2025 EnduroGP of Portugal
By Team TMX on 7th Apr 25
The opening round of the 2025 Paulo Duarte FIM EnduroGP World Championship held at Fafe in Portugal delivered more than its fair share of shocks as TM’s Zachary Pichon ran 2-1 in the headlining EnduroGP class to take an early lead in the series. The French E2 rider also won his class on each day and will head to round two of the championship in Spain with the upper hand over his competition.
The event kicked off with Friday night’s Akrapovic Super Test, where Polish hard enduro specialist Dominik Olszowy set the fastest time on his factory Rieju. Pichon placed second ahead of Sherco’s Hamish MacDonald as the series perennial favourites Josep Garcia (Red Bull KTM), Steve Holcombe (RedMoto Honda) and Andrea Verona (GASGAS) finished ninth, 10th and 11th.
Normal service resumed during Saturday morning’s opening test as Garcia, Holcombe and Verona filled the top three spots to move to the head of the field – Garcia leading from Holcombe, Pichon and Verona. The four would battle all day – each taking test wins – and turns to lead the event. The final run through the Extreme test saw Holcombe and Verona both lose a lot of time, allowing Garcia and Pichon to take the top two spots.
The Spaniard needed no second invitation and did what was necessary to take the day win – both in EnduroGP and E1 – while Pichon held off Holcombe to take the E2 victory. MacDonald placed fifth outright behind Verona to take the E3 win by nine seconds over Sherco teammate Antoine Magain.
Day two was shaping up to be very different with Holcombe the dominant rider, opening up a 30-second lead at the head of the field. However, a crash in the second Enduro Test forced Holcombe to retire with a knee injury leaving the way clear for Pichon to take a maiden victory in the premier class. With Verona placing second and Garcia third, the French ace leads the series ahead of Garcia and Verona.
In the capacity classes, it was a weekend of consistent results. Garcia won E1 with a 1-1, RedMoto Honda’s Samuele Berardini ran 2-2 to secure second with Triumph’s Mikael Persson securing a pair of thirds to deliver the British manufacturer its first podium in the EWC. Jamie McCanney ran 4-5 for fourth in class with Jed Etchells (Fantic) seventh overall for the weekend, Alex Walton (Triumph) ninth and Harry Edmondson (Triumph) 10th.
Pichon leads the way in E2 – his double win putting him eight points clear of Verona who ran 3-2. Fantic’s Albin Norrbin bagged third for the weekend with 4-4 finishes with Beta’s Nathan Watson running 6-3. Holcombe’s no score sees him slide to seventh in the standings with a whole heap of work ahead of him.
E3 was dominated by Sherco riders with MacDonald, Magain and Frenchman Julien Roussaly hogging the podium. Brit Brad Freeman (Beta) placed fourth in class on day one but the pain from a knee injury proved too much and Freeman has decided reconstruction surgery is needed and that’s him done for the year.
Aussie Kawasaki rider Kyron Bacon topped the Junior class with a double victory as Leo Joyon (Beta) and Kevin Cristino (Fantic) traded seconds and thirds. Sam Davies (GASGAS) put points into his account on both days with 13-15 finishes.
The Youth class was hard-fought with Itay’s Alberto Elgari (TM) finishing second on day one behind Frenchman Romain Dagna (KTM) but improving to take the win on day two as Dagna dropped to third behind Fantic’s Pietro Scardina who had a 3-2 weekend. Welshman Sam Hughes (KTM) ended the weekend 13th after placing 11th on day two. Rees Jones (GASGAS) had a 14th on day one to open his world championship account.
Team HRC’s Francesca Nocera started the series with a dominant double victory in the Women’s class ahead of US-import Rachel Gutish (Rieju) who placed second on both days and Nieve Holmes (Sherco) who was equally consistent as she ran 3-3. Fellow Brit Rosie Rowett (Rieju) started her year with 4-5 results.
The all-new Junior Women’s class was dominated by TM’s Libby Tett who won both days by a good margin. It was fairly consistent behind her too as Lorna Lafont (Sherco) ran 2-2, Matilda Ahlstrom (Husqvarna) bagged a pair of thirds and Delun Davies (Fantic) ran 4-4 to secure fourth overall.
The series resumes on the weekend of May 2-4 with the GP of Spain in Oliana.
