EnduroGP World Championship 2025 Results from a dusty day one at the GP of Portugal in Vila de Rei where Red Bull KTM’s Josep Garcia wins the ahead of Andrea Verona and Zach Pichon – Elgari disqualified after a bike swap.

 

EnduroGP of Portugal, Vila de Rei, Day 1 in a nutshell:

Let’s just say that dust was a feature on day one, that and the incredibly close times between riders as they danced through hard-pack tests and the Eucalyptus trees.

There were tests today where the top 10 were all within 5 seconds, and the top 20 within 10 seconds. It’s nuts how close so many riders are and how small mistakes could mean the difference between top five on a test and top 20.

Not that individual test classification matters in terms of the scratch result, but with so many riders in this field having just come off the ISDE and in their prime form, it’s no surprise.

Garcia nails it

Don’t get us wrong, it was still unbelievably close between the top three riders in the championship and here, yet again, at round five in Portugal. But even so, seeing three of today’s clocks stopping with Josep Garcia, Andrea Verona and Zach Pichon inside the same second is also nuts.

The difference between them was the same as always: being fastest more often (6 of 9 tests today), plus small margins everywhere meant Garcia was watching his rivals gently drift backwards for an 18-second advantage at the finish.

That’s Josep’s sixth overall day win of the season and he remains the only rider to stand on the podium every race day.

Second for Verona is a step up, and helps his cause in the E2 championship against Pichon who was third scratch, but it is the win outright which eludes him. In fact both of them need wins or the world championship trophy is heading to Spain again. 

Juniors split by 1.86 seconds

Like we said, a lot of riders are on fire following Six Days in Italy and the Juniors prove the point with a nip and tuck battle all day between Kevin Cristino, Thibault Giraudon and Leo Joyon.

Clement Clauzier and Axel Semb were in the mix too but dropped too much time to challenge for the podium, leaving Italian Cristino to win by 1.86s from Giraudon and Joyon just 3.5s further back. With P5 Axel Semb is facing another day of reducing points advantage in the championship as Cristino gains in confidence.

One notable absense from the results is Kyron Bacon. Flying on the Kawasaki lately, the Australian was carrying an injury into this weekend (we think) which proved too painful to race.

Nocera retires as Gutish blitzes Women

Francesca Nocera started the day strongly in the Women’s category and we saw a mixed selection of riders clocking test wins with her including Marie Holt and Nieve Holmes.

But it was not a good day for the championship leader Nocera who had problems with her Honda’s stator, we think, meaning the battery wouldn’t charge and she was forced to retire.

By virtue of her rivals simply being less consistent across all the tests for three laps, Rachael Gutish takes a resounding win on day one in Vila de Rei to stake her claim on the championship points lead – this despite claiming the conditions were definitely not her favourite.

The American took the day win comfortably by over one minute from her Rieju teammate Rosie Rowett second, and Holmes joining her compatriot on the podium.

In the depleted Junior Enduro Women’s class, Lorna Lafont was the runaway winner by two and a half minutes from Elizabeth Tett.

Italy versus France

Another Italy versus France contest in the Youth 125 class today saw the same riders who duked it out at the ISDE also flying in the dry conditions in Vila de Rei. A flying final Enduro test meant TM Boano rider Alberto Elgari had initially won the day win ahead of Romain Dagna by a narrow 5.9s.

But, forgetting that the bike you take through scrutineering is also the bike you must race on, Elgari was later disqualified for changing his machine. That handed the win to Dagna with the next best to complete the podium was Pietro Scardina but by a wide margin of 40 seconds back overall.

French rider Yann Dupic topped the Open World Cup class scratch result beating Jordi Quer Molgo by 17 seconds and Nathan Dulenc a further six seconds back for third scratch.

One minute of RAW highlights

 

EnduroGP of Portugal Day 1 result scratch overall:

endurogp_portugal_2025_vila_rei_classification_enduro_gp-1endurogp_portugal_2025_vila_rei_classification_enduro_gp-2

E1 class:

endurogp_portugal_2025_vila_rei_classification_enduro_1

E2 class:

endurogp_portugal_2025_vila_rei_classification_enduro_2

E3 class:

endurogp_portugal_2025_vila_rei_classification_enduro_3

Enduro Women:

endurogp_portugal_2025_vila_rei_classification_women

Junior overall:

endurogp_portugal_2025_vila_rei_classification_junior-1

Youth 125 class:

endurogp_portugal_2025_results_day_1_classification_youth-copy

 

 

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi