Ales Trem Hard Enduro: Wade Young and Mario Roman separated by seconds at French extreme
Wade Young and Mario Roman took the 2024 Ales Trem Hard Enduro victory right to the wire – seven hours of extreme enduro and the top two separated by seconds at the French extreme classic.
The annual hard enduro unnofficial season opening event in mainland Europe, Ales Trem in southern France, delivered another epic weekend of racing and a result which couldn’t have been closer.
Privately entered for the first time in nearly a decade, South African Wade Young jumped on a GASGAS for the first time and had to quickly adapt to the new machine – learning to ride differently as the weekend progressed he said.
His former Sherco Factory Racing teammate, Mario Roman, pushed him all the way to the line in what was one of the most dramatic finishes at the French race in its nine-year history.
Ales Trem is renowned for how hard it can be – the race begins at 10am and finished at 5pm for the top riders with just six completing the full course.
This year’s main race came down to a battle of the fittest as Roman dramatically closed down Young for the lead in the final lap. As they entered the final hillclimbs in the stadium paddock area, Roman was sniffing down a chance to overtake. But despite admitting he’d already given it everything, Young pushed on and ripped up the final man-made section of tyres and rocks to take the win, his second consecutive victory at Ales Trem.
Young had already set the fastest time on Saturday during the timed runs on the main course, ahead of the prologue shoot-out races peaking afterwards Young said he hoped the result would help secure him a deal as we look towards the Hard Enduro World Championship round one in May.
Mario Roman was carrying a clutch finger injury into the event which he says is one of his favourites, and also is important to Sherco who are based nearby. Roman say she took it easy tine first two laps toe concerned energy and through concern for his finger but caught the leaders to go should-to-shoulder with Young in the final lap.
“I was trying to not crash and save energy,” Mario said after the race. “I wasn’t sure how good my finger would be at the end of the day. And at the third lap, I rode full gas and caught Teo and Wade pretty fast in the first and second uphill. From there we were fighting, especially with Wade. I got a good lead of five minutes gap and then at seven or 10 minutes from the end, Wade chased me and we fought each other full gas until the finish flag.”
Third on day and 19 minutes down on the leaders, Alfredo Gomez claimed a hard earned podium for Rieju. The Spaniard was consistent across the three laps the top pro riders completed in over seven hours, taking third away from Teo Kabakchiev in the final lap.
“I took it easy for the first two laps,” Gomez also explained, “On the third lap I had Román in front, he started to push and I followed him. I had a silly crash when I overtook a lapped rider, I hit my ribs but I held on, then overtook Teo halfway through the third lap and I pushed as hard as I could to the finish line.”
After taking the Saturday prologue final victory, Kabakchiev had to settle for fourth place on his maiden outing for the Sherco Factory enduro team. After looking like a contender for the win in the early laps, the Bulgarian admitted afterwards he simply didn’t have the answer to the pace in the final lap.
Michael Walkner completed the top five of 500 riders in the Ales Trem main race head of first Frenchman, and last of the official finishers reaching all 27 checkpoints (nine per lap), Fabien Poirot.
2024 Ales Trem results (top 25):
Full results: www.motott.fr/live/ALESTREM_2024/
Photo Credit: Ales Trem + Rieju + Sherco
