EWS#3, Hopes ended on day two

The third round of the Enduro World Series won’t be remembered as a good one by the BMC Factory Trailcrew. François Bailly-Maître broke his scapula, Lorraine Truong ended up in a disappointing 9th place and Florian Golay broke his rear brake lever after hitting a tree in the last stage.

The first day of racing in Scotland went rather well for the BMC Factory Trailcrew. After four stages, Lorraine Truong was in a promising sixth position (with a 4th and a 5th stage places), a few seconds only from the top 5 and François Bailly-Maître was in 15th place which left him some hopes for a top-10 final result.

Unfortunately, things did not go so well today. Due to very strong winds forecasted for the afternoon, the organizers decided to cancel two of the four stages which left riders with a very thin margin of error. Every little mistake would cost some precious seconds and places.

Lorraine Truong could not hold to her sixth place and had to settle for ninth. “I am very disappointed. I really liked stage 5 during practice and was really looking forward to racing it. I thought I could make some good time there but finally lost some…”.

In the men’s race, François Bailly-Maître had a great 5th stage and was in a provisional 12th place with only one stage to go. Unfortunately, he crashed heavily in the last drop of the stage, about a 100m from the finish line. The French rider has to pull his bike to the line before collapsing. The diagnostic is heavy: his scapula is broken in three places which could keep him off the bike for six weeks. 

Photos: Ian Rutheford Photography