2026 Hard Enduro News

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Champions Crowned, the Roof Of Africa Readers Ride, Adventure Light class and more…

Champions Crowned:

The World Hard Enduro series is all dusted and Manuel Lettenbichler has been crowned as the world champion for the fifth consecutive time (his sixth career world title).

2026 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship overall standings:

1 Manuel Lettenbichler GER Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

2 Mitch Brightmore GBR GASGAS

3 Teodor Kabakchiev BUL (BG) Sherco

4 Ashton Brightmore GBR GASGAS

5 James Moore ZAF (ZA) Beta

6 Mario Román ESP (E) Husqvarna

7 Billy Bolt GBR Husqvarna

8 Wade Young ZAF (ZA) KTM

9 Lorenzo Gandola ITA (I) Sherco

10 Eddie Karlsson SWE Stark Varg

James Moore Defends His Title:

After Hixspania, Beta SA’s James Moore is number 5 in the world and is, once again the junior world champ. Moore arrived in Spain with a mere three-point advantage, but Ashton Brightmore made a dent by finishing second in Friday’s SuperEnduro and third in Saturday’s Campo Xtreme…

The title went down to the final race, Moore finished fifth overall during the Lost Road main race, just one place ahead of Brightmore. It was enough, he defended the crown.

Eswatini’s Damon Garrel is the Youth World Cup winner.

Nice one!

Hixpania also closed the Women’s, Senior and Youth World Cup competitions.

Sandra Gómez is the ladies champ, Roberto de Matos took seniors

As an aside: You might have noticed that there were two little adventure bikes competing in the Bronze class at The Roof of Africa.

KTM fielded a 390 Adventure with Cross Country specialist Ian Rall In the saddle and Gold hard enduro man Travis Teasdale flung that CFMOTO MT450 around the track. If you missed it, it was cool to see – and we have to wonder if the light adventure class will perhaps take off in the future.

We caught up with both brands to find out what was done to the bikes to make them race ready:

Stefan Marais talked us through the preparation on the little KTM;

Having fielded a bike at Roof for two years running, they kinda knew exactly what was needed. The focus was on lightening things up and adding protective gear.

This year, they had a perfect run.

You can watch the video Here:

Doug Farrell discussed the CFMOTO:

After seeing how successful the little 450 was at events like Romaniacs, CFMOTO SA and Travis Teasdale spent the year racing the bike and prepping for the Roof Of Africa.

Despite a glitch during the time trial, Travis did some amazing things on the bike despite starting in last place on day 2, he finished first and on day 3, he started 177th and finished 7th.

He basically overtook the entire field and seriously raised some eyebrows.

You can watch the video here:

Light Adventure really is becoming a thing. The bikes capacities are decreasing while the ease of use and performance is increasing. It’s going to be fun to see where all of this goes…

Here’s a cool Roof Snippet: John Thompson

Hi all Roof enthusiasts, my name is John Thompson (JT) born 1967 the year The Roof of Africa was born.

In 2017 after racing off-road cars for 11 years I decided to do The Roof of Africa on our 50th anniversary.

I had never raced bikes but went ahead and bought Will Gillet’s Yamaha WR250 and trained like hell for 6 months and did my first roof Silver.

Unfortunately I did not complete due to a lung infection.

The reason for pursuing Roof was that I like a challenge, so not completing my first Roof did not stop me.

My following Roof Silver was on a Yamaha FX250 and the following year Silver on a Yamaha YZ250X.

Due to work commitments and the Covid year I missed 2020, 2023 and 2024. I completed the other 4 in Bronze on the same YZ250X, making a total of 7 finishes.

BluCru were there in full support the entire way.

This 2026 Roof was maybe one of the toughest due to work commitments changing and finding a ticket 8 days before and with absolutely no training since roof 2025.

I also had stripped the bike myself in 2025 for a total rebuild, completing it 4 days before the start. X-Grip and BluCru definitely got me through this year and their support, and over the years have been outstanding.

Not to mention the abuse on the body for not doing the training, do not do Roof without bike time.

Come and join me next year for the 60th anniversary.