Beta Factory Racing’s Steve Holcombe has made the perfect start to the 2019 FIM Enduro World Championship by claiming victory on both days of the GP of Germany.
Hitting the ground running in the defence of both his EnduroGP and Enduro 3 world titles, Holcombe secured a commanding win in each category to end round one with a maximum points haul.
As the defending EnduroGP champion, Holcombe arrived to Dahlen, Germany as the rider to beat. Fourth quickest on Friday’s Super Test, the Beta rider then got down to business on Saturday’s opening day of competition.
Holcombe took control of the proceedings at the end of lap one of three and was never headed. Going on to set the fastest time in eight of the remaining 11 special tests, he secured a sizeable 67-second margin of victory in EnduroGP, while also comfortably topping the results in Enduro 3.
Carrying his winning momentum into Sunday, the four-time world champion set the fastest time in the day’s first special test. Quickest in the next seven tests, he built up a sizeable 43-second advantage with one lap remaining. Controlling his lead on the final lap, Holcombe signed off on a perfect weekend by topping the final cross test to ensure another EnduroGP and Enduro 3 class victory.
Steve Holcombe: “It’s difficult to sum up how much of a surprise it is to win both days. My goal was to podium and claim strong points, so as you can imagine a double victory in EnduroGP and Enduro 3 is a huge result to take. I didn’t have a great Super Test on Friday – I never really do – but I wanted to push hard from the beginning on Saturday to see where I was at.
“That strategy paid off and I won by 70 seconds. I went with that tactic again on Sunday and made things count on the opening two laps. I ran out of steam a little on the final lap but knew that with the effort I’d put in earlier on, barring any major mistakes, I could win.
“We’ve a couple of weeks now until round two in Portugal, so the plan remains unchanged – keep working with the goal of getting stronger. I know there’s room to improve. Finally, a huge thanks to Beta and all the team – a result like this is very much a team effort.”
The FIM Enduro World Championship continues with round two in Valpacos, Portugal on May 3-5.
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