2026 SuperEnduro Rnd 3 Preview: Season hots up in Bilbao
The 2026 SuperEnduro World Championship season continues this weekend in Bilbao, Spain with the Prestige class hyped by Josep Garcia racing on home soil and aiming for more podium pie.
We said it once before, but it bears repeating: the challenge has to arrive for Billy Bolt this weekend or it’s gonna be too late. It needs to arrive if anyone in Prestige class wants to stop the inexorable march towards a record equalling sixth title for Bolt.
It doesn’t look any more likely than it has for the last four seasons to be honest, but we want to be proved wrong by Jonny Walker, Josep Garcia, Mitch Brightmore, Eddie Karlsson or anyone frankly.
The reason why we hope for a different winner this weekend in the Basque Country isn’t just for sporting reasons, it’s because when the others bring their best, it brings out the very best in Bill, and that makes the racing even more awesome to watch.
A slightly jittery start in Poland was followed by a perfect night in Germany and all the while Bolt has taken the points to already be 30 clear. Is Billy trying to wrap this up early so he can not risk being away when Roxie is giving birth?
As the number two and leading challenger, Jonny Walker is top of that list to do something about it. The shine of his EnduroCross title is wearing off three rounds in and the form he carried into the SueprEnduro races should have counted by now.
It’s easy to find reasons why the Triumph Racing rider hasn’t taken more points away from Bolt: mistakes.
Despite looking super-sharp on track at each round, and going fastest in the daytime practice sessions and qualifying, JW22 has made mistakes when he didn’t need to in Superpole. Twice in fact which have cost him dear in gate picks and consequently in the races. Time to cut out those mistakes
Home race for rookie Garcia
Josep Garcia is on home soil and now three rounds in and nope, we haven’t got tired of calling him a rookie just yet!
You have to expect that the EnduroGP world champ has more in his locker by now after doing minimal training ahead of round one, then saying, “why not” for another go in Germany two weeks ago and surprising himself with an overall podium.
The natural trajectory is to go one better and challenge for a heat win. In front of his Spanish crowd? Are you betting against it?
The time’s now also for Mitch Brightmore to land a serious threat and a piece of podium pie. We think it’s fair to say the X-Grip racing rider has had a share of bad luck so far this season, not least at round one getting wiped out by his brother and teammate Ashton (still out injured at this round BTW). But the cards haven’t fallen well in the motos more than once for Mitch this year and, despite looking one of the best on track, he has failed to find the results across the races to hit the podium.
Podium pie has already landed in the Stark Future pit area at the first round this season with an historic first for Eddie Karlsson and the electric motorcycle manufacturer’s racing team. It could do easily have been a repeat performance in Germany where the technical track suited the Swede’s Stark riding style but Eddie handed third to Josep Garcia after dropping off a cliff in the final moto where he slumped to eighth, having taken a brace of P3s before that.
Championship points after Riesa, round two (top 10):
- Billy Bolt 123
- Jonny Walker 93
- Eddie Karlsson 79
- Mitch Brightmore 75
- Josep Garcia 70
- Mani Lettenbichler 59
- Dominick Olszowy 45
- Diogo Vieira 41
- Toby Martyn 40
- Tim Apolle 37
Not on the starting grid this weekend is Hard Enduro World Champion Manuel Lettenbichler. Officially the KTM rider has an injured finger but we’d add to that his wife is heavily pregnant and that is an understandable factor for them both.
Fills in the gaps Toby Martyn, Dominick Olszowy, Diogo Vieira, Tim Apolle, Harry Edmondson…
Basque Country Arena is ready
Alfredo Gomez has designed the track for this round inside the Bizkaia Arena in Bilbao on Saturday 17, the first time in five years we’ve landed on Spanish soil for an indoor round.
Enduro21 will bring you the good stuff including results, news and rider quotes on the night. Plus you’ll find here video content including the onboard track preview, practice, build-up and Superpole live.
Live broadcast is on fim-moto.tv where you can pay per view or for the season.
Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi + Asier Treceno | Moto Club Aiala
