 registered participants, 105 riders started at PS1 and only 99 riders managed to finish all 4 stages.

Times between special stages were a little bit tight causing some delay on the schedule but this is something we will have fixed by next years race in Xanthi. Forbiden uplift was noticed by the race coordinators on practice day and riders were given a warning and such behaviour was not repeated during race day. We are determined to keep Enduro spirit intact therefore enforceing strict penalty rules in next races.

In the racing part we saw a steady race on all 3 first stages by Konstantinos Andriotis with 43 seconds from 2nd place Nontas Lamprakoulos, while Ivan Kolev from Bulgaria remained 3rd just in front of Vangelis Kavvadas. A flat tyre by Konstantinos Andriotis was enough to drop him to 3rd place general for PS4 finishing 41st on the 4th section of the race. Steady rider Nontas Lamprakopoulos from Velocity Bikes ended up to be the great winner of the first round of the Enduro Mediterraneo 2014 race series in Greece. Ivan Kolev from Bulgaria and Ram Bikes took 2nd place, while Konstantinos Andriotis had to settle with 3rd place. Remarkable was the fact that 5 out of 10 first riders were Bulgarian something that shows us the level of our neighbooring country.

In women’s category Erini Mavraki prevailed, with Ani Georgieva from Bulgaria in 2nd place, and Niki Tsallou from Thessaloniki 3rd. 7 women took part, which is a record for our races, but 2 out of 7 didn’t manage to complete all stages because of the race difficulty.

In Hardtail category we saw 10 contestants, one of which was a woman. It wasn’t hard for Sarakinos Miltos to dominate from the start to the end of the race against John Korfiatis. Bulgarian Orlin Ivanon finished 3rd in the hardtail category.

-Steven Kounis