Alex Cure and Julie Duvert, King and Queen of Marcora

While big parts of France and Europe are still covered under snow and mud, the mountain bike season has already started on the Riviera, favorite playground of 1001sentiers. The 1st round of the 12th Urge 1001 Enduro Tour, the enduro race King of Marcora, took place on January 21st.

Marcora is the name of the most iconic trail of the Dolceacqua valley, and it's on this epic trail (plus some others) that the 206 riders (including 29 e-bikes) were thrown into battle for the first race of 2018. On January 21st, they tackled a marathon stage of more than 10 km and 1300m of vertical drop, from the mountains to the sea! A stage which was as hard as it was amazing, playing on the sunny ridges and crossing a huge diversity of terrain, raced by waves of 6 riders in order to mark the beginning of the season in a strong way.

26 minutes of riding and battle later, Alex Cure (BH Miranda Racing Team) lifted the King of Marcora crown, 30 seconds in front of the EWS 2017 2nd overall Adrien Dailly (Lapierre) and 1min28 in front of Rémy Quillévéré, 3rd scratch & 1st amateur. On her side, Julie Duvert (Ibis) is the new Queen, while Switzerland's Florian Golay won the e-bike category in front of the 2 E-Team Mavic La Roue Libre riders: Olivier Giordanengo & Kenny Muller.

Next round of the Urge 1001 Enduro Tour will takes place on April 29, but before, if these nice pictures have inspired you, why not look up 1001sentiers in the South asap to grab a few good sunny and dusty rides...

SCRATCH:

1. Alexandre CURE (BH Miranda)
2. Adrien DAILLY (Lapierre)
3. Rémy QUILLEVERE (US Cagnes VTT)
4. Fabio BIANCHI (Supernatural)
5. Maxime ALESSANDRONI (AMSL Frejus)
6. Jérôme GILLOUX (UC Monaco LRL)
7. Noa SERET (AMSL Frejus Sunn)
8. Jérôme LAVORINI (Cycles Omega)
9. Guillaume BETTOLI (Spaceriders)
10. Arkadiusz PERIN (Team ABC)

GIRLS:

1. Julie DUVERT (UC Monaco Ibis)
2. Léona PIERRINI (FRC VTT)
3. Séverine CIGANA (Massilia BS)
4. Mary WRAGG-MONCORGE (Scott)
5. Séverine BARDET (ASML Levens)