HEWC Rnd 1, Extreme XL Lagares incoming

Round one of the long-awaited 2021 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship (HEWC) at Extreme XL Lagares on May 7-9 is on the horizon but the organisers say spectators will not be allowed at the Portuguese event this year.

For an event which is traditionally swamped with crowds in the street prologue and out in the hills for the extreme enduro race, it will mean a very different atmosphere at Lagares this year. No spectators remains “the norm” for major sporting events across Europe as the precautions around the Covid pandemic remain in place.

Finally, let’s get riding

The long wait for the start of this new HEWC series, born out of the former WESS World Championship, has been a long one. The eight-round series begins in Portugal with Lagares and will be the first real showing, apart from Romaniacs in 2020, from the likes of Manuel Lettenbichler, Graham Jarvis, Jonny Walker, Billy Bolt and the reigning Lagares winner Mario Roman since the WESS Championship final round in 2019 (the list of Pro names is too long to put here!).

The HEWC series moves through Red Bull Erzbergrodeo in Austria one month later before a new Italian round at the Abestone Hard Enduro – a new event at a Tuscan ski resort with high altitude and June summer heat.

Red Bull Romaniacs marks the halfway point in the championship and round four. The Carpathian Mountains will provide their usual epic four days of insanity before the series jumps to North America for the iconic Red Bull TKO or Tennessee Knockout.

TKO will give the North Americans the chance to taste and challenge the major Europe-based factory riders. Cody Webb is the most successful rider at the event but Trystan Hart took the win last year while Lettenbichler, Roman and Wade Young have also experienced on the podium.

The Hero Challenge in Poland will in effect be a new event to most competitors as the HEWC returns to Europe in September. The Hixpania Hard Enduro will host the penultimate round in the medieval town of Aguilar de Campoo, Spain at the start of October before the series returns to the German melting pot at GetzenRodeo on the final weekend of October.

Get registered

If you want to be counted in the official championship standings – whether you’re a professional or amateur rider – you have to register with the series and will need an FIM International Enduro licence.

To be clear, Championship registration does NOT automatically enter riders for any round of the series nor does entering an event mean you are registered in the series.