start to the year. The course was
good today and I hope to carry
my form into tomorrow."
Sunday
The final day of racing was a
memorable one for Verona with
the Italian securing the victory in
challenging conditions. Rain and
mud made for an interesting day
of racing.
In what's been a difficult sea
-
son to date for the defending En-
duroGP Champion, Verona came
good, while making the most
of a technical issue suffered by
yesterday's winner Holcombe,
to master the mud and rain and
claim the overall win.
Holcombe placed a close
second to take over the Endu
-
roGP championship points lead
while MacDonald secured his
debut EnduroGP podium with
third. Sweden's Mikael Persson
(Husqvarna) was fourth and Ja
-
mie McCanny (Husqvarna) fifth.
"I'm really happy with [the
win]," Verona said. "It's been a
great day. It feels incredible to
finally get an overall win. The
conditions today were super
tough in the mud and rain, but
I think everyone was finding it
tough, so I had to keep pushing
and not panic about mistakes.
These last few GPs were tough,
so I want to thank everyone who
helped me get this win."
"It's been a fantastic battle with
Andrea today in the rain," said
Holcombe. "The conditions were
a bit wild out there, so it was a
case of battling through. I had an
issue on one of the Enduro tests
and lost a bunch of time. I gave it
everything towards the end, but
it wasn't enough to win. Overall,
it's been a very good race for me,
heading into this summer break
I'm now leading the EnduroGP
and Enduro2 classes, so it will be
big motivation to keep working
hard and be ready for the final
two races in Portugal."
KTM's Josep Garcia suffered
both days, his recently plated
shoulder barely up to the task in
the long enduro tests. He sus
-
tained a broken collarbone and a
dislocated shoulder at the previ-
ous GP in Sweden. He limped
home in the top 10 both days but
did go 3-2 in the E1 class.
"The EnduroGP of Slovakia has
been a tough one," Garcia said.
"Unfortunately, a rider passed
away while racing the Super Test,
which was a very sad moment
for our sport. Then on Saturday,
I spent the first half of the day
trying to find my feeling on the
bike—how hard I could push and
how was my strength. I felt okay,
but after a month off the bike, my
endurance wasn't there. On Sun
-
day morning I woke up feeling
terrible and aching everywhere,
but I knew I had to carry on. Once
the day got going, I found a nice
rhythm and even though I wasn't
at 100 percent, I knew I could
fight for the win in E1."
Holcombe leads the champi
-
onship with 169 points to Free-
man's 151. Verona is third with
145 points and Garcia fourth
with 130.
CN
Saturday
EnduroGP
1. Steve Holcombe (Bet)
2. Andrea Verona (GG)
3. Wil Ruprecht (She)
4. Theo Espinasse (Bet)
5. Hamish MacDonald (She)
Sunday
EnduroGP
1. Andrea Verona (GG)
2. Steve Holcombe (Bet)
3. Hamish MacDonald (She)
4. Mikael Persson (Hus)
5. Jamie McCanney (Hus)
VOLUME ISSUE JULY , P35
GasGas Factory's Andrea Verona got back to his winning ways on Sunday.
