EnduroGP of Portugal II Results: Steve Holcombe wins 2023 EnduroGP World Championship

Results from day two of the 2023 FIM EnduroGP World Championship round seven in Santiago do Cacem, Portugal where Steve Holcombe is crowned the 2023 world champion.

EnduroGP Portugal II, Santiago do Cacem day 2 in a nutshell:

Day two dawned with some mist in the air and serious faces as riders pushed their bikes from parc ferme. Could you blame them? The biggest prize in enduro was on the table today.
Apart from even more dust in the tests whipped up by a stronger wind, those nervous faces quickly turned serious with pretty much everyone picking up where they left off yesterday afternoon.
That meant Josep Garcia quickly went to the top of the time sheets again and title on the line or not, Steve Holcombe was matching him and in determined mood and Andrea Verona was still in it despite the painful hand.
Nathan Watson joined the party today in reality included five riders when you add in Jamie McCanney having the ride of his season – including taking a test win for the first time in…. We also saw Marc Sans pop up out of nowhere for a test win – in the extreme test on the big WR450F no less.
A crash in the sand on lap two cost Holcombe 10s and dropped him from P2 to P4 but the reality was he could afford it. Other than the pride of wanting to end the season with a win, he had a 17 and 15 point margin in hand over Verona in EGP and E2 respectively.
With a final test weighing a little heavy and “emotional” by Steve’s own admission, he becomes a nine-times world champion with the EnduroGP and E2 titles.
Ending the season on a high with a double double in both Portuguese rounds, Josep Garcia was never anything short of mind blowing to watch this weekend but, like previous seasons, a mid-term crash cost him dearly and he will have to wait another year for that big prize. His late season charge mind you takes P2 overall off Verona on this final day.
Second on the day and with the E2 win, Nathan Watson signs-off for the year and with it his tenure in the Honda RedMoto team. The strong rumour is the British rider will replace Steve Holcombe in the Beta team next season as the rider shuffles begin now.
Andrea Verona didn’t look as comfortable on day two, no doubt the broken right hand was not easy to live with on the second long day here. But the outgoing EGP World Champion didn’t let go without a fight and traded third place with Holcombe for the second half of the day to eventually land third, third in the championship and second in E2 class for the year.
A win on the E3 class on the final day was a touch too late for Mikael Persson in his fight to wrestle the title off Brad Freeman. Freeman faded in the heat a little today, “couldn’t wait for it to be over” he told Enduro21, but he too claims a world title, the E3 class.
The Junior World Championship played out according with Jed Etchells leading in the early tests battling with Albin Norrbin. Seven points separated them at the start of the day.
In the end they also had to content with a flying Aussie Kyron Bacon and Max Ahlin and the foursome traded very close test times across the baking hot day.
Kyron Bacon revelled in the at times Aussie-like conditions to split the Fantic pair but it is Jed who takes the coveted Junior world crown along with the J1 title he took yesterday. For his efforts, Albin has the J2 world crown to take home to Sweden.
With the Youth 125 crown already on his head yesterday, Kevin Cristino signed off his season with a comfortable win, the 11th of his dominant season. Leo Joyon finishes runner-up in the class ahead of Thibault Giraudon.
With Jane Daniels already crowned champion in the Women’s Enduro category, Jess Gardiner signed off the season in second place overall with fourth in this last day.
RedMoto Honda’s Francesca Nocera came pretty damn close to ruining Daniels’ 100% record with a second place, just five seconds adrift. That means the Italian nicks third place in the series away from Rosie Rowett at this last round after a very competitive season.
For the record Mireia Badia took third on this final day with rookie Danielle Mcdonald fourth for an impressive world championship debut. Also, cheers for the beer Mr Mcdonald much appreciated!
Another one for the record books: the world championship goes in waves of national domination, Scandinavians or the French for example. Right now, after six world titles this weekend (and the 2x ISDE wins last year), it’s Britain leading the way isn’t it?