2024 EnduroGP Results: Holcombe fights off Verona and Garcia on day 2 in Valpacos

2024 EnduroGP World Championship results from day two in Valpacos, Portugal and round two of the season where the Holcombe, Verona and Garcia show shone bright once again – Holcombe takes second victory of the season.

2024 EnduroGP Rnd2, Valpacos day 2 in a nutshell:

A carbon copy of seven days previous emerged, blinking in the early morning Portuguese sunshine on day two in Valpacos. Like last week, Steve Holcombe carried yesterday afternoon form overnight and established a small cushion early which he then had to defend all day long.
It was not an easy task as Andrea Verona put on a real challenge for his first GP win of the season today. Naturally so did Josep Garcia but he had work to do after a mistake early cost him over 10 seconds.
We don’t want to get stuck throwing superlatives at you but it truly is awesome to watch these guys right now and day two in Valpacos wasn't just about the top three. Hamish Macdonald, Nathan Watson, Jamie McCanney, Brad Freeman, Samuele Bernadini, Matteo Cavallo, Zach Pichon, Morgan Lesiardo…we could continue but that was the top 10 – which ordinarily also tallies with the podium places in class – these boys were they fighting for it.
By the final lap on these well-beaten tests, Verona was edging his GASGAS closer but Holcombe dropped the Honda hammer when it mattered and buffered the Italian away just enough to deliver a second scratch win of the season: “I’d rather be a day one and day two guy, that’s for sure! But I’m really happy to get a win today of course. I changed my style a little bit today, and rode more smooth as opposed to yesterday where I was a bit too aggressive. But it was a really good fight with Andrea and also Josep and I’m really happy to come out on top.”
Without the mistakes of day one, and the all-important consistency, Andrea Verona mounted a serious challenge for the overall and nearly bagged it with a flying final test to finish within two seconds of Holcombe: “It has been a really close fight from the first to the last test. In the end I came second by just 1.08 seconds so really, really close. For sure I am a bit angry with this one but this is racing. We know we can do it, we know we have the speed so we push to arrive at the next race better.”
A second crash of the day in the final test of the day while going all-in meant P3 for Garcia: “My day didn’t start in the best way, I had a big crash in the first enduro test and bent my handlebar and lost a lot of time there. Then the goal was to keep the speed to fight for the overall. I did that and gave everything up until the last test which was “all-in” and I had another crash. But it’s good, third overall and second in class. I know this is a long championship and I will keep focused a and work hard.”
On top of E3 after his best showing yet on the 300 two-stroke Sherco, Hamish Macdonald had it in the bag until the very last test where he had a big one. The Kiwi finished the test but lost minutes and was sufferign with what looked like a shoulder injury.
That let Brad Freeman jump to first in E3 class and P7 overall behind his fourth-placed teammate Nathan Watson, avoiding the trees better today, and Jamie McCanney P5 scratch for his best result of the season.
Max Ahlin stepped up a gear on day two to challenge the so far all-conquering Axel Semb in the Junior class. It was a close one by the standards of previous GP days with Semb taking his fourth win of 2024 by just eight seconds.
The two Swedish riders edged ahead of Albert Fontava in the first laps but Manolo Morettini came on strongest of the rest to claim that final Junior podium place.
The Youth class once again had Italian Manuel Verzeroli laying down the law on the Farioli KTM 125. The Italian takes his third day win from four so far this season, seven seconds ahead of compatriot Alberto Elgari as these two begin to establish themselves at the top of this unpredictable class.
The same pattern emerged in the Women’s category today as it did yesterday: Mireia Badia set up an early lead which her rivals had to close down. Unlike yesterday however, the Spaniard didn’t capitulate, and Francesca Nocera didn’t capitalise, which meant Badia bagged a half-minute win in determined fashion to extend her championship lead.
Nocera had to fight off the attentions of Rachel Gutish in the first lap as the Italian and American also duke it out for the championship along with Rosie Rowett. In the end, the gaps between the leading women were pretty big as a long weekend paid a toll with Nocera second from Gutish third.
Tim Louis took the Open World Cup class scratch win with Alfie Webb and Israeli Inbar Selinger upping his game for third overall.