EWS.3
All or Nothing

After two stops of the Enduro World Series, Rude and Melamed are at a dead heat in the points going into round three, Val di Fassa. Melamed, taking the win last weekend, would don the yellow series leader race plate, but the goal was clear for Richie and team – reclaim the yellow plate. 

Setting the tone on Saturday, Rude put 3 seconds into Melamed and claimed the coveted extra points with a win on the Pro Stage. Sunday’s first stage (Stage two) proved that a win would not be handed to him with Jesse in the hunt to reclaim the lead. Rude went down early in Stage 2 and finished 3rd – 7 seconds behind Melamed. Frustrated with Stage 2, he put together a run that he, and Performance Coach, Jared Graves, thought was the Stage 3 winning time. Melamed’s time was yet to clock in – Rude was 1.2 seconds behind, and Jesse held the overall lead by just under 5 seconds. 

The brief emotion of the assumed stage win turned second place lit a fire and focus inside Rude, and he went on to win Stage 4, slashing Melamed’s lead by 3.6 seconds. Only the punishing 13-minute Queen Stage, Tutti Frutti, was left to go. Driven by the razor-sharp focus we have come to know from Rude, he put everything he had into his final 12 minutes and 34 seconds of racing. He laid down a race-winning run, claiming the top of the box, beating Jesse by 5.39 seconds, and claiming the maximum available points in this round.

Bex Baraona and Yeti / FOX National rider Kate Lawrence gave it everything they had in the Pro Women’s field and finished 9th and 25th, respectively. Not the race she was hoping for, Baraona remained fatigued from the prior week’s race and couldn’t quite find her flow. Taking it on the chin, she sits third overall and is fired up to redeem herself after her summer training block. Still new to  the international stage, Lawrence continues to learn and improve her race craft that will make her the name to beat in her domestic race program.

Just six short weeks between now and EWS: Whistler, a favorite of Rude and where Kasper Woolley hopes to return to the team and get between the tape. With Rude and Melamed so close in the title chase, there is no time to let up. You can be certain the Canadian will be fired up to claim the win at his local mountain from Rude, who was the last to win at Whistler in 2019.