WORLD NEWS
FIM HARD ENDURO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SET FOR SPECTACULAR ITALIAN RESTART
words & photos courtesy of FIM
Wels , Austria - June 17 , 2021 — Things are ramping up as the 2021 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship focuses its attention on Italy and the Abestone Hard Enduro . Set to reboot this year ’ s series in spectacular fashion , the three-day race , high up in the Tuscany mountains , will offer riders a feast of Hard Enduro action .
Getting its name from the Abetone townland , Abestone Hard Enduro mixes high-altitude , openmountain peaks with gnarly rock-infested forestry . A ski resort during the winter , it ’ s set to come alive to the sound of motorbikes for the first time on July 9-11 .
Now a veteran of the sport , event organiser Michele Bosi has been working hard to deliver a course that ’ s more than capable of challenging the world ’ s best riders to their maximum . As someone who ’ s been there and very much done it when it comes to Hard Enduro , he ’ s taken his favourite sections from around the world and
ON THE PEGS // PAGE 16 mixed them into the Abestone Hard Enduro melting pot .
Friday will allow an opportunity to scope out the terrain on offer before hitting a short but allnatural extreme test . Optional for competitors , it will determine the starting order for Saturday ’ s time trial qualification race .
Laid out across two of the region ’ s peaks of Val di Luce and L ’ Ovovia , at an altitude of almost 2,000 metres , racing begins in earnest . Fast but technical best describes the 10-kilometre course , which will be ridden three times throughout the day . With a rider ’ s best timed run counting , the top 50 competitors qualify through to Sunday ’ s feature race , with the remaining entry contesting Sunday ’ s morning race .
Things heat up for Sunday ’ s action when all eyes turn to the afternoon Super Final to see who will come out on top for the first time this season . Ramping up the difficulty , the forestry sections become slower and extremely technical as riders