As usual, on Friday afternoon the Super Test was held in the same town of Coimbra, a test followed by a large crowd of fans. In the Women class Mireia Badia finished in second position. On Saturday the competition was marked by a very hot weather, along with very dry and slippery special tests, with a very rough terrain, where you had to be very concentrated to avoid making mistakes.
With these complex conditions, Mireia Badia could not just find the rhythm of head, so she saw how her main rival was escaping. Despite this and after overcoming some mistakes in the special stages, she finished Saturday in an outstanding second position. On Sunday, Mireia did improve her performance, even managed to set the best time in two specials, with a second lap in which she found the feeling, to finish again in second position, but closer to her rival. In the provisional World Championship standings, the Rieju rider is still in second place, 18 points behind the leader.
Jan Olivera also suffered the same in the steep special stages of Portugal, but he worked hard to overcome the mistakes, and at the end of Saturday he was rewarded with a second position in the Open2S class. On Sunday, he went out with the idea of trying to improve his performance, although the heat and a very broken terrain made the race more complicated, so that adding a second position again was again a great result. Olivera is second in the provisional overall standings.
Mireia Badia: "On the first day of the race I did not go well, I could not find the rhythm of the race, I also made some mistakes in the extreme special, despite this, I finished second. On Sunday I was able to ride much better, I even set on the second lap the best time in the Enduro Test and in the Extreme Test, being closer to my rival in the specials."
Jan Olivera: "On Saturday we had quite a long day, with some complicated specials, very bumpy and where a lot of dust was raised, highlighting at the same time, because of the extreme heat. I finished the day in second place in class, despite making some mistakes, but motivated for Sunday, with the idea of improving my performance.
On Sunday I improved, starting with a good first lap, a few seconds behind the leader, a pity that in the second lap I suffered a fall, with small mistakes that did not allow me to achieve my goal, finishing second again".
The next round of the EnduroGP World Championship will be held July 29-31 in Gelnica, Slovakia.
