Last weekend, 2024's first leg of the UCI Enduro World Cup at the famous venue of Finale Ligure hosted five stages over 57km of trails and 2,570m of descending. The podiums welcomed a number of the usual suspects but a self-doubting Hattie Harnden took the women's win and Ritchie Rude dominated the men's category.

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Although the fourth stage of the event was cancelled due to an incident on the Rocche Gianche course, racing was close in both the men's and women's categories with Ritchie Rude putting in a strong performance on almost all stages, however, he conceded the win on the third stage which ate into some of his lead.

2024 maes riding.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Charlie Murray of the Specialized Enduro Team put in consistent times across the stages bagging him second place and Martin Maes, who is currently racing under the new Orbea Fox Enduro Team, managed to put himself into third (although he struggled on stage three and finished in eighth, 19 seconds down on the winner).

“Getting that first stage win really put that confidence in me to know I could do well on these tracks.” - Ritchie Rude

It was a similar story for the women with the winner, Hattie Harnden taking a stage win over stage 2 and being 20 seconds quicker than anyone else over stage 3. However, on stage 5, she took things easy and retained her overall lead, finishing fifth.

2024 harnden riding.jpg, by Liam Mercer

“It feels amazing. I didn’t think this was going to happen.” - Hattie Harnden

Last year's champ Isabeau Courdurier was hot on Hattie's heels, landing in second after dropping back during stage 3 and Cannondale's Ella Conolly took third.

As for the UCI E-Enduro World Cup, held at the same location and taking riders over nine stages split over two loops with 84km of trail and 3600m of descending, Ryan Gilchrist took the win for Yeti/Fox Factory Race Team, Manuel Soares Jose Borge for Canyon Collective came second and Fancescu Camoin brought back third in a successful weekend for the Specialized Enduro Team.

Florencia Espineira Herroros took the women's win for the Orbea Fox Enduro Team with Brit, with Tracey Moseley taking second and Laura Charles coming third.

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