Mario Roman stormed to victory at round one of the 2021 Spanish Hard Enduro Championship at the Pascuet Offroad Center – Jonny Walker finished his first competitive outing on a Beta in runner-up place with Ramon Quer rounding the podium.

The Spanish Hard Enduro Championship kicked off in cold January conditions for more than 170 riders who faced three hours of a 6.5 kilometre extreme course designed in part by Alfredo Gomez.

Spanish Hard Enduro Rnd1 in a nutshell:

  • Sherco Factory Racing’s Mario Roman took a commanding win. The Sherco rider grabbed a great start and, once in front, set a really high pace which saw him lap everybody including Jonny Walker in second place.
  • “I'm stoked. We’re just at the end of January so it was cold.” Said Mario speaking to Enduro21 after the race. “I was really tired during the race because I'm hitting the gym hard these days to prepare for the season, but I feel great on the bike and I managed to put on a great pace.”
  • Second place went to Jonny Walker, who despite posting the fastest time in qualifying failed to stay on Mario’s wheel due to running a too-hard mousse in the rear. The now Beta rider also went down shortly after the start, forcing him to pit for repairs.
  • “I finished. Right from the second lap when I made a mistake in a bottleneck I knew my race was gone.” Admitted Walker. “I also choose the wrong mousse for the race, I went a bit too hard. When I realized this I just cruised to the end, but it has been a great training, it’s my first race since I broke my elbow. I haven’t raced Romaniacs or any other event since last year so my racecraft was bad, I made loads of silly mistakes, but the bike worked great.”
  • Ramon Quer, who has also made the move to Beta this season, finished third. We’re used to seeing Quer in the Spanish Enduro Championship but he has good experience in the extreme races. Together with Mario and Jonny he was the only rider to get laps under 16 minutes.
  • “I had a good start and then I was running with the top four without getting stuck in the hills or the bottlenecks.” Said Quer. “I felt great with the bike and the team has been spot on so I can only be pleased.”

 

 

  • The win in the Women's class went for Sandra Gómez who finished 23rd overall after completing eight laps around the track.
  • Xavi Leon finished fourth overall followed by Josu Artola who closed the top five and the group of riders to complete 11 laps, two less than Mario. Eloi Salsench finished sixth in his first race as a Rieju rider.
  • Trials rider Frances Moret, who races in the Trial2 class at the TrialGP World Championship, decided to try hard enduro and finished 13th.
  • In the amateur class Xose Maria Ogando took the win followed by Alex Puey and David Gomez. Miriam Rivera won the amateur women's class after completing four laps and finishing 29th overall.
  • What happened to Sam Sunderland. The Rally star completed the Saturday qualification but failed to show up for the Sunday main event. Maybe cold, northern Spain was a bit much after the Saudi desert.

Open class results:

open-results

Amateur class results:

trofeo-results

More information and full results: www.RFME.com

 

Photo Credit: Enduro21 | Nicki Martinez