Rider rumour mill time of year in the EnduroGP World Championship as we snoop around for the best of the unverified (mostly!) paddock gossip. Items on the agenda include: when will Ducati come to enduro? Which big name is heading to Sherco? And why we might see two factory KTM riders in 2026.

The Italian GP 2025 was a drama-filled one from the busy Friday Super Test in Darfo Boario Terme to the final podium on Sunday. It was a typically Italian with drama, naturally, with some horse play between teams, a great atmosphere, some championship affecting injuries and some juicy gossip.

To recap the race weekend (briefly), Andrea Verona needed to win to restore his own pride and the championship needed it too, to spice things up a bit.

His Sunday win came at the expense of injuries for championship rivals Josep Garcia and Zach Pichon. TM rider, Pichon, was leading the scratch times on Sunday and looking good when he injured his foot and finished the day clearly in pain.

Who had the worst pain?

Sunday saw Josep Garcia follow his compatriot Marc Marquez in claiming a world title in 2025 (E1 class for now) but the now six times world champ says it was one of the worst days riding in his career.

A crash in the last test on day one left him with a very badly wounded arm and hip, 15th was his worst result in years. Josep’s still 15 points clear in the overall EGP standings with one round remaining in Germany on October 17-19 and the single point for P15 could prove important.

Rumour mill

It’s that time of year when a certain amount of rumour and gossip circulates around Grand Prix paddocks, whatever your motorsport. What are the rumours?

Nathan Watson looks set to extend his contract with Beta who, as a whole team, have been notably absent from the second half of the world championship season. Injuries have plagued the two-rider team with Watson getting hurt in the summer and Brad Freeman who arrived at round one, tried to ride, but had to concede the injury was too bad and has since missed the entire season.

Beta back Brad

Rumours and gossip floating around the paddock involve Brad actually, chiefly that one about Ducati.

Ducati is developing an enduro model, despite originally telling us it wouldn’t. Former world champion Antoine Meo has been busy lately getting the bikes up to scratch for enduro.

While the R&D team figure out how to get a bigger tank into that compact Desmo frame. Meo has been snooping around GP and ISDE paddocks and who better to develop the bike and help scout out a rider for a new team?

Well, some say Brad but we’re saying not. He’s spent his career on two-strokes for a start and though he speaks very good Italian, and obviously has huge pedigree, we heard he has signed an extension with Beta for next year alongside Watson.

The most likely pattern for Ducati Corse (Ducati race department) is to go live with the enduro model at the EICMA motorcycle show in Milan this November, then begin the race programme in their own domestic enduro championship next year, with a proven Italian four-stroke rider, and possibly drop in on their home GP.

Rumour is one half of the sprawling Fantic set-up at GPs currently will be the new Ducati Corse Enduro Team.

Holcombe makes a good crew chief

Also very much missing in action this year, Steve Holcombe has been jointly playing a successful role as support crew to Francesca Nocera in the Women’s World Championship (he’s pretty good it turns out, who knew!) and as a brand ambassador for Honda RedMoto Racing team while he recovers from his knee ligament injury sustained at the first GP.

It required a full rebuild and, Steve being Steve, he’s going through the process fully to come back healthy and strong which means we won’t see him this season.

Holcombe’s contract is up at the end of the year and though there have naturally been a lot of rumours linking Steve to various manufacturers – including Triumph, Ducati and Fantic – the open secret, which everyone seems to know, is he will return to racing a 300 two-stroke and with Sherco in 2026.

The new blue crew taking over the podiums

If you needed proof of Sherco and Fabrizio Azzalin’s CH Racing team pedigree then look at the successful this year they’re having.

Mobbing E3 podiums (they keep ticking off top three places in class and hold three of the top four positions in the world championship standings) has become normal.

Hamish Macdonald is leading the French manufacturer’s assault and looks odds-on to take the E3 title. But he’s clearly not alone and Sherco had five riders inside the top 10 in the EnduroGP scratch in Italy, three of which were on the SE 300 two-stroke.

The refreshing result from the Italian GP was all of them got beaten by Jeremy Sydow who recorded his best-ever result with third scratch. After so many injuries it was good to see.

Houston, we have a problem

The Farioli Racing rocket ships, Josep Garcia’s KTM 250 EXC-F and Andrea Verona’s GASGAS EC 450 F are currently one and two in the world championship. But there’s a problem lurking here in the twists and turns of the mothership in Mattighofen and their marketing games.

GASGAS no longer has a current 450 enduro model which creates a bit of a problem for Verona and which bike he will race in 2026. He’s expressed really enjoying riding the bike this year so the choice is to hey either stick at it with a model no-one can buy, as a marketing “brand awareness” exercise (seems unlikely), move to a EC 300 two-stroke (also seems unlikely), go back to the EC 350F, or EC 500F(!). Or, as some suggest, maybe we have two KTM riders next year.

Triumphant Italians

Shout out also for Triumph Motorcycles who claimed a historic first Enduro1 victory and EnduroGP podium on Sunday. As we await news who will ride their 450 next year in GPs, this was a milestone for the British manufacturer but it didn’t come from the official Triumph Racing Enduro Team.

Instead it was the Triumph Italia squad with Morgan Lesiardo who had a storming ride at the ISDE as a winning member of the World Trophy team but also claiming fifth overall in dividually. We guess he likes this terrain north of Bergamo.

Along with Jeremy Sydow and Max Ahlin, it was a refreshing set of new faces smiling on podiums at the weekend.

Photo Credit: Future7Media