2026 Ballbreaker British Extreme Enduro Highlights: Mario Roman Mud Master at Rnd1

2026 Plews Tyres ACU British Extreme Enduro Championship round one, Ballbreaker Extreme, video highlights and results – reigning champion Dan Peace puts up a fight, but Mario Roman is unstoppable on his new bike and MR74 Racing Team debut, taking victory in mudder conditions.

British Enduro in January is always tough and usually not at its kindest for hard enduro riders with mud, hazards including piles of riders as much as rocks, and freezing, cold weather.

Debuting his new set-up with the MR74 Racing Team in this baptism of cold, Mario Roman looked like he’d bitten off more than he could chew as he got filled in off the mudshute start and was almost last in the Championship class.

But it wasn’t long before the Spaniard was up into podium contention on the first lap and leapfrogged through to second after a ripping ride up the tough hillclimb, ‘Double trouble’.

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“No way, Jose”

The rider out front and the only other to scale that steep climb in one go was Dan Peace, the reigning champion. The KTM rider got a good start and made time out front while his rivals in the British domestic series tripped over each other on that crucial lap – crucial because riders face queues and lappers all too quickly on the second circuit.

Mario had caught Peace by the second lap but the British Champion had to defend his corner from Roman who thought he was in the lead himself and was shouting at Peace to let him past.

Dan stood his ground, shouted back he wasn’t being lapped by actually leading, and kept his head down as the two went back and forth across a couple of laps (Mario later apologised to Dan for his mistake).

But the new MR74 Racing rider showed his class despite not being able to feel his hands in the tough British Extreme conditions, navigating the bottle necks in the rock ravines and getting through some of the rutted hillclimbs quickly to take a comfortable win.

The Rutherford Racing tuned Husqvarna TE300 was also looking and sounding sweet in these conditions and it was a solid first outing for rider and team with Mario going on to finish 11 minutes clear after six laps.

Peace started his British title defence well with a solid second place. Having made the best of starts, he took advantage of that in the first lap to pull a gap and keep the flow once the Championship class got in among the lappers.

Richard Moorhouse meanwhile had to work hard for his podium spot behind Peace and Roman. Another Rutherford Racing supported rider, Moorhouse had to pick off the likes of Jack Price, Dan Mundell and Radford Chugg to finally finish eight minutes down on Peace.

Last year’s winner Jack Price was fourth ahead of new Rieju recruit Francesc Moret completing the top five.