Hard Enduro World Championship Sea to Sky: Time penalty sets Manuel Lettenbichler back

On the roughly 40-kilometre course, featuring nine checkpoints and climbs up to 1,430 metres, the race was initially wide open: James Moore and Thomas Scales set the pace early on in Turkey, before Kabakchiev took the lead on his Sherco at CP6 and went on to set the fastest time at every checkpoint from then on. After 1:45:02 hours, the Bulgarian crossed the finish line first, securing the 10 World Championship points for victory in the sprint race – 50 seconds ahead of Moore (9 points), with Mitch Brightmore (8 points) finishing third. The top six finished within four and a half minutes of one another.

It was the race organisers who made the real headlines: no fewer than three riders were each handed ten-minute penalties for breaching the refuelling point rules. Manuel Lettenbichler was particularly hard hit. Because his father, Andreas, had cooled the overheated rear brake with water during the refuelling stop, the FIM officials deemed this to be unauthorised assistance. Having finished fifth on the track, he consequently dropped back to 15th place. Mario Román (fourth on the track) and Thomas Scales were also penalised: they had left their engines running during the refuelling stop and were demoted to 14th and 19th place respectively.

The chasing pack benefited from the penalties: Ashton Brightmore moved up to fourth place, David Cyprian finished fifth and veteran Graham Jarvis rounded off the top six in sixth place.

Following Mitch Brightmore’s victory in the Beach Race and Kabakchiev’s triumph in the Forest Race, the weekend remains wide open. The outcome will be decided on Saturday in the legendary Mountain Race – the climb to the summit. The season will then conclude with the 24MX Hixpania in Spain (23–25 October).

Results: Hard Enduro World Championship Sea to Sky, Forest Race:

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World Championship standings after the Prologue and Sprint: