Bolt, Jarvis gear up for Hard Enduro title attack

Britain’s Billy Bolt and Graham Jarvis are gearing up for their respective attacks on the hard enduro world title which begins in Portugal this weekend.

With the postponement of this year’s SuperEnduro series, Billy Bolt immediately turned his training to the more extreme, outdoor terrain seen at many of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship events.

Winner of the 2018 WESS Championship, Bolt is now looking forward to a season of all hard enduro races. Coming from a trials background, the new format should suit the Brit perfectly. And heading into the season fully fit, Bolt is focused on fighting for the win at every event while proving a point to some of his more experienced rivals.

“After such a disrupted season last year, I’m really looking forward to getting back to more of a regular schedule in 2021. Obviously, I was disappointed that the SuperEnduro championship was postponed, but that’s given me more time to prepare for the new FIM Hard Enduro World Championship,” said Bolt.

“Overall, I’m feeling good physically and I’m really happy with the progress we’ve made with my bike. I’ll be riding the 2-stroke for all the events and I’ve been able to get out and get a lot of hours in on the TE 300i. I think the move to all hard enduro is the right one – I definitely enjoy racing the other disciplines, but for the sport to grow as a whole, we’re definitely going in the right direction.

“It’s going to be important to finish strongly at every round this year. In 2019 I missed a couple of races after breaking my leg, but this year the goal is to definitely win the championship. I did it in 2018, and with the change to 100 percent extreme this year, I’ll give it my all again and hopefully be somewhere near at the end of the series.”

With more experience than any other rider in his class, Jarvis is undoubtedly a favourite to claim the first ever FIM Hard Enduro World Championship crown. The mixed-discipline format of the outgoing WESS Championship didn’t always favour the 46-year-old British rider, with him losing out on the faster events.

Now, with the switch to an all-extreme series, Jarvis is quietly confident of being in with a shout of the title when the series comes to a close at GetzenRodeo, in late October.

“I’m looking forward to the season. I’ve been training hard and have had a good winter in Spain testing in great conditions, so I think that will help,” said Jarvis.

“Hopefully, this new format world championship will really suit me, I’m another year older but the championship is looking good to me, with some tough races – the classics and some new ones. The team is good as usual, Damo is working well, so now the plan is to just go out there and enjoy it. I’m looking forward to getting started.”