2024 EnduroGP Italy Results: Garcia victorious after day one battle with Brad Freeman

2024 EnduroGP World Championship day one results from round four in Bettola, Italy where a brutal extreme test caught everyone out but Josep Garcia came out on top after a day-long battle with Brad Freeman.

EnduroGP Rnd 4, Italy Day 1 in a nutshell:

• A typically long EnduroGP day in the typically Italian hills around the town of Bettola, a place synonymous with enduro, proved a dramatic one right from the get-go.
• A short transfer to the first of the three tests saw riders flying up and down a steep quarry face for a real eye-opener of a challenge while muscles were still cold. It was tough enough for the Youth, Open and Women’s classes to bypass it on lap one (at least).

• Fastest out the blocks was Andrea Verona, keen to make amends for mistakes in the Super Test last night but his charge wouldn’t last to the second test, a long classic Italian enduro loop in the woods where the day’s script started to be written: Josep Garcia went fastest.
• Brad Freeman was cursing a mistake in the first extreme test but, having won recent Italian Enduro Championship rounds signalling a return to form, started to trade test wins with Garcia. Brad posted a solid second lap to close the gap while Josep returned the favour on lap three to stretch it out again.
• Brad came back with a bang on the final three of four tests, pulling an incredible 7.9s on the last visit to the enduro test and setting up a climax.
• But with the gap narrowed to within seven seconds, Josep pressed the rocket boosters on the final cross test, went fastest once again to finish 10s clear and extend his championship lead.
• Verona was giving it everything also in front of a fantastic Italian crowd. The GASGAS rider battled with Brad for that P2 spot – the pair were just over one second apart after nine tests – but too many mistakes from the Italian, and Freeman’s last lap blitz, left Verona adrift and looking over his shoulder to defend a late charge from Steve Holcombe finishing fourth with Nathan Watson fifth.
• The Juniors saw an utterly devastating day for Max Ahlin. The Swedish rider didn’t win every test, but nearly did and that run of consistency, coupled with his rivals making time costly mistakes, left him high and dry for a 1:46.43 winning margin.
• Manueli Verzeroli and Luca Colorio brought the most dramatic of results through all classes today. The Youth 125 riders traded test wins and took it right down to the last with Verzeroli snatching it away from Colorio by just 0:08s.
• The Enduro Women’s class followed the Super Test results with KBS Sherco rider Rachel Gutish comfortably fastest all day until the final visit to the Extreme test where she had a nightmare and lost a huge 49s.
• That left her 12 seconds adrift to Rieju’s Mireia Badia who then had to defend for two final tests which she duly did to claim the win by just 4.71s after what was once again a very hard day’s riding for the enduro women.
• Rosie Rowett claimed test wins today, battling with the two French women, Elodie Chaplot and Justine Martel, for the final podium place. In the end it was Chaplot who took that third step (1:43.22 adrift of the winner) ahead of Rosie and Justine P5.
• A healthy list of over 60 Open World Cup class riders this weekend saw Italian riders at the top but was actually littered with different nationalities
• Riccardo Nicoli went fastest scratch ahead of compatriot Mattia Traversi with British rider Alfie Webb third and all three also completing the Open 4T class podium.

2024 GP of Italy, day 1 results, overall:

E1 class:

E2 class:

E3 class:

Junior overall:

Youth class:

Enduro Women class:

Open class scratch:

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Nicki Martinez