Extreme XL Lagares 2021 - Race Report
Opening Round of the 2021 FIM Hard Enduro World Championships - The 16th edition of event held in Lagares, Porto area, Portugal - 7th, 8th & 9th May.
The event programme should have been as follows: 7th May - Endurocross in Vila Nova de Gaia. 8th May - Prologue in Serra da Boneca. 9th May - Main hard enduro event - a 71km lap through the renowned tough river beds of Lagares. Due to COVID-19, the usual Prologue through the iconic streets of Porto was not able to run.
Whilst we were there covering the event on the morning of Friday 7th, overnight news of a public health ruling was unfortunately confirmed, which meant a big twist to the running of the event. Due to the COVID-19 situation, the government had enforced that the Main Event could not go ahead in Lagares, nor the Prologue in Serra da Boneca and all racing had to take place inside the Vila Nova de Gaia arena itself, behind closed doors.
This meant the whole format of the event had to change and would now be an Endurocross-only event! With this news, we saw a lot of Amateurs actually leave and go home, as many of the International riders focussed their training and preparation to ride the infamous rocky gullies and riverbeds of Lagares, not simply compete in Endurocross. The Pros on the other hand all stayed due to World Championship points still being on offer. Our sponsored rider Jonny Walker of Beta Factory Racing was ready and raring to go on his Beta 300 RR 2021.
Jonny Walker’s Mechanic; Marc Robert, setting up Walker’s Beta 300 RR for the Endurocross-only event
Friday 7th May - Endurocross
The day was sunny and warm, track conditions were dry and had to be watered to dampen the dust. It was a day of practice and qualifying for the Amateurs, including the Hobby class, Veterans class and Expert class. There was no practice or qualifying for the Pro Class on the Friday.
The Amateur riders getting to grips with the XL Lagares Endurocross course
Saturday 8th May - Pro Class Practice
The Pro class riders had to have their bikes in Parc Ferme by 11am, 1 hour before Practice, which lasted 1 hour. On another sunny and dry day, the Pros took to the track to test the conditions and the set-up of their bikes. After Practice, mechanics were able to make tweaks to bikes before Qualifying took place.
Jonny Walker on his way to Saturday Practice.
Saturday 8th May - Pro Class Qualifying
Qualifying consisted of 2 flying laps; the best time being taken from those 2 laps in order to group the Pros into 2 Classes of 20 Riders for Sunday’s Racing - Pro Class 1 and Pro Class 2. The top 3 times from qualifying were:
- Billy Bolt on the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna TE 300i - 1 min 24.791
- Jonny Walker on the Beta 300 RR - 1 min 24.971
- Taddy Blazusiak on the Gas Gas EC 300 - 1 min 27.371
Other names that qualified for the Pro Class 1 Event on Sunday included: Mario Roman, Wade Young, Manuel Lettenbichler, Graham Jarvis, Alfredo Gomez, Teodor Kabakchiev, Will Hoare & Jono Richardson of the newly formed Jarvis Race Team, Dominik Olszowy, Kevin Gallas, Leon Hentschel, Matthew Green, Suff Sella, Diogo Vieira, Milan Schmueser and David Leonov.
Jonny walker on the way to the 2nd fastest qualification time.
Sunday 9th May - Main Event
The weather changed completely overnight, causing much of the Endurocross course to be waterlogged. The conditions for the Main Event were so bad, that just before the start of the Pro Race, it was announced by the FIM Hard Enduro Championship Director, that there would be no World Championship points on offer for this opening round in Lagares, as he deemed conditions to be too “unsafe”. There was an audible groan from the pre-race huddle of riders but the majority would still compete for pride rather than points.
With this update, Jonny Walker decided to pull out of the event, as he had been suffering with a knee injury and understandably didn’t want to make that worse. With no points on offer, it was the right decision to make.
Track conditions for the Main Event were in stark contrast to the previous day’s Qualifying.
Sunday 9th May - Main Event Endurocross still goes ahead.
Racing for the Pros consisted of 3 races of 20 minutes + 1 lap duration. From the first 2 races it was clear that the overall winner would be between Billy Bolt of Rockstar Energy Husqvarna or Manuel Lettenbichler of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing on his KTM 300 EXC TPI. Bolt won both the first 2 races and finished 2nd in the final race to take the overall win. Lettenbichler finished 2nd overall with another strong performance from the renowned Graham Jarvis on his Husqvarna TE 300i, finishing 3rd. Wade Young of Sherco Factory Racing finished a respectable 4th, with Alfredo Gomez finishing 5th, meaning 3 riders from the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Team finished in the top 5! Rounding out the top 10 overall were Dominik Olszowy in 6th, Teodor Kabakchiev in 7th, Mario Roman in 8th, Taddy Balzusiak in 9th and Kavin Gallas in 10th
Pro Class 1 start of the Endurocross Main Event.
Billy Bolt on his way to the overall win.
The Pro Class 1 podium Extreme XL Lagares 2021.
Next round of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship
With the opening round of the championship so badly affected by COVD-19 and then the weather, the riders were already looking ahead to the next round; the Erzbergrodeo, in Austria. Unfortunately, the announcement came over the weekend of XL Lagares that this in fact would be cancelled completely for 2021. The next round of the championship will therefore now be the new Abestone Hard Enduro in Bologna, Italy. Corona depending, AS3 Performance are looking forward to being there to cover that event too and hopefully that will kick-off the Hard Enduro World Championship points nicely.
