The Enduro World Series (EWS) announced on April 28 that the CamelBak Canadian Open Enduro was one of three races that will not run in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EWS announced changes to five races, cancelling stops in: Val di Fassa/Canazei, Italy; Burke Mountain, Vt.; and Whistler. As well, the two-country race in Petzen, Austria and Jamnica, Slovenia was rescheduled until October, while the Valberg, France event was moved within the country to Olargues and bumped back until October. As it currently stands, the six-stop schedule will begin Aug. 30 at Zermatt, Switzerland.
"In our best effort to balance the health and safety of our riders, fans and staff we have made the hard decision to cancel a number of events and to push our season start back to the end of August," EWS managing director Chris Ball said in a release. "By working pragmatically and putting riders first, and by working closely with our colleagues at the UCI we feel that these changes will still provide great racing towards the end of the year.
"We look forward to visiting the great communities we will miss this year when we return to them in 2021."
The Canadian Open Enduro is traditionally the first major event of Crankworx Whistler, running on the Saturday and Sunday of the festival's opening weekend, which this year was slated for Aug. 8 and 9.
"To be honest, at this point, I don't know how it'll impact [us]," Crankworx World Tour general manager Darren Kinnaird said in an interview. "We're still working on what Crankworx is going to look like this summer."
At this point, Crankworx Whistler is slated to run as planned for Aug. 5 to 16.
For more on this, pick up the April 30 edition of Pique.
