Gomez & Jarvis Both Win Enduro Ukupacha

Husaberg’s Alfredo Gomez and Graham Jarvis shared victory at the Enduro Ukupacha in Quito, Ecuador.

In what was one of strangest finishes to a race for quite some time, Gomez and Jarvis were both declared the winner of the race. With conditions proving far to extreme for even the best Hard Enduro riders in the world, both Husaberg riders were forced to team up together to reach the finish.

Riding together for the majority of the race, the duo pulled each other to the top of some incredibly difficult riverbed climbs. With Gomez emerging from the top of the final climb in front of Jarvis, the Spaniard waited for Jarvis to clear the hill before crossing the finish line together.

Commenting after the race, Gomez remarked…

“It took six hours to complete the 85 miles and I rode all of it with Graham. One of the first riverbed was impassable so we worked together to get the bikes out. After that we rode together.

“Sometimes I navigated with the GPS but I had to be so careful as the course was very complicated with many holes and tracks as we were riding on a dormant volcano.

“Towards the end we entered a river that was marked very steep on the GPS. Neither of us could get up it. With Graham’s help and after about one and a half hours of pushing I got out. I rode to the finish line and got some help and then waited another 30 minutes until five people armed with ropes helped him out.”

Despite having troubles of his own, KTM’s Chris Birch was awarded second – first solo – while Jesus Zavala – Wilson Malo were credited with third.

“My GPS broke so I got super lost all the time,” told Birch. “A pissed off farmer locked a gate on Taylor Robert and myself – we had to beg in broken Spanish to get him to open it.”

And while Birch thought he was having problems, Jonny Walker faired even worse. Second in the prologue, Walker quickly caught early race leader Taylor Robert (Kawasaki). Leading the race, the KTM rider opened up a small lead until he ran into mechanical problems. A damaged radiator resulted in a loss of coolant and Walker was forced to retire.

“I’m disappointed with how my race worked out,” told Walker afterwards. “I got into the lead and was riding really good. At checkpoint three I had opened up a bit of a lead but then hit some problems. The radiator got damaged and I lost all the coolant. I managed to refill it but it quickly overheated again and I had to stop.”

Provisional Results – Enduro Ukupacha

1. Alfredo Gomez/Graham Jarvis (Husaberg); 2. Chris Birch (KTM); 3. Jesus Zavala – Wilson Malo (Husaberg)