Results from 2024 Hard Enduro World Championship, Valleys Hard Enduro – Red Bull KTM’s Mani Lettenbichler claims a comfortable win ahead of Sherco pair Teo Kabakchiev and Mario Roman at round one in Wales.

Valleys Hard Enduro main race in a nutshell:

• Round one of the season is in the bag and what do you know, Mani Lettenbichler blitzed it. It’s not a reflection of the championship opposition so much as the Red Bull KTM rider’s supreme technique which seemingly puts him on a different level.
• Forecast rain never materialised leaving conditions dry and still dusty in places and allowing the three lap race (around 40 mins per lap for the winner) to fly by.
• Not that he was having any of it, Mani claims it was hard work, the pace was high in the first lap especially with pressure from Jonny Walker and Teo Kabakchiev and the course gave him arm pump.
• But the net result was a start-to-finish win, extending his lead with each lap to clock in on two hours with a three-minute advantage and start 2024 exactly how he left off last season.
• Behind him the scrap for the podium places rumbled early on between Walker, Kabakchiev, the Brightmore brothers and once he got through the pack, Mario Roman.
• Once past Walker, Sherco’s new signing Kabakchiev had a clear run and stuck in solid lap split times between checkpoints to pull away and claim his first podium of the season.
• Mario Roman had work to do in the first lap but he made light work of the tougher rock sections to make easy overtakes. By the final lap he’d jumped ahead of Walker and though he was vocal about how short and easy he thought this HEWC race was, the Spaniard joined his teammate on the podium, sandwiching Mani's orange KTM with their blue Shercos.
• A strong British contingent at this Welsh round was headed home by Jonny Walker. Though the Beta rider is a non-championship rider this season, he will only compete here, Erzberg and Romaniacs, it seems like ashame as he was one of the few to challenge Lettenbichler for pace, in the first hour at least.
• Will Hoare completed the top five for Rieju to start his season strongly. Wade Young, working on his bike set-up on the GASGAS right up to the race start, was sixth (stay tuned for a Pro Bike with Wade’s bike on Enduro21).
• Mitch and Ash Brightmore were the next two home, the TTR Squadre Corse riders riding together more or less for much of the race. Eighth place made Ashton the best placed Junior and class winner.
• 21 riders finished inside the time limit (three laps plus 45 minutes from the first rider), Thomas Scales was the last of four South Africans to see the flag.

Valleys Hard Enduro Main Race Results (morning race from third sheet): 

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi