The first round of the European Extreme Enduro Cup was held at Tong, Leeds, in Great Britain. The expected snow and bad weather never materialised and although the race started in wet weather and the course remained wet and muddy, there was no heavy rain but even some sunny conditions.
Extreme Enduro specialist Graham Jarvis took the lead from the start. The expected challenge from David Knight, multi-world champion and multi-winner of this event did not happen because Knight crashed heavily on Lap 1 and was forced to retire. Ex Trial star Billy Bolt now concentrating on Extreme Enduro challenged Jarvis in the early stages, but then Graham started racing with his normal, smooth style he gained a good gap. Paul Bolton, coming back from a long period of stop due to injury, did a really good race, struggling with Bolt.
Jarvis had never won this event and was determined to do so. He finally took a well deserved victory, commenting that in this very tough event the most important thing was to not crash nor make mistakes. And after that 240 riders had been racing in the morning and afternoon, the course had become challenging and it was very easy to make mistakes.
Bolt kept the second place with Bolton finishing third. Keelan Hancock was consistent and earned the fourth position with World Enduro star Danny McCanney finishing 5th not even looking tired.
Another UK trial star of the World and European stage was Iwan Roberts, who dipped his toe into the Enduro scene for first time and finished an excellent sixth position.
It was good to see the Romanian riders Nicusor Botoaca and Dumitrescu rewarded for their long trip by gaining European points.
In the end, it was a tough event providing a good start to both British and European titles.
Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/303
