Walker, Gomez, Roman and Young square up for Extreme Lagares

The stage is set for a cracking 13th edition of the Extreme XL Lagares in Portugal with Jonny Walker, Alfredo Gomez, Mario Roman and Wade Young all ready to make their presence felt.

With pretty much all the stars of hard enduro entered, bar Graham Jarvis, the race action is set to be hot and heavy in Portugal. Staged over two days for 2017, the race gets underway with it’s now infamous city prolgue in downtown Porto before finishing off Saturday with a night time superenduro styled race in Lagares.

Sunday is the feature race where two laps of the surrounding mountains will test both man and machine.

KTM’s Alfredo starts the event as the defending champion and looks to capture his third consecutive Lagares win this weekend. Claiming the hat trick will see him match Jarvis as one of the most successful riders in the history of the race. And after a tough outing in Brazil, Gomez will be hungry for redemption.

But he’s got a fight on his hands with Sherco’s Mario Roman more than capable of giving him a run for it in Portugal. Roman almost won the race in 2016 and having missed the trip to Brazil starts this weekend fresh and raring to go.

Third overall in 2016, Wade Young won’t want to be out shone by his teammate Roman. Having made his Lagares debut last year, he knows exactly what to expect this time around and should come out swinging.

Ready to kick start his 2017 outdoor season Jonny Walker (KTM) makes his Extreme Lagares debut this weekend. After an injury-hurt 2016 season in hard enduro, Walker is determined to get back to his winning ways and will be on the attack in Portugal.

Looking to make his presence felt, Mani Lettenbichler is a rider easily capable of figuring highly. With Saturday’s format expected to suit the 2016 SuperEnduro Junior champion, the young German may just claim a surprise result.

Second at Hell’s Gate, South African Travis Teasdale looks to continue his run of good form in Portugal, likewise Lars Enockl, Pol Tarres, Pierre Pallut and Sergi Leon won’t disappoint.

Unfortunately a foot injury for Billy Bolt will see him most likely sit this out out while David Knight is also rumoured to be a non-starter.