Daniel Booker triumphed in a nail-biting back-and-forth with Sławomir Łukasik (Yeti / Fox Factory Race Team) at the UCI Enduro World Cup round in Loudenvielle - Peyragudes (France), presented by FACOM, as Ella Conolly underlined that she’s the woman to beat in a dominant showing at the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series.

Conolly took her first victory of the season by 40 crushing seconds over Morgane Charre (Pivot Factory Racing), taking four stages out of five to put the rest of the women’s Elite field firmly in the category of also-rans.

Things were tighter in the men’s Elite race though, as Booker led by only a couple of seconds with two stages to go before responding in fine style to take his second round of the season.

Meanwhile both Lacey Adams (Yeti / Fox Factory Race Team) and Melvin Almueis extended their lead in the Junior standings with victory in Loudenvielle.

The area’s popularity with both local and tourist mountain bikers meant the trail dirt was hard-packed, on a course where line choice was less important than riding the main line well.

And in sharp contrast to last year’s mudfest, the hot and dry conditions ramped up descent speeds making particularly the tree sections even more intense.

BOOKER BESTS ŁUKASIK AFTER FIVE-ROUND SLUGFEST

Booker prevailed in an arduous men’s race that was the tightest of all four Elite and Junior enduro events in Loudenvielle, taking his second ever UCI World Cup round just a few weeks after winning his first in Pietra Ligure, Finale Outdoor Region (Italy).

Booker laid down a marker on Nabias, as riders started with arguably the toughest stage of the day - a 3.6km descent of 730 vertical metres that got steeper as the trail went on, sapping arm strength all the way.

Booker edged out Alex Rudeau by two seconds, with round two victor Sławomir Łukasik a similar margin back in fourth, though the Pole would roar back on Privilege to take the overall lead by the narrowest of margins: 0.006 seconds.

Booker was fifth on the stage as Matthew Walker (Pivot Factory Racing) pushed Łukasik closest with the top seven separated by 5.2 seconds on the stage, and miniscule time gaps on Six Pack left things as they were.

So, it was all to play for on a super-steep 1,100m stage four that threatened either no time gaps or massive ones with plenty of incident potential, and it proved the decisive separation between the two favourites with Łukasik down in 11th and Booker claiming back all the time he’d lost on Privilege.

That meant heading into stage five - the most technical of them all - Booker had seven seconds in hand over the rest of the field and he produced a champion’s ride to seal his triumph.

Meanwhile Łukasik somewhat crumbled, losing 10 seconds (his biggest margin of the day on a single stage) and allowing Alex Rudeau to vault up into second place after he’d been pretty quiet since stage one.

Even the flying Canadian Jesse Melamed (Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team) couldn’t stop Booker from taking his third stage of the day, while Łukasik at least has the consolation of retaining the overall leader’s jersey by 310 points from today’s winner.

"Very exciting to get the win here, I never had a super standout result here but I’ve loved the trails every year,” Booker said. “Today even if I made mistakes I was still carrying speed, I was happy and the trails were running good so it was a great day, I was loving riding.

"Nice to climb back up a bit, had a bit of drama in Poland so hopefully we can keep going with the first places.”

CONOLLY CROWNED QUEEN OF LOUDENVIELLE-PEYRAGUDES

Ella Conolly extended her lead at the top of the Women Elite UCI Enduro World Cup in comfortable fashion - or as comfortable as she could be pelting down five stages featuring an average downhill gradient of 20%.

And she now has a victory to go with her overall superiority having been the bridesmaid to Harriet Harnden (Aon Racing - Tourne Campervans) and Elly Hoskin in Pietra Ligure and the Enduro Trails of Bielsko-Biała (Poland).

Conolly stamped her authority on proceedings right from the opening stage, beating Morgane Charre by 4.27 seconds on Nabias and the rest of the field by over 20.  And with the opening two stages being the longest of the day, Conolly had an opportunity to virtually kill off the round by the end of Privilege.

She took it, surging down the exposed hillside to finish another five seconds ahead of Charre while Nadina Ellecosta (Abetone Ancillotti Vittoria Factory Team) was third on the stage and overall in a tight battle for ‘best of the rest’.

Stage three was a marked change to the start of the day, a short sharp dive through the trees that gave Charre the chance to fight back, she bested Conolly by a second while behind, less than four seconds separated third-placed Ellecosta and Estelle Charles in tenth.

Conolly was back in business on Pourticou though, putting everyone except Charre and Ellecosta at over a minute behind as Winnifred Goldsbury took third on the stage.

And neither Goldsbury nor anyone else could stop her on the final stage as Charre finished fifth but still claimed second overall while Conolly further extends her lead at the top of the standings.

“The race was amazing, it was really cool to race here in Loudenvielle in the dry,” Conolly said afterwards. “It was a big contrast to last year and a big contrast to our previous world cup round in Poland.

“My race day went pretty smoothly, I started really fast and had a bit of a slide, a little crash so decided to be a bit more calculated, a bit smoother through the race and pushed everywhere I could. Leading the world cup still, so happy with that.”

ALMUEIS AND ADAMS EXTEND JUNIOR LEADS

Melvin Almueis copied Conolly’s homework for the opening two stages of the men’s Junior race, building a commanding lead that he held to the finish line of Kern without being fastest on any of the three remaining legs.

Almueis put 8.22 seconds into compatriot Hugo Marti Montessinos and almost 13 into Cooper Millwood who would ultimately be his closest challenger again, as in Pietra Ligure.

The Kiwi pulled time back on Six Pack, gaining a couple of seconds on the top two, before Nacho Ballester Ferrer claimed a surprise win on stage four, beating Gabriel Sainthuile by only six tenths.

Millwood returned to the top of the timesheets on Kern but Almueis knew he just needed to keep within range of the Kiwi and duly finished two seconds back to claim his second round of the season.

Almueis said: “Loudenvielle was pretty good with the sun, it was better than Poland with the snow and I’m very happy to win here.”

Lacey Adams led the women’s Junior standings before today without winning a round, but that spell ended as she scorched to victory in France, claiming four stages out of five and beating Lucile Metge by an eye-watering 54 seconds overall despite crashing into a tree.

Only Metge’s Six Pack win by 1.7 seconds interrupted Adams’ dominance, as the Australian also claimed the majority of her victory margin (43 seconds) in the opening two stages to pad her overall lead.

“The race was awesome, I enjoyed every stage,” Adams said. “The track’s running amazing and super-stoked with coming first, such a sick venue. I did have a little off on stage five, I just hit a tree and hit my knuckle but it was sweet, just kept riding.”

They were following in the tyre tracks of another successful round of Enduro Open races on Friday in Loudenvielle - Peyragudes featuring 124 participants across various categories, including both enduro and e-enduro.

Adams, Almueis, Conolly and Booker will return next weekend on a packed slate at Saalfelden Leogang-Salzburgerland (Austria) featuring all disciplines of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series for only the second time ever, as cross-country and downhill riders will also be in attendance.