With the French Enduro GP, the FIM 2024 Paulo Duarte World Championship came to an end. With this, from the paddock of Brioude, during the afternoon of Saturday, several celebrations were organized after the awarding of the new World titles, among them, one of the most emotional and celebrated came from the Rieju Factory Team, where Mireia Badia won her first World title in the Women’s class. Again on Sunday, another celebration was added, that of her teammate Rosie Rowett who managed to finish in a fantastic third place on the podium also in the Women’s class. Thanks to the effort and performance of both of them throughout the season, the Rieju Factory Team has obtained a fantastic first and third position among the girls.
In fact, the weekend has been very intense and special for the team, starting the competition on Friday afternoon with the SuperTest, a test where the pilots had to overcome a series of artificial obstacles, in an exciting two by two competition. A very spectacular race that was followed live by a large crowd of enthusiasts.
Mireia, who arrived in Brioude