Oct 14, 2022

Toni Ferreiro shows José Hermida the world of enduro racing at THE MERIDA EX Enduro presented by Shimano

He’s a World Champion and Olympian, but despite such a long and varied career in cross-country and marathon mountain bike racing, José Hermida is still keen to try his hand at a new discipline – so who better to introduce him to the world of enduro racing than fellow MERIDA athlete Toni Ferreiro?

With Toni’s wealth of experience in top-level racing in the Enduro World Series across the globe, he’d be the ideal guide to provide José with some professional tips to make the most of his very first enduro race experience. 

However, the pair would be entering no ordinary race, with the three-day MERIDA EX Enduro presented by Shimano offering plenty of opportunity for José to immerse himself in this new world. As the event also served as the press launch of the all-new ONE-SIXTY and ONE-FORTY ranges, they’d also have brand-new bikes that would be more than up to the job of tackling 23 race stages, flat out.

Toni’s weapon of choice would be the longer travel ONE-SIXTY 6000, while José chose the shorter travel but still extremely capable ONE-FORTY 8000 with an eye on capitalising on his undoubted fitness.

The pair quickly threw themselves into the self-supported nature of the event, prepping their bikes and enjoying the laid-back vibes, all while discovering the incredible riding that few people outside this corner of the world are aware of.

With the race underway, Toni quickly established a convincing lead in the event, despite plenty of stiff competition from a field that included an ex-World Cup downhill professional and plenty of local talent. Also applying the pressure was none other than the MERIDA marketing team’s dark horse, videographer Markus Kopp, who quickly started staking out his space on the podium each day.

While José’s learning curve in this new sport was steep, he quickly found his feet – and when it came to parts of the event such as the untimed ‘Vominator’ climbing challenge, he firmly stamped his authority and gave even the e-bikers a run for their money.

After three days of thrills, spills, fun times and some close racing, the results were in, with the MERIDA athletes having some excellent results. It was a convincing win for Toni in the overall ranking with Markus third, while José took a very respectable fourth place in the Vets category against some highly experienced competition.

Of course, it was also an excellent result for the new bikes, with the overall win, top spot in Grand Vets and two out of three podium places in the Open Male category; proving that the R&D team had got the right recipe for our new enduro and all-mountain machines.

You can check out the full video below or use the link here.

To find out more about the ONE-SIXTY range, head here.

To learn all about the new ONE-FORTY, check out the page here

If THE MERIDA EX Enduro presented by Shimano has got you interested, you can find out more about this year’s event here.