Husqvarna’s Graham Jarvis Wins Hard Enduro Piatra Neamt (HEPN)

Factory Husqvarna stars Grahm Jarvis and Alfredo Gomez finish first and third respectively in Romania.

Bel-Ray Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Graham Jarvis successfully defended his event champion title at the Hard Enduro Piatra Neamt (HEPN), round two of the European Extreme Enduro Championship, while Jarvis’ teammate Alfredo Gomez was third. Piatra Neamt is a mountain town in northeastern Romania, about 350 km north of the capital city of Bucharest.

Jarvis entered the HEPN as the man to beat, but with the raced drawing a group of world-class extreme enduro riders to the second round of the all-new European Extreme Enduro Championship, victory for Jarvis was far from given. After finishing second in Friday’s prologue, Jarvis started Day One in second but caught rival Jonny Walker on the final hill climb and passed the KTM star to win the day and gain a sizable advantage to start Day Two.

With no one to chase after (he led overall on adjusted time), Jarvis rode smoothly and made very few mistakes on Day Two. Although Walker crossed the finish line directly ahead of Jarvis, the Husky rider had more than enough time in hand to secure the outright win and take over the series points lead. Walker was second overall.

“It’s great to get another win at the HEPN and also take the lead in the European Extreme Enduro Championship,” Jarvis said. “It’s been a tough couple of days. Rain on day one made things very slippery and greasy and also navigation was hard. On the last hill I managed to pass Jonny and take the win. That gave me a good advantage entering the final day, so I knew that if I rode smart the outright win was mine. Jonny caught me early and was pushing hard so I just tried to stay close to him. We pretty much arrived to the finish together so I knew I had won the race–it’s been a brilliant weekend.”

Making his debut ride at HEPN, Gomez finished fourth in the prologue, but also had a strong Day One, passing Walker to place second. On Day Two, however, costly errors caused him to lose time to Jarvis and Walker. Gomez ended the day in third and just missed out on beating Walker for the runner-up spot by 6 seconds.