Jesse Melamed followed up his Enduro World Cup (EDR) bronze medal from Val di Fassa with another on Saturday in La Thuile, Italy.
Notching a combined time of 27 minutes and 12.548 seconds, the Whistlerite joined a podium alongside gold medallist and EDR overall king Slawomir Lukasik (27:08.758), as well as silver medallist Charles Murray (27:08.808).
"[Fourth] going into the last stage, my mindset was bin it or win it," Melamed remarked on social media. "I didn’t bin it and I didn’t win it, but I sure as hell tried. Fierce battle to the end, ended up [third] and hyped with that. Night stage goes good."
Poland's Lukasik and his Kiwi opponent Murray went down to the wire, but when the dust had settled it was Lukasik emerging victorious by just five-hundredths of a second to lock down his EDR overall throne.
"It was a really good day on the bike," said Lukasik in a press release. "It was so much fun riding here and every stage was amazing, with a bit of everything on it. It was a really good battle with Charles [Murray]...it was really great day. I can’t believe I’ve won the overall, it’s an amazing feeling and I’m so stoked about that. I’ve never been to Haute-Savoie so I’m excited about that race, but more relaxed because I took the overall win. It will be fun to ride and focus for the World Championships."
'I knew I could wrap up the title today'
Ella Conolly of Great Britain, meanwhile, secured an overall crown on the ladies' side by way of her second-place result (31:15.419). Nobody was faster than Slovakian Simona Kuchyňková, who rose to her maiden elite World Cup triumph (31:13.339), as French athlete Melanie Pugin came third (31:30.340).
Pacing all Canadians in sixth was Elly Hoskin (31:55.516).
"I knew I could wrap up the title today, so I’m happy with how I rode and Simona was just incredible today, she’s an insane rider so I’m really stoked for her," Conolly told reporters. "It’s been my best season so far and I’m really happy. It was my goal at the start of the season to win the overall. We’ll celebrate, we’ve got a small break until the next World Cup and then the World Championships is the next goal."
An emotional Kuchyňková said: "It feels so good to win my first-ever [elite race], it was such a long day. I had so many moments in this race, it means the world to me and I just need to process it right now. I’m so thankful and really grateful for everyone who stood behind me in really hard times. It feels so good. I was really looking forward to the nighttime stage as I was on a really good run. Then I came into the rock garden and I crashed. I thought it was over for me, I kept going and crossed the line. I saw everyone was so happy so I knew I had done it."
Click here for more results from La Thuile.
