Flo Espiñeira's story sounds like a fairy tale. The 31-year-old Chilean, who describes herself as a non-binary athlete, experienced a fundamental change in her life during the global COVID lockdown in 2020. She had previously focused on enduro racing in Chile, but realised that there was no way to gain a foothold as a professional biker at the time. In 2021, she therefore decided to leave her home near Santiago and move to the mountain bike paradise of Whistler. She originally planned to train as a mountain bike guide there. But fate had other plans for Flo Espiñeira.
Who is Flo Espiñeira?
- Nationality: Chile
- Age: 31
- Team: Orbea Fox Enduro Team
- EDR-E overall World Cup victory 2023, EWS-E overall victory 2022
After arriving in Whistler, Flo applied for the second season of the Pinkbike Academy. In the style of a reality TV series, five men and five women competed for a professional contract and 30,000 dollars in cash. Flo was selected for the Pinkbike Academy and ultimately crowned the winner in summer 2021. A second chance at a professional career? But sponsor Orbea didn't want to hear about it for the time being. They made it clear to the Chilean that they would pay her the money and support her with bikes, but that she would not automatically be part of the Orbea racing team. "Okay, that was completely new information for me at first," she says looking back today. But the miraculous story doesn't end there.
Soon afterwards, Espiñeira travelled to Orbea's headquarters in the Basque Country to introduce himself to the sponsor. And there they got talking about racing again. Orbea still had a place available on the works team, but only for the E-Enduro discipline. A juicy detail: Espiñeira had never ridden an e-mountainbike at that time.
Flo Espiñeiras Racing career
The rest of the story is familiar to those who have been following e-racing for the last two years: in her first season in the EWS-E, she started with a fourth place in the first race, followed by three second places and finally a victory at the season finale in Finale Ligure. In the end, she won the overall title with 2285 points, 500 points ahead of second-placed Sofia Wiedenroth. In 2023, E-Enduro racing was ennobled as a World Cup discipline and the EWS-E was renamed EDR-E. And Flo Espiñeira was able to confirm her performance from 2022. In five races, she finished on the podium five times and took three victories. In the end, she was crowned the overall winner of the new World Cup discipline EDR-E. It goes without saying that she is the clear favourite going into her third professional year in 2024. If you ask the Chilean about her strengths, she likes to point to her life story: she has raced without sponsors most of the time, which gives her more freedom than other riders. "I think a lot of riders put themselves under a lot of pressure. I have the feeling that they are afraid of losing what they have achieved. For me, that fear doesn't exist."
Flo Espiñeiras Bike: the Orbea Wild
Flo Espiñeiras Orbea Wild is a racy race enduro bikeconsistently trimmed for downhill speed. Uphill, the Bosch CX Race and helps with its Extended Boost function over difficult key sections. The Wild is one of the few bikes in the World Cup E-Enduro field that utilises a fully integrated battery. Flo could choose to ride the 625 or 750 Bosch battery, but opts for the smaller battery in the race due to its weight. To change the battery, the motor has to be removed. Flo's mechanic now manages the battery change at the pit stop as if in fast motion.
- Suspension travel: 170/160 mm
- Weight: 24.5 kilos race-ready
- Motor: Bosch Performance Line CX Race
- Battery: Bosch Powertube 625 Wh
The details
Like most e-enduro racers, Flo also relies on puncture protection downhill with downhill tyres and additional inserts: the Assegai from Maxxis rolls at the front and rear. No wonder her full carbon racing bike weighs 24.5 kilos and is significantly heavier than the 20.9 kilos of the standard Wild. Flo is not very tall and likes the fact that the compact rear triangle of her Orbea enduro bike with 448 millimetre short chainstays ensures manoeuvrability in tight spots. With a body weight of just 60 kilos, the Chilean is also quite light and therefore relies on the fine response behaviour of the suspension elements for maximum traction. She therefore uses a 160 millimetre Fox rear shock with a steel spring and a light spring rate of 300lb/in. At the front, she relies on a 38 mm Fox Factory with 170 mm travel. And what else? XTR brakes with 200 mm Galfer discs, 165 mm short Race Face Eras cranks and, of course, click pedals - will Flo Espiñeiras also win the EDR-E title in 2024 with this setup?
Josh Welz
Editor-in-Chief
