Jared Stock & Amber Giroux Light Up Round 4 of the SOR Enduro Championship.
Story: Noel Flatters - Editor - The Enduro Bureau
July 14, 2024
Round 4 of the 2024 SOR Enduro Championship took place this past weekend in central Alberta, and it was Jared Stock (KTM Canada / Leatt / SOR Enduro) and Amber Giroux (Rainy Creek Powersports / Klim / M7 Graphics / Sosa Original) on the top steps of the podium as the series moved into XC format.
Key Points
Stock took the win over Travis Reed (BFD Moto / GasGas Canada) and Shane Cuthbertson (Rad 2.0 / GasGas Canada / BFD Moto) in a race that was much tighter than the results might indicate with Stock being the only rider to make the 11th lap. He and Reed were wheel to wheel for the first two-thirds of the race, with Reed running very strongly in the wet conditions that prevailed in the first four to five laps.
It was a small Pro Women field for this round, but series newcomer Giroux took the win over Courtney Schmale (KTM Canada / Leatt / SOR Enduro) in very wet and rainy conditions that turned both the grass track and singletrack sections into slick insanity.
Round 4 saw the series switch from a Sprint Enduro to XC format. It was interesting to see how some of the sprint leaders dropped back in the Pro Men as they had to deal with a 2.5 hour race time. Round 5 will also run as an XC, and we’ll see who makes the fitness gains to challenge Stock, Reed, and Cuthbertson.
Pro Men - Stock Flys as Course Dries
Jared Stock put on a clinic Sunday to beat Travis Reed in the new XC format that will close out the last two rounds of the SOR Enduro Championship. In a race that started in wet and very slippery conditions, Stock went bar-to-bar with hard enduro specialist Reed. Just back from Silver Kings Hard Enduro in Idaho, Reed took advantage of his technical skills on the wet track to keep pace with test racing specialist Stock. As the course dried out by lap 5, though, Stock took the lead and never looked back as he was able to really push his stiffer cross country bike setup to run the fastest laps in Pro Men for his final 6 laps.
Pro Women - Giroux Turns the Screws
The Pro Women headed out in relatively dry conditions, but by lap 3 the weather came in and turned the course into a skating rink. Amber Giroux, in her first race of the series, demonstrated her technical riding skills as she kept things smooth on her way to the win. Courtney Schmale showed her technical riding skills were solid, too, but didn’t have enough on the day to close the gap to Giroux after an adventurous first two laps.
Round 3 of the SOR Enduro Series takes place on the weekend of June 15th at Xtreme Raceways in Alix, Alberta.