The penultimate round of the 2024 EnduroGP World Championship in Wales dished up a bumper weekend of awesome racing, two world titles, tears of joy and despair, and Triumph Motorcycles making their first appearance.

You wouldn’t know the organisers of the EnduroGP of Wales were making their maiden world championship grand prix last weekend. Well-organized, positive vibes about the tests and the course, a big paddock and crowd all blended traditional Welsh enduro with the modern sport.

The weather played ball which helped for sure with the tests on the whole dry and perhaps less typical of Wales than some were expecting. Fast in places as they scaled up and down the hills, the tests also had some classic mudholes and ditch jumps to challenge the world’s best.

The only downer was some bikes inexplicably stolen out of the parc ferme on Friday night but, that aside, it was an impressive first attempt at EnduroGP for Rhayader club and event director Adam Rees and his team.

Post-event there’s plenty to talk about as we await the world championship climax in Brioude, France on September 13-15. In the meantime, here are the hottest topics Enduro21 took away from the GP of Wales.

Garcia’s joy matched by Brad’s despair

Highs and lows of sport and how much it matters to these guys were laid bare at the end of the final test on day two of the GP. In equal measure, Josep Garcia’s joy was literally side-by-side with Brad Freeman’s despair at losing his home GP.

Freeman had been leading by a narrow margin all day but had an agonizing wait while Garcia, second in the test, completed his run behind. Clocking in fastest of all in that final test, the Spaniard took two seconds out of Brad’s time and with it the overall by just 0.15s – the closest ever finish in the modern era of EnduroGP.

It’s nuts that after a full day’s racing on these tests it should come down to such a fine margin but this is the level these guys are operating at. 

Freeman’s tears for losing his first overall of the season by such a tiny margin were understandable, but so were Garcia’s shouts of joy as the KTM rider now faces a final GP with a 17-point advantage which means one hand on the one title, the most prized, he has yet to win in his illustrious career.

Triumph Motorcycles are coming

We posted some images on Enduro21 social media already of a Triumph race bike inside the paddock, another first this weekend.

The Fast Eddy Racing awning in the paddock had a buzz around it at the weekend with Josh Toth and Angus Riordan over from the States to taste the world championship, Toth on a vacant Fast Eddy Husqvarna 250Fs and Gus on his own spec KTM 250 EXC-F (more on him later).

This Fast Eddy Racing Triumph T250-X was not actually racing this weekend, it’s not officially homologated as an enduro model yet. Team owner Paul Edmonson explained it was just here for show and as rider Jack Edmondson wheeled it out into the open for Enduro21 to take a few images, it sure did catch some attention.

Jack has been riding this bike in sprint enduros during 2024 and is looking good on it too. The bike is more or less standard save for the SM Pro wheels (& 18-inch rear), X-Trig development triple clamps, aftermarket Akrapovic exhaust system, and Raptor Titanium pegs. Our chat with Paul about the bikes was a good one though so stay tuned to Enduro21 for more details on all things Triumph.

The Triumph enduro model is expected next spring.

USA riders sample the EGP tests

While in that camp we also chatted to Gus Riordan and Josh Toth – two riders definitely on a roll racing in US off-road this season.

Riordan, actually an Aussie of course, is tasting the European-style and EnduroGP races for the first time and boy did he make a mark. Fastest in the Super Test shootout on the Friday, Gus backed that up with a day one win in the Junior category. At a difficult EnduroGP, Riordan told Enduro21 he was busy concentrating on making sure he got all the time checks right and less on the riding as he got used to how the event works.

On day two the current world Junior points leader Max Ahlin got the better of Angus by 0.48s.

Josh Toth is on a roll of form notching up AMA National Enduro wins, GNCC podiums in XC2 and Sprint plus Jay Day Off Road, US hard Enduro, and you name it in 2024.

It’s fair to say Josh got his eyes opened how fast these boys are pushing at the front of EnduroGP and took his time to find his feet on the tricky Enduro and Extreme Tests on day one.

Clocking in with a 15-11 place scorecard for the weekend, Toth was right in the thick of the super-competitive mid-pack of riders who scratch fractions of seconds off each other with every test (0.35s off P10 for the day).

Though Josh is obviously a hugely experienced ISDE team member and knows what enduro tests are about but the EnduroGP tests are different – tighter on the whole, more demanding of a rider reading the changing track in front of your fender with each lap and the sheer committment of speed.

ISDE, US Sprint Enduro and AMA National Enduro are different beasts compared to EnduroGP.

Verzeroli and Verona crowned World Champions

Penultimate GPs can sometimes see the dominant riders edging closer to a championship and this weekend Andrea Verona claimed the first world title of the season in the E2 class and compatriot Manuel Verzeroli took the Youth 125 title.

Both riders hail from the Farioli family and are riding bikes prepared in that most winningest race shop in the world championship. Verona rides for the GASGAS Factory team of course but the bikes are prepared alongside each other in the Farioli workshop.

For Verzeroli it was a first title and it seemed to take a while for it to sink in at the finish of the final test. Verona meanwhile ticked off another world crown with some disappointment in himself, despite the E2 world title celebrations.

The world championship races right now are more often decided by mistakes rather than who is fastest – they’re all fearsomely fast. With one too many mistakes this weekend, the ’22 world champion saw his chances of challenging for the overall title evaporate.

He can console himself with the most impressive 100% winning record in E2 and can head to Brioude with zero pressure to go all out for the win.

Spaniard Mireia Badia came tantalizingly close to the Enduro Women’s world title in Wales also. Now on a five GP racing days roll, Mireia heads to the final GP in France with a 37 point lead over her Rieju teammate Rosie Rowett with Rachel Gutish third, eight points further adrift.

Manx riders out in force

Though officially retired from GPs, Danny McCanney rolled out for the EGP of Wales in some retro colors on his Beta this weekend to celebrate his Junior world title from 10 years ago. The Manxman is among a healthy list of British riders scattered through the classes at this GP, making the most of the series coming back for the first time since 2008.

Happy memories for McCanney and the Boano Racing team who these days are the TM enduro world championship squad but ran Betas incredibly successfully for a long time.

McCanney wasn’t the only Manx resident on show and, as ever, it was the big man David Knight stealing some of the limelight. Impressing with his super-fast time in the Super Test on Friday night (P4 outright on a virgin track but never-the-less a track that still had to be ridden), Knighter went on to comfortably top the Open class scratch results on both days.

Complete with two new hips these days, David told Enduro21 he was just enjoying the event and the atmosphere and admitted he wasn’t looking at test times as he went minutes clear of everyone in class. 

EnduroGP of Wales Day 1 results: 2024 EnduroGP of Wales Results: Day One win for Steve Holcombe
EnduroGP of Wales Day 2 results: 2024 EnduroGP of Wales Results: Garcia and Freeman take closest finish in history – Verona crowned E2 World Champion

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi