Newly crowned with a fifth consecutive SuperEnduro World Championship, Enduro21 catches five with Billy Bolt to talk about hernias, Hard Enduro, how good the young riders are and Red Bull Tyne Ride ‘25.

Count them. Five SuperEnduro world titles. If you’re a trophy cabinet in the Bolt household you’re probably feeling the strain a bit by now as Billy keeps adding to the collection.

Not since the sport of Indoor Enduro grew to become a world championship, and eventually gain the name SuperEnduro, has any enduro rider come close to clocking as many consecutive overall championships in any enduro disciplines.

At that time Taddy Blazusiak was the undisputed king and clocked six in row (five FIM world championships and one World Cup as it was in 2009/2010 season) and who isn’t putting money on Billy to better Taddy’s record.

We’ve written it enough times in the last five years, but it remains the case: Billy Bolt is the master of this sport. The results stack up and it looks easy on paper but the 2025 season has been a tough one with new and old rivals stepping up their game to make Bolt work harder to achieve het same results – for the record 19 out of 21 heat races won again this season and fastest laps at every round by an average of two seconds.

Perhaps an unseen testament to how hard he works in SuperEnduro comes during the practice sessions where Billy unlocks the track, works hard on the fastest lines and puts together the laps which no-one else has been able to match all year. 

The hard work for the win is usually done in these practice sessions: “I’ve been working on that more this season to make sure – although it can be detrimental because everyone else can see what I’m doing and copies it.”

SuperEnduro world titles deserves huge credit but it’s also due for what he is doing for the sport, elevating it to a bigger audience but also proving to the catalyst for young riders.

Exactly how young riders are helping move the indoor sport forward, as well as 2025 Hard Enduro World Championship questions, Red Bull Tyne Ride and yet another trip to see a surgeon, are on the table as Enduro21 catches five with the Husqvarna Factory Racing rider…

Billy, firstly congratulations on the fifth world title in SuperEnduro.

Billy Bolt: “Thanks, I’ve said it a lot lately but even though I had a good advantage, you can never take things for granted in SuperEnduro. The boys, Jonny, Mitch and Ash are pushing so hard for the win I certainly can’t let my guard down and it might look easy but they aren’t making it easy.

“It’s great to wrap it up again in Newcastle, my hometown. The crowd’s amazing and the support is phenomenal. Five titles in a row is a pretty good feeling.”

With the season over, you went straight into surgery for a hernia operation?!

“Well, I’d been trying to keep it quiet, not a secret but not dwell on it too much because nine times out of 10 it doesn’t bother us. The trouble is when it does, it really does.”

So you’ve been riding with it all season, doesn’t it hurt or something?!

“In SuperEnduro, thankfully, it has been not too bad but there was one time when I was putting the holeshot device on when we came out on track for the third final of the night, and it popped out then. That wasn’t fun having to ride with that for a whole moto.”

There’s a whole world of braces out there, really odd-looking devices, some of which are rather erotic…

How long have you been riding with it?

“It’s something I’ve had for probably four years now and it hasn’t bothered us. I would feel it a little bit and then it would be ok and no bother for six weeks or two months.

“Then I went to the gym one day before the first round of SuperEnduro this year and woke up the next day with a lot of stomach pain. I was booked to ride that day and often sitting down in the van would help, so I drove to the track anyway, tried to ride but it was really bad like, I couldn't stand up straight and I said to my mechanic ‘I really need to go to the doctor’.

“I obviously I knew it was there for that four or five year period and at that time, just before this season, I was thinking I probably should have got this fixed when I had time off for one of the other multiple injuries I have had in the last few years or I’m going to look a bit of a dick.”

“Anyway, I went to the doctors, had scans and stuff and they said it’s not too serious, I put that brace on and the next day I was like, alright, it works. Actually, there was one pharmacy in Girona which had one in stock, I tried that and that’s when I realised I could manage it.

“There’s a whole world of braces out there by the way. Really odd-looking devices, some of which are rather erotic…you will not believe how many different styles there are out there.

“So, with the team we talked about it, doctors said recovery time is about three weeks or a month comfortable recovery time, doing all the maths to figure out what makes the most sense: to have no prep for the first round or does it make more sense to rest between rounds one and two…

“In the end I knew if everything stays in and the brace is doing its job, it’s bearable and, like I say, nine times out of 10 it hasn’t bothered us in these races except often afterwards my whole my abdomen was a lot more tired on the Monday.”

