{"id":602651,"date":"2026-04-12T19:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602651\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T19:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:48:16","slug":"first-win-for-freeman-since-2024-on-day-2-in-custonaci","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602651\/","title":{"rendered":"First Win for Freeman Since 2024 on Day 2 in Custonaci"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t2026 EnduroGP World Championship round one, GP of Italy, results: day two in Custonaci, Sicily sees Beta Racing\u2019s Brad Freeman take his first win in two years ahead of Andrea Verona and Josep Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

EnduroGP Rnd 1, Italy Day 2 in a nutshell:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a while since we\u2019ve seen Steve Holcombe and Brad Freeman at the top of the time sheets. But that\u2019s exactly the reality as riders completed lap one of day two in Custonaci \u2013 if anyone doubted these two still had what it takes to top the world after lengthy injury lay-offs last year.<\/p>\n

Holcombe was fastest out the blocks on the to lead from Freeman with Italy\u2019s top dog Morgan Lesiardo keeping home fans happy by slotting in ahead of day one winner, Josep Garcia.<\/p>\n

Every test counts in this tight contest but, like yesterday, it was the eight and a half minute-long enduro test which made the biggest difference. Remarkably there were fractions in it here to with Nathan Watson topping the test narrowly ahead of Beta teammate Freeman and Holcombe all within one second on lap two.<\/p>\n

Watson signalled he was back in the game with a very solid second lap \u2013 fastest of all in the Cross test \u2013 to put himself in contention for the overall. Andrea Verona came on stronger as the day wore on too, place himself in the mix come the final timing beam.<\/p>\n

An infringement in a test (exiting the test and not re-entering at the closest possible place) later cost Watson third place on the overall podium and placed him from third overall to seventh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Holcombe\u2019s costly mistake<\/p>\n

A mistake in the enduro test on lap three did it for Holcombe \u2013 a mistake not helped by a spectator un-sighting Steve standing in the way in the test \u2013 dropping the Sherco man down the overall to fifth. Taking the E3 class championship lead away as consolation from this opening GP is a positive, Steve explained.<\/p>\n

It handed the advantage to Freeman who clocked the fastest time, in fact his fastest time of the weekend to turn a five second deficit to a 10 second advantage with just two tests to go.<\/p>\n

There should have been more to tick off but the Cross test got cancelled because the wind blew everything away. The strong wind also hampered Theo Espinasse by blowing a banner in his back wheel.<\/p>\n

As for Garcia, he was struggling and not looking himself with a twisted ankle holding the champ back today, although he was strong to finish clocking the fastest time on the final two tests to clinch P3 overall and the E1 win.<\/p>\n

That final enduro test saw Andrea Verona characteristically giving it everything to take the E2 class and P2 overall away from Watson by 0.72s (later docked 30s).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The winner overall was Brad Freeman, looking relieved more than anything, \u00a0after picking himself up (he said)\u00a0from a day one poor results to claim a win for the first time since the final GP in 2024. The drought is over for Beta too with Watson on it.<\/p>\n

Elgari to Junior<\/p>\n

French riders dominated the Junior classification today except for one rider. Four of the top five are French riders but none could match TM Moto\u2019s Alberto Elgari who takes the overall again on home, Italian soil. An impressive win in his first GP since moving up from the Youth category.<\/p>\n

Romain Dagna was the best of the Frenchies, 4.19 behind with Triumph Racing taking a maiden podium with Leo Joyon third overall in EJ.<\/p>\n

Pasquato reclaims 125 top step<\/p>\n

Ricardo Pasquato made amends for a late mistake yesterday which surely cost him the win. More than 20 second margin today puts Fantic Racing on top of the box on home soil ahead of compatriot Simone Cagnoni and yet another young French kid, Valentin Mersin.<\/p>\n

Martel at the double in EW<\/p>\n

Enduro Women World Champion Rachael Gutish took one minute on day one and 30s on day two means a 2-3 scorecard to kick-off her title defence. Without both she would have been the championship leader driving away from Sicily but instead French woman Justine Martel happily says thank you very much for those mistakes to take a double day win and the leader\u2019s plate.<\/p>\n

With Gutish and her Rieju teammate (world number two) Rosie Rowett not close to her best this weekend, the door was open for new riders on the EW podium and Marine Lemoine steps up to put a second French woman on the GP of Italy podium on day two.<\/p>\n

The Junior Women category was again dominated by Italian Sara Traini, getting the better of \u201925 champ Lorna Lafont.<\/p>\n

*NB results will update shortly<\/p>\n

2026 GP of Italy, EnduroGP day 2 results, scratch overall:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"2026_endurogp_rnd1_italy_day_2_enduro_gp-1\"\"2026_endurogp_rnd1_italy_day_2_enduro_gp-2\"<\/p>\n

E1 class:<\/p>\n

\"2026_endurogp_results_day_2_italy_enduro_1\"<\/p>\n

E2 class:<\/p>\n

\"2026_endurogp_rnd1_italy_day_2_enduro_2\"<\/p>\n

E3 class:<\/p>\n

\"2026_endurogp_results_day_2_italy_enduro_3\"<\/p>\n

Junior overall:<\/p>\n

\"2026_endurogp_results_day_2_italy_junior-1\"\"2026_endurogp_results_day_2_italy_junior-2\"<\/p>\n

Youth 125 class:<\/p>\n

\"2026_endurogp_results_day_2_italy_youth\"<\/p>\n

Enduro Women:<\/p>\n

\"2026_endurogp_results_day_2_italy_women\"<\/p>\n

Enduro Junior Women:<\/p>\n

\"2026_endurogp_results_day_2_italy_junior_women\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi + Nicki Martinez + Mastorgne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 EnduroGP World Championship round one, GP of Italy, results: day two in Custonaci, Sicily sees Beta Racing\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[73124,64,63,264176,136823,293513,806,805,803,804,293514,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-602651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-andrea-verona","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-brad-freeman","12":"tag-endurogp-results","13":"tag-gp-of-italy","14":"tag-motor","15":"tag-motor-sports","16":"tag-motosport","17":"tag-motosports","18":"tag-nathan-watson","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}