It was not until Saturday, 2 October 2021, at the final of the European Enduro Championship in Hellendoor, the Netherlands, that the title of best rider in all classes was decided:

Krystof Kouble from the Czech Republic competed: the Sherco rider had started the day eight championship points behind and still finished the season as the new champion! “I felt comfortable from the start and didn’t make any mistakes,” the junior was pleased afterwards. In fact, he had not won a single special stage by the halfway point, but was already leading by a clear margin because the competitors behind him were making life difficult for each other. Especially his biggest competitor, the Italian Enrico Rinaldi, did not manage well at all: “After the overnight rain, the track was very slippery and I didn’t want to take to much risks.” Towards the end of the day things went a little better again, but the wrong lane choice in the last extreme test then cost him almost half a minute and threw him back to sixth place in the overall standings. This ate up his points lead and Kouble was crowned the new champion.
The only consolation for Rinaldi is that he still managed to secure the title in the Junior 2 class. There, his lead in the championship was enough because not so many riders could place themselves between him and Kouble and thus increase the points difference.
But it shows again that the European Enduro Championship is a forge for young talents: Once again a junior won the overall ranking of all riders, as it has been seen again and again in the last years.

Former senior champion Arne Domeyer reported back to the championship with two stage wins in the Netherlands. But after his absence due to illness in the Czech Republic, it was only enough for the German to finish third in the championship, behind Andrea Belotti from Italy and Martin Gottvald from the Czech Republic.

In the women’s category, Justine Martel from France did not do well on either day: “I have never ridden in such deep sand before,” the KTM rider admitted afterwards. But two third places were enough in the end to take her first championship title.

Maurizio Micheluz, on the other hand, had already won his eleventh championship title in the 250cc two-stroke class: “When my last competitor, my compatriot Giuliano Mancuso, dropped out with technical problems in the first stage in the morning, I was practically already champion. I enjoyed the day all the more and only rode for the team classification.
He also became champion of the trade teams with the Italian team “Diligenti Racing”.

The European Champion in the U21 class, Fine Pyry Juupaluoma, who had already been crowned the day before, was lucky: His bike had an electrical problem after the first lap that could not be fixed quickly. So he dropped out, but the title was already in his pocket.

A special feature of the final is the additional classification of the national teams, the Trophy teams: Here, the Trophy of the Czech Republic won – with the champion Krystof Kouble, the junior champion Matyas Chlum, the champion of the large four-stroke class Jaromir Romancik and runner-up of the two-stroke class Jiri Hadek. Italy came second, ahead of the Netherlands. In the junior trophies, France won ahead of the Netherlands and Germany.

More information and schedules, results and links, there are always up to date and right on the official website: http://european-enduro.com/

Erwin Tijhuis

On Friday, 1 October 2021, at the final of the European Enduro Championship in Hellendoor, the Netherlands, the first champions were already determined on the first day of riding: The three riders Pyry Juupaluoma from Finland, Thiebaut Passet from France and Jaromir Romancik from the Czech Republic have so much lead in their displacement classes that it is impossible to catch them even on the last day of competition.

In fact, the finale of the European Championship already started on Thursday evening with a prologue on the deep sand motocross track of the organising Motorclub Nijeverdal Hellendoorn (MCNH): Krystof Kouble, who is still fighting for the title in the junior class and in the overall ranking, won there. But the prologue counts only as the first of eleven stages of the first riding day and there he had to give up the lead to his Italian competitor Enrico Rinaldi at the end.

The championship in the classes, however, was decided by completely different riders on this day: In the class of the under 21-year-olds with the 125 cc bike, there is Pyry Juupaluoma from Finland, who is only 18 years old. The student also won this day in class and rode to a good ninth place overall for all riders: “It’s a bit like home in Finland,” said the Husqvarna rider: “Lots of sand and roots, we have that too.”

In the large two-stroke class over 250 cc, Thibaut Passet won, securing his title early. At the end of the day, the Beta rider had a lead of more than half a minute over the day’s runner-up Lukasz Kurowski from Poland. Passet’s direct opponent in the championship, Jiri Hadek from the Czech Republic, only finished in third place and the Frenchman’s lead grew to an unassailable distance.

But another rider from the Czech Republic was all the more pleased: In the class of four-strokes over 250 cc, Jaromir Romancik only finished fourth in the day’s classification, directly behind his rival in the championship, Tom Elwood from England. The day’s win went to Belgian Dietger Damiaens ahead of Dutchman Wesley Pittens, who already had a bit of a home advantage because they are used to the sandy surface.
Romancik, who had already travelled to Holland with a 24 championship points lead, the place behind Elwood cost him two points difference – but since only twenty points are awarded per day, this cannot be made up. But the Sherco rider had not calculated all this in his head, because with his fourth place of the day he had no longer believed in an early success.

The awarding of the championships in the other classes and also in the national ranking has thus been postponed to the last riding day, Saturday

Erwin Tijhuis