Check Billy’s vlog from that race: Billy Bolt Vlog: Epic battle with Mani Lettenbichler at Wild Willy’s Extreme

Typically, you then went and did a British Extreme Enduro…

“Actually, I felt it a lot after Tong (British Extreme Enduro where Billy went up against Mani Lettenbichler for the first time since Hixpania last year). It showed I definitely couldn’t have continued for Hard Enduro season without the operation, that’s for sure.”

What’s the difference riding outdoors?

“Just the positions you end up in on the two-stroke. It’s physically different. The first day I did riding Hard Enduro was the week after Budapest indoor to get ready for Tong and this outdoor season and it was clear it was a good decision to get the operation done after SuperEnduro!”

Does it mean more surgery is on the cards?

“I’m in for surgery the Monday after France [by the time you read this it will have happened] and it’s not big surgery but it’s obviously something that needs doing because it’s actually pretty serious.

“It's classed as small by hernia standards, but on the left side it means my bowel actually pops out which is quite serious and it can be really dangerous if you burst a bowel.

“I had no idea of this until one day I was Googling it while sitting and waiting in the doctors.”

You’ll be fit for Hard Enduro season – even if there’s no world championship?

“I hope I’ll be back for Valleys but we will see. It’s three weeks, four weeks maximum to be back on the bike and we’ve got eight weeks now before Wales.

“So, we’ll head to South Africa for a couple of weeks recovery and chill time, to see the family down there and stuff like.”

Note: Billy and the Husqvarna Factory Racing team have confirmed they will contest the 2025 Red Bull Erzbergrodeo and Red Bull Romaniacs but at time of writing, team boss Fabio Farioli says, they are still waiting on any further move from the Fim regarding. The Hard Enduro World Championship. After that they will concrete a plan as to which races around the world they will contest.

Speaking of Hard Enduro, what’s your feeling about the WESS news and possibly no Hard Enduro World Championship this year?

“I could talk for the next 45 minutes about it but I think, in the end, it’s not a bad thing to break down to the point where it gets built back up again because there were in my opinion a lot of areas where it could be improved and could have been better. The sport at the top level is only getting smaller which is a clear indicator that something’s not working, from the top to the bottom of it.

“I’m not saying I have all the answers, but it needs looking at. We do have more teams, and that side is improving, but the championship still wasn’t doing enough to be attractive for more people to come in to make it grow.

“There’s never been too many manufacturers in the championship and it’s clear that those who aren’t don’t want to and that tells you something.”

Billy was one of the people Enduro21 spoke to about the HEWC, including Valleys Hard Enduro race director Nick Plumb and X-Grip Racing team’s Benjamin Diesel. Read all their thoughts on the situation in our separate story: WESS is Dead. What Happens Next? Rider, team and race organisers have their say

Racing’s becoming close again. It means we have a healthy future

How do you see the SuperEnduro World Championship right now, things are healthy, right?

“It’s actually like I was saying about Hard Enduro, the potential in the world championship Junior classes means talent has a place to prove itself. It’s the same in the Youth class at SuperEnduro and it’s so good to see.

“The style of some of the kids now, how they are picking up on what we’re doing in Prestige and being inspired, is awesome.

“You look back a few years ago, when it was like trials riders hitting the jumps and bending their legs, and it wasn’t as much of a spectacle. Watch the kids now and they get the technique, they’re seat bouncing stuff and I’m watching that and thinking, yes, this is such a good opportunity and it’s an area where I really think this sport is doing something right.

“You look at the styles of the kids, the way they ride and they are racing each other and it’s such a healthy thing. Racing’s becoming close again. It means we have a healthy future.”

Speaking of future events, will we see you event in Newcastle streets again? Will there be a Red Bull Tyne Ride 2025?

“By the time this comes out we should have announced it, yes. It’ll be August 30th. Unfortunately, that’s the same as Six Days which threw a spanner in the works because I really wanted those guys to come this time. But we have plans again and it was such a great thing to help put on last year it’ll be great to have that back and be back in Newcastle.”

Photo Credit: Future7Media