This weekend the last round of the Paulo Duarto FIM EnduroGP 2023 World Championship was held again in Portugal, although in this case the event was located further south of the country, in Santiago do Cacem.
This last round of the season also scored and closed the World Championship for the Women's class, so the Rieju Factory Team was represented by Adrià Sánchez in the Junior J1 class, along with Mireia Badia and Rosie Rowett in the Women's class.
During the Super Test on Friday night, the British rider Rosie Rowett set the third fastest time among the women, followed by Mireia Badia in fourth position.
On the first day of Saturday, with a very dry and dusty terrain in some very different special stages, along with the high temperatures that again hardened a test in itself demanding, where Mireia Badia and Rosie Rowett were fighting among the front group. After the demanding special stages of the day, Mireia Badia, who was attacking throughout the day, was delayed in her goal by a fall, but despite this, she managed to place third, while Rowett, behind, was delayed a little, to finish in fifth position on Saturday.
On Sunday, with the specials more deteriorated, Mireia Badia went out to attack, but again several crashes, fortunately without serious consequences, took her away from the fight for the lead of the race, even so, Mireia remained in a good third position. Rosie Rowett started the day with the idea of attacking from the beginning, looking to stay and finish on the final podium, but unfortunately suffered a fall, losing valuable time and despite trying to recover, she would end the day in sixth place, being unable to climb the final podium that had been so close.
In the Junior J1 class, Adrià Sánchez couldn't find the necessary feeling to fight with the front riders, in a category where at the slightest mistake you are out of the battle, he finished in 10th position on Saturday, while on Sunday he finished in 11th.
Mireia Badia:
"The truth is that I am very happy to get back on the podium after overcoming the injury and even more so in a year when the level has increased among women.
On Saturday I had a crash in the Enduro Test, but despite that, I was able to recover and keep a good pace in the following stages to finish third. On Sunday I again suffered more crashes in the specials, but managed to save the day, finishing on the podium again, with another third place."
Rosie Rowett:
"On Saturday I went out focused on fighting for third place in the championship, attacking as hard as I could along with a group of girls. I struggled to find my flow in the sand, although I lost a lot of time on it, but I pushed on to finish the day in 5th place, 1 point down and third. On Sunday, I needed to beat my rival to get the final podium, unfortunately I crashed in the first extreme test, which set me back about 20 seconds, although I tried to attack again, it wasn't enough, finishing in 6th place. With this I manage to be fourth in the championship".
Adrià Sánchez:
"It was again a difficult race, with a quite different terrain between the specials, the extreme one was inside a quarry, a time trial of fine sand and two others with a hard terrain, not too fast; but it was hard for me to get the rhythm of the race, I had to drive very carefully and tactfully. In terms of results, I finished in 10th place."
