Spanish Enduro goes Sprint racing – Josep Garcia still wins

Result from the penultimate round of the 2024 Spanish Enduro Championship in Cózar where the national series changed format to Sprint Enduro for one round but Josep Garcia still claimed victory ahead of Antoine Magain and Sergio Navarro.

Spanish Enduro round four in a nutshell:

The Spanish national enduro season is not decided yet as it reaches the fourth and penultimate round in Cózar, Castilla La Mancha.
Instead of the traditional three special stages and three laps, this round saw a change of format to Sprint Enduro which meant riders had to complete the Cross, Enduro and Extreme test five times, without any transfer in between.
The new format, although seemingly more relaxed, ended up tiring the riders more than expected as they practically left one special to enter another, without being able to relax as they usually do on the going.
Traditional Enduro or Sprint races, the result is the same with Josep García going out to hunt from the first moment to take the lead and adding seconds of advantage in every test.
The KTM rider finished the day with a resounding victory by 2m5s over the Belgian Antoine Magain in the Scratch, but in his category, E1, he has taken 4m24s from the second classified, Alex Puey.
Josep García: “Well, it was the first race they did with the sprint format. It is true that an entire enduro championship could not be all like this, but I think they can start to include races of this type, since for environmental reasons it is increasingly difficult. It is an interesting format, but I think there are things to improve, especially in terms of the enduro level. Sometimes we riders feel that they put enduro in places that look like remains or on a used motocross circuit. We only asked to be valued the same as motocross riders, that we come here to give our best and that the sections were well done, clean and thought out with meaning. And if they want to do a motocross part, it should be in good condition. Professionalism, just like we have, from everyone. But it is clear that today was an interesting race with this new format.
“Personally, I liked it a lot. There are still details to be worked out, but it is clear that this is an experience on the first attempt. For my part, I am very happy. The first lap was very good, with a lot of rocky terrain. Afterwards I had to follow the marked lane, it was a bit difficult for me, and I suffered three falls during the race. But I think that today everyone made mistakes because it was very technical, and I am happy to have won in the general classification and in my category. There is one race left in Spain, so in a week without a race, but training for the last one. Let’s see if we can round off the year in Córdoba.”
Antoine Magain had to make up time after a first test crash, but the Belgian was still the “closest” to Josep and dominated E3 category. “Yes, here it was a slightly different race. I think it wasn’t bad, it changed a bit. As for the results, a good day for me today. It wasn’t a good first lap, I crashed in the first special and lost a lot of time,” said Magain. “I had some good moments afterwards. We know that Josep is above the rest, but the times weren’t really bad at any point. For the championship, he’s also very good. There’s one race left in 15 days and then we can take stock of the championship and hope to pick up the trophy in E3.”
Sergio Navarro has climbed to the third step of the Scratch podium by taking the victory in E2. The Husqvarna Spain rider came wanting to get rid of the thorn of not having been able to give everything he wanted in the ISDE and it seems that he has managed to do so.
Fourth Scratch, and second in E3 after Magain, was Jaume Betriu returning to the front positions in the national championship now he is no longer on the two-stroke. Jaume missed the overall podium by less than two seconds but ahead of Marc Sans who completed the top five Scratch and the E3 podium.
Good performance in his debut in the enduro by Yago Martinez, who tried his luck with a KTM from WP Eric Augé, finishing third in E2 after Sergio Navarro and Cristóbal Guerrero, as well as being ninth in Scratch.
In Junior Open things were close with the top three finishing one after the other in the general classification. The first place went to Juampi Clericus ahead of Lluis Gonfaus and Jan Olivera.
Liam San Juan was the fastest in the Junior 125cc class ahead of Yago Martinez, who was riding a Rieju (you read that right, the chassis is a Rieju, but we couldn't find out what brand of engine it was) and Nil Rojas.
If Josep García's victory was overwhelming, Mireia Badía's victory in the Women's category was even more so. The Rieju rider was the fastest once again, beating Mireia Rabionet by 3m53s and Maria San Miguel by 4m51s.
By categories in Senior B 4T the best has been Marcos Beraza, in Senior B 2T Joan Pau Segura, in Senior C 2T Alejandro Andreu, in Senior C 4T Jorge García, in Master 45 Rubén Geraldo, in Master 50 Pedro Lluis Candela, in Master 55 David Serra and in Master 60 Fernandez Sanchéz.