Top Five Finish for Callaghan at EDR World Championships
Riders arrived in Val di Fassa, Italy for the UCI Mountainbike
Enduro and E-Enduro World Championships to find a thick layer of snow coating
the trails.
The cold snap did not stop practice going ahead on Friday
and Saturday, but it did mean some small changes to some stages for race day on
Sunday.
Coming into the weekend, Irish rider Greg Callaghan was
riding high having bagged a third-place finish in the final round of the Enduro
World Series. A sixth place finish on the opening stage, followed by a fourth
on the second and third stages shot Callaghan into fourth spot overall. A
seventh place finish on the penultimate stage pushed him back to fifth, and a
big push to finish third on Stage 5 solidified his top five finish.
The top five finish in the inaugural Enduro World
Championships tops off a competitive year for Callaghan, with a World Cup podium and
an eighth place overall in the UCI EDR World Cup rankings and another Irish National
Championship.
Kelan Grant was the other Irish representative in Val di
Fassa. Competing in the e-bike category meant a longer day for Grant, with a
loop of 53km and nine stages.
Grant battled the conditions all day, and despite the sloppy
conditions managed to get himself inside the top 20 on three stages. Fighting
against the cold and wet throughout the day paid off, and Grant finished 25th
overall in a very strong field.
The 25th place for Grant in this World
Championships rounds out a strong year, that included a 16th place overall
finish in the e-EDR World Cup standings, four top-20 finishes and a top 10.