Enduro European Championship: the off-road is back to thrill

Enduro European Championship:
the off-road is back to thrill

On Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 April the Enduro European Championship started its season in Castel di Tora, Italy.
A total of 132 riders competed: a considerable number in view of the various international anti Covid-19 regulations and since some riders had to stay at home involuntarily.
A “world” round, as some riders took part as training for the Enduro World Championship.

Day 1
The Italian Thomas Oldrati and his French teammate Theophile Espinasse won the first and second place with Honda RedMoto World Enduro Team. It could have gotten the first three places, but the Finnish Roni Kytönen finished fourth after a crash. As the three guests do not get points for the European Championship, the best rider in the European Championship was the Italian Diego Nicoletti (Husqvarna), third overall. Only six seconds behind Enrico Rinaldi finished second, while the reigning champion in the small two-stroke class Maurizio Micheluz turned out to be a true old master winning his class and the third overall position.

Day 2
On the second day the competition was shortened to two laps due to the bad weather conditions. Many riders were unable to keep the pace and some got totally left behind: all this did not affect the Honda RedMoto World Enduro Team riders and Oldrati, Espinasse and Kytönen got the top three in the overall standing.
The best rider in the European standing was the Italian Rinaldi: the GasGas rider thus takes the lead in the European Championship, while Saturday’s winner Diego Nicoletti was tied on points with the reigning champion of the 250cc two-stroke class, Maurizio Micheluz, in second place. Micheluz, already 38 years old, won his class on Sunday too. Fifth place in the standing for the Czech Krystof Kouble, the first foreigner at this opening round. Only in three classes no Italian is currently leading the championship: the French Justine Martel won the women’s class again, as she did the day before. In the large four-stroke class, Jaromir Romancik leads the standing after his second day’s victory, in the large two-stroke class it’s the French Thibaut Passet who also steers his Beta on a championship course with two day’s victories.

The next round of the European Enduro Championship will be on 7th-8th August in the Czech Republic.