VOL. 56 ISSUE 19 MAY 14, 2019 P43
rock step, Blazusiak had reeled
Gomez in and led from the front,
with Lettenbichler hot on his
heels having also caught and
overtaken the Spaniard.
Midway through lap one, the
running order changed. Setting
an insanely fast pace, Lettenbi-
chler moved into the lead and
opened up a five-minute advan-
tage over Young with Billy Bolt
(Husqvarna – GB), Jonny Walker
(KTM – GB) and Graham Jarvis
(Husqvarna – GB) all in tow. Just
behind them sat Roman.
Heading out for lap two,
Lettenbichler was now six min-
utes clear and looking strong.
But Roman and Young had other
ideas and impressively upped
their pace in the deteriorating
conditions. The duo reeled in
the young German, who ap-
peared to have run out of steam
at the crucial moment.
Breaking both Young and
Lettenbichler, Roman put his
Sherco in front, and in charge,
all the way to the finish, claim-
ing a memorable victory and the
opening win of the WESS sea-
son. Young finished four minutes
behind as runner-up.
Jarvis initially looked to have
snatched third from Lettenbi-
chler on corrected time, but the
German was awarded time he
lost on lap one due to a track-
marking error and finished on
the podium. With Jarvis content
in fourth, Bolt completed the top
five, while Walker rounded out
the top six.
"I feel amazing, it's so good
to get the win," said Roman. "In
2016 I finished about a minute
behind Alfredo, and then two
years in a row I had mechanical
issues with my bike, but I always
believed in myself and knew
I could do it this year. On the
first lap, I was lying fifth or sixth,
and I couldn't see the top two
guys, but as the race went on, I
started to feel stronger and was
able to push 100 percent and
pass the others one-by-one. The
Roman takes the early lead
in the 2019 World Enduro
Super Series in Portugal.
