2024 EnduroGP of Slovakia Results: Victory margin for Verona as Garcia falters

2024 EnduroGP World Championship results from day one at the Slovakian GP in Gelnica where GASGAS factory Racing’s Andrea Verona pulled an impressive winning margin ahead of best result of the year for Nathan Watson and Steve Holcombe completing the podium – Kyron Bacon grabs Junior win for Yamaha.

EnduroGP Rnd 5, Slovakia Day 1 in a nutshell:

“Proper enduro conditions” for day one in Slovakia meant mixed, often technical and muddy in places tests which challenged the entry, making mistakes easy for everyone and consistency a key factor. It was also hot and while the tests were one challenge, keeping focused and correctly hydrated was another.
Mixed and technical also meant a mixed bag of results with, very unusually, six different riders bagging scratch test wins but only from two nations: Italy and Britain.

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At the sharp end of a very competitive day and certainly the most consistent, 2022 champion Andrea Verona almost shrugged off the winning margin of 17 seconds today, dismissing he fact that in this current EnduroGP climate that is a big one.
“I’m really happy to get my third overall win of the season,” Andrea said at the podium, “it was a hard day of racing because of the heat but I was pretty good from the first test to the last. To get this winning margin is not easy against these guys but, like is said, I was good from the first to the last test and I adapted my riding to each test well I think and this gave me good time in every test.”
Second overall today bagging his best, and Beta’s joint best, result of the year was Nathan Watson who has been banging on the door all year: “I was putting in some good times today and enjoyed the conditions. Normally I prefer it when it is fast and motocross-like but I’m happy to prove myself wrong and have a good result in proper enduro conditions.”
“Hoping for a little bit more”, Steve Holcombe never-the-less gained ground back on Garcia with the E1 class win and third on the podium scratch: “To be honest I was hoping to fight for the victory overall but kinda knew early on I was a little bit off and the special tests were bettered suited to bigger bikes. Especially the Cross and Enduro tests, I was missing a bit on the long drags. Overall I’m happy, just a couple of issues but I think everyone had a few today so looking forward to tomorrow.”
Day 1 video highlights are here: 2024 EnduroGP Slovakia: Day 1 official video highlights – Verona bosses the techy tests
To say Josep Garcia “faltered” today is tough analysis but were using his standards not ours for the championship points leader who finished fourth today. But by his usual standards it was a bad day at the office which started with a crash, saw a another one and as he said at the finish, was one where he was just missing something. “Somedays it is like this and we try again tomorrow”, concluded the Spaniard.
Brad Freeman completed the top five, again not happy with his overall performance basically because he isn’t managing to match the boys ahead of him on the time sheets, but once again despite that he took the E3 class win.
Best Sherco and grabbing his best result of the year, Wil Ruprecht finally found some consistent test speed (and luck) on day one here with P6 for an E2 podium place. “I played my cards well out there today, the terrain means a patience game, timing when you can go rather than outright aggression,” Wil explained at the podium, “I started to have some traction again and I felt like I could do what I needed to do with the bike. We made some changes to the bike before the Italian GP and this is what I expected to be able to do with it. Let’s hope we can continue this.”
Ruprecht finished ahead of teammate Hamish Macdonald also taking a podium place in E3. Eighth and the final rider inside the top 10 who finished the day with some champagne was Theo Espinasse, impressive again on the non-factory Beta to stand alongside Holcombe and Garcia in E1.
A headline of the day in the Juniors was a maiden victory for Kyron Bacon – a win for Yamaha and the Johansson MPE team was equally rare and welcome in the paddock.
“It was a bit of a slow start,” said the Aussie, “but I managed to find a bit of a rhythm and didn’t make too many mistakes. I’m super pumped to take my first win. I’ve been over here a few times now and beginning to learn a bit about the tracks and stuff. The conditions were actually pretty similar to Tasmania so it suited me.”
Points leader Max Ahlin had to settle for second by a slim margin of just four seconds behind Bacon with Thibault Giraudon a distant third.
Youth class results went the way once again to one of the flying Italians and it was Manuel Verzeroli again the winner by seven seconds overall from Sherco’s Romain Dagna and Luco Colorio on the JET Husqvarna third.
Belgian Tim Louis claimed the Open class scratch win comfortably ahead of Britain’s Alfie Webb second with third going to the Czech rider Jiri Hadek.