Impressively close racing at 2026 Assoluti Italian Enduro Championship rounds three and four in Pomarance sees Albin Norrbin take a maiden overall on day one and Brad Freeman return to the top of a podium on day two.

With 36 foreign riders among the 140 starters in this second weekend of Italian national enduro championship, the Assoluti d’Enduro in Pomarance, it is easy to see to in fluence of the series in world enduro.

With so many of the world championship riders and teams based in Italy, and with the first EnduroGP round in Sicily just two weeks away now, it should come as no surprise to see this weekend‘s racing super-close as riders fine-tune before the GP of Italy on April 10-12.

It should not have come as a surprise either that, with two special tests remaining on day one in Pomerance, the overall podium was made up entirely of foreign riders, with Albin Norrbin (Husqvarna – NSA Motors Racing Team) leading Brad Freeman (Beta – Beta Factory) and Steve Holcombe (Sherco – Team Sherco CH Racing), plus Andrea Verona (KTM – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) to leading Italian rider, all fighting for the top spot.

When Verona won the third Cross Test of the day — in fact, he won all of them — moving himself into second place behind the impressive Norrbin, that dropped Freeman to third it looked done and dusted. But in the final special, the Bardhal Extreme Test, the British rider responded by taking the win, leaving the Italian rider third in the special test and also third overall… by just 11 hundredths of a second.

Video highlights from both days in our seperate story: 2026 Assoluti Italian Enduro Championship Rnds 3+4 Video Highlights

A bit of KTM history

Now racing for the NSA Motors Racing Team, Albin Norrbin‘s victory is notable not just for the Swedish rider taking a first-ever victory overall in the Italian series but because it is finally a maiden win for a fuel injected two-stroke Husqvarna (KTM). Although this is not quite world championship racing, that‘s a fact we‘ve been a long while waiting to write since the first TPI (now TBI) came out of Mattighofen approaching a decade ago.

Friday Super Test winner, Steve Holcombe was therefore relegated to fourth, while fifth place went to Albergo Elgari (TM – TM Boano Factory), 41.01 seconds behind the winner.

Matteo Cavallo (TM – TM Boano Factory) finished sixth overall, 50.58 seconds adrift, before the run of Italian riders was interrupted by Hamish Macdonald (Sherco – Team Sherco CH Racing), who took seventh by 36 hundredths over Nathan Watson (Beta – Beta Factory).

Watson in turn finished eighth ahead of French rider Romain Dagna in ninth by 91 hundredths, while Dagna himself held six tenths of a second over Sweden’s Max Ahlin (Honda – Honda Racing Red Moto), who completed the top ten which contained seven foreign riders.

Day 2 Sees Beta One-Two

It is not so much the fact that Brad Freeman won six out of nine special tests, but rather that each time he built up a valuable cushion which meant he was able to manage an advantage on the second day of the Assoluti d’Italia here in Pomarance.

Behind him, however, everything happened in the battle for second and third place, to the extent that with just one special test remaining, the gaps between three riders were within a single second: Andrea Verona, Nathan Watson and Albin Norrbin.

The final 24MX Cross Test proved decisive, and Watson showed his old motocross skills to win it, taking 1.21 seconds out of Verona and securing second overall with an advantage of 55 hundredths of a second over Verona third. Watson was 26.36 seconds behind Freeman for a famous Beta one-two result as both these riders return from knee surgery.

A wooden medal goes to day one’s winner Albin Norrbin, who finished 32.85 seconds behind Freeman with Elgari once again fifth overall, ahead of Holcombe not feeling it on day two in sixth, Cavallo seventh with less than two seconds in hand over Max Ahlin in eighth, Morgan Lesiardo in ninth by just 68 hundredths of a second and Theo Espinasse completed the top 10 overall.

The Italian Championship resumes on April 18-19 in Caltanissetta and not before the first EnduroGP round of the season, the GP of Italy in Custonaci, Sicily, April 10-12). Add Josep Garcia, who’s warming up for the ’26 season racing in his domestic Spanish series, into the mix and we have what looks like being the closest contest in years.

Assoluti d’Enduro Round 3 Pomarance, results:

Assoluti d’Enduro Round 4 Pomarance, results:

Photo Credit: Off Road Pro Racing