Alestrem Hard Enduro

The opening round of the Hard Enduro World Championship took place over the weekend at the Alestrem Hard Enduro race in France. This event gave fans everything you could expect from hot, dry and dusty conditions in the Prologue to a cold, wet and slippery main race. We have some of the top riders in the world supported by Plews including Mario Roman, Matthew Green, James Moore, Will Hoare, Toby Shaw, Francesc Moret, Marc Fernandez and Radford Chugg.

Riders had three days of racing with Xtreme Test on Friday where riders set their qualifying runs. Looking at the results we had Mario in 4^th, Will in 9^th, Francesc in 10^th, James in 12^th, Toby in 14^th, Marc in 15^th, Matt in 19^th and Radford in 34^th.

@HEWC

Moving onto day 2 riders had the Prologue which set their starting positions for the main race day. Riders race in heats until there are just 20 left for the first two start rows of the main race. Will had a great result in 7^th with Toby closely behind in 8^th. Marc in 12^th, James in 13^th, Matthew in 17^th, Francesc in 18^th and Mario in 20^th. @HEWC

Looking at the main race on Sunday, riders had four hours to complete 3 laps which got progressively harder. Starting with a green line then moving to two blue lines before a final technical hill climb to the finish. While the event organisers had this schedule planned, the weather had other ideas and with an absolute downpour mid-race the track managers were forced to make quick changes to the track.

Mario Roman had some great racing and would pull off an jaw dropping move right on the final hill passing Teodor to cross the line in second place. Reflecting on his weekend Mario shares that it wasn’t the best weekend, starting on the 2^nd row from 20^th, and with the rain shower the track became so slick. He managed to cross the finish as the 2^nd rider and is super stoked and proud of himself. Talking about his tyre choice he mentioned that in the beginning they used a harder compound for the first two laps but once it became slick they changed the whole wheel like many of the riders and with The Tough One super soft it was unbelievable with so much grip. It was clear to see the performance when he was one of the only riders clearing the final hill climb.

@HEWC

Matt Green also had a good race coming across the line in 8^th place and finishing in style. His weekend started with quite a few crashed and falls during the Xtreme test and prologue days but he pulled it together for the main race and pushed through some super technical sections as well as extremely slippery hill climbs.

@HEWC

Looking at the overall Results in the Junior Championship we have James Moore in 2nd and Toby Shaw in third. We also have two youth riders, Damon Garrell sitting in 1st and Kyle Gianotti in 3rd. 

Only 10 riders made it across the finish before the time bar with the rest of the positions determined by the last completed checkpoint. Plews Tyres is proud to be the official tyre sponsor for the championship providing riders with world class tyres and a hospitality zone for spectators. The next round will be at Extreme Lagares in Portugal in only 2 weeks time.