Emerald Enduro – Mountain Bike Race
May 13th – 15th – 2016
The Emerald Enduro – 2016 Enduro World Series Round 3 – On the 15th of May 2016 Ireland will host the third round of the Enduro World Series. The world’s top riders will line out in the Wicklow mountains for a tough day of mountain bike racing over 50km of technical terrain in a rally style format with testing special stages. The event showcases County Wicklow as a leading mountain bike destination that tourists will want to visit and experience for themselves. The economic impact of the Enduro World Series event is expected to be in the region of 1 million euro, a welcome boost for the County.
Last year the Enduro World Series visited the same venue in Carrick, Wicklow. Thousands of fans lined the stages to see 400 racers flying down the mountain in glorious sunshine. The race attained mythical status as hometown hero Greg Callaghan, in his first year as a full professional rider, took a maiden win. Such was the enthusiasm of the crowd it was several minutes before Callaghan heard he had actually won over the roar in the arena as he came into the finish where he was raised shoulder high.
This year the Enduro World Series Event, which has been kindly permitted by Coillte, returns to Carrick and we’ve added to the event village with a demo area, test track and the pit area which guarantees unprecedented access to the riders and their teams. Signing sessions will be taking place throughout the weekend so be sure and check out the team pits to see when to meet your favourite racer. The event village itself will be a focal point to the weekend as the riders depart individually and check in at the end of their day and the commentary team will be providing live updates throughout the day.
The riders will be onsite for practise on the Friday 13th and Saturday 14th with racing taking the full day on the Sunday 15th of May. Carrick is almost unique among EWS venues in having ready access to the trails from the event village and a short walk will bring you to the bottom of three of the seven stages. The whole course is easily accessible with clear onsite maps and access routes and the stages ring the mountain in sequence allowing spectators to catch the racers on each stage. Admission is free for under 18s with adult admission available for only €5.
Event organiser Niall Davis of Biking.ie had the following to say – “Last year seeing Greg Callaghan win his first EWS event was very special and we are thrilled to have the riders back again for a second bite of the cherry. Carrick is a special venue for the spectators who did us proud last year. It was a huge thrill to see so many families on the mountain fueling the boom in younger riders that we are currently seeing on the trails, long may it continue!”
Enduro is virtually unique among top level world racing events in that regular riders can sign up to race alongside the world’s best on the same tracks. Racing takes place in a rally style format with timed (mainly downhill) stages and non-timed transitions between these stages.
2016 is the fourth year of the Enduro World Series with eight rounds taking the riders to Chile, Argentina, Ireland, Italy, USA, Canada, France and the final round in Italy.
For further queries contact info@biking.ie or 083-4173899. The official website can be found at emeraldenduro.com and you can follow us on social media @emeraldenduro on Twitter and on the facebook page at www.facebook.com/emeraldenduro.
Visit www.enduroworldseries.com for more and to view videos of previous events.
