The WP Eric Augé rider Jaume Betriu bagged the win at the 2022 Bassella Race 1 festival of enduro ahead of Cristóbal Guerrero and Kiwi Hamish Macdonald – Jonny Walker claims victory in the Xtreme race and Ivan Cervantes takes the Maxitrail crown on a Triumph.

2022 BR1 in a nutshell:

• The annual season enduro festival and Spanish season opener Bassella Race 1 kicks off with an extreme race on the Saturday which saw a battle between Jonny Walker and Mario Román for the win. In the end it was Jonny who got the best of Mario with Teodor Kabakchiev rounding out the podium.
• With the hard enduro guys not racing the main race on Sunday, the doors are open for the overall winner with Pro and Junior classes completing two laps of around 60 kilometres of the Bassella course.
• After not having his best time at Saturday’s Xtreme race, Jaume Betriu, redeemed himself with a dominant win on Sunday’s race. The WP Eric Augé rider was at another level, clocking a lap time that was nearly two minutes faster than anyone else to arrive with a 5:20 advantage at the finish.
• “It's been a good day. I made a good start and in the first kilometres I had a good battle with Cris, Enric and Ramón”, said Betriu. “In the ice zone, I was able to overtake Enric and I was pulling him, even though my arms were stiff from yesterday's extreme.
• “At the half point more or less, I felt better and I was able to increase my pace. On the second lap I saw that I had left Cris behind and then I pushed harder. I was able to get rid of the 'plugs', I didn't crash and the bike worked flawlessly. I'm happy, we made a good strategy by refuelling after a lap and a half to be able to go flat out from the start. I'm very happy to win here at home.”
• Second place went to Cristóbal Guerrero. The Beta mounted Spaniard was able to stay on Betriu’s wheel on the first lap, but lost some time on lap two when Betriu upped the pace and had to settle with second.
• Hamish Macdonald enjoyed his first time at the Bassella Race 1 and came out with the final place of the overall podium. The Kiwi, who’s no stranger to an extreme race, surprisingly struggled on Saturday’s Xtreme race, placing 25th. But Hammy was back on familiar territory on Sunday and showed why he’s one of the top EnduroGP riders turing it around to grab the podium.
• Pau Tomás took Rieju to fourth place overall with Enric Francisco closing the top five in his first race as Betriu’s WP Eric Augé teammate.
• Àlex Puey got the win in the Junior class thanks to his 10th overall. Alfredo Pellicer and Lluis Gonfaus were second and third respectively.
• In the Maxitrail race for Adventure and Rally bikes, Ivan Cervantes grabbed the with in front of Alessandro Ruoso and Gerard Farrés.

2022 BR1 results:

Xtreme race results:

Maxitrail results:

Photo credit: Nicki Martínez | Enduro21 + FotoEsport.cat