Cycle News Staff | July 20, 2021
Garcia Sweeps Estonian Enduro GP
Josep Garcia had a perfect weekend in the third round of the Enduro World Championship held in Saaremaa, July 17-18, where the KTM rider emerged as the man to watch in the Estonian GP.
After the events in Portugal and Italy, Garcia arrived in Estonia wanting to complete some unfinished business in that he had not yet achieved a victory this year in his full return to the EnduroGP World Championship. And in Estonia, he did it twice, with an absolute victory, both on Saturday and Sunday, which helps the rider from Suria climb to second place in the championship, closing the gap to the lead, both in the overall EnduroGP category as well as E2.
The KTM rider started the weekend with the fastest time in Friday’s Super Test. The fantastic initial performance got Garcia onto the right foot for Saturday to claim his first victory of the season in EnduroGP after an extremely demanding day due to the heat and toughness of the specials, especially the enduro sand test. It was there that Garcia took advantage of his rivals’ mistakes, and minimized his own, to win by almost 10 seconds.
On Sunday, after a day of intense struggle with Beta’s Brad Freeman for the fastest time, he achieved his second victory of the weekend after setting a stratospheric time in the last special and reducing the time by two seconds to finally win by half a second.
After his double victory in Estonia, Josep Garcia climbed to second place in EnduroGP and Enduro 2, categories in which he was separated by 17 and five points, respectively, from first place.
“A double win! It’s been a dream weekend for sure,” said Garcia. “Conditions today were so rough out there and it was a big fight all day between Brad and myself for the EnduroGP win. Coming into the final test the gap was two seconds and I knew I had to put it all on the line. When I came out of the test and saw I had got the win, I was so happy. Everything is feeling good right now and I’m excited to get to Sweden next weekend.”
Brad Freeman kept things close both days. The Brit finished just approximately eight seconds behind Garcia on Saturday and was just a second off the pace on Sunday.
“Hats off to Josep, he rode a great race and just got me for the EnduroGP overall on the final special test,” said Freeman. “We were fighting all day for victory and that also helped me to pull clear for another E3-class win. I feel my riding is pretty solid at the minute, I’m consistently up front, so the goal is to keep things rolling in Sweden.”
Seven-time World Champion Steve Holcombe, who was on the rebound after starting the championship with injured ribs, suffered another setback when he injured his ankle in the first special test on Saturday. The factory Beta rider struggled the rest of the weekend, going 7-8 in the EnduroGP division.
“It’s been a frustrating weekend, and season, so far,” Holcombe said. “Having struggled through the first two rounds with a broken rib, I really wanted to put that behind me here in Estonia. But on the first enduro test on Saturday I hit my foot really badly on a stump and hurt my ankle. I’m finding it hard to walk now, so muscling a bike around those sandy special tests for two days has been hard. It’s also my first time not being on the podium in any class since 2015, so, yeah, it’s been a tough weekend at the office.
“With the GP of Sweden starting on Thursday the timing is less than ideal to be carrying an injury. But I’ll give it my all and see how I get on.” CN
Day 1
- Josep Garcia (KTM)
- Brad Freeman (Bet)
- Andrea Verona (GG)
Day 2
- Josep Garcia (KTM)
- Brad Freeman (Bet)
- Andrea Verona (GG)