Irish riders have dominated the podiums in the Emerald Enduro across most categories this weekend. The Emerald Enduro is round three in the World Enduro Series, a mountain bike discipline that is one of the fastest growing disciplines in the sport, being a mix of technical downhill riding and endurance racing.
Greg Callaghan won the elite men’s event by 3 seconds, a victory he secured in 2015 also. In the U21 women’s race 17 year old Leah Maunsell won against older riders demonstrating her talent, skill and potential.
Callaghan’s cousin Killian Callaghan won the U21 event and multiple Olympian Robin Seymour showed his versatility by dominating the men’s masters event. In the Elite Women’s Event Michelle Muldoon finished in 12th place.
Following her win Maunsell was delighted, saying “in stage one my chain got jammed off the very start, I got off and ran all the way up for the next bit. I didn’t take any risks, just tried to get all my time back.”
This is the second year that Ireland has hosted a round in the World Enduro Series, one of the most exciting and spectator friendly disciplines in cycling.
Enduro is a mountain bike event that sees riders tackle seven timed downhill sections over the course of the day, making it an exciting mix of technical downhill skills and endurance racing.
This is one of the fastest growing areas in cycling in Ireland as it allows riders of a range of abilities compete together, and is one of the most spectator friendly areas in the sport.
Today domestic Irish riders competed with world champions, and throughout the weekend there were events for the whole family, from a kid’s demo zone to music and food, along with live commentary throughout the race itself.
The 2016 Enduro World Series started in South America with two rounds, Ireland is round three and the Series then goes to Italy before heading over to the US, Canada and then back to Europe.
This style of racing is quite unique as we allow amateur racers from all over the world to enter and 400 riders will take the start.
Irishman Paddy Behan, team manager with the Specialized team said “This is a world class event, Niall Davis has done a brilliant job, this is probably the best event in the series”. The event is a Cycling Ireland registered event run by Biking.ie, headed by Niall Davis.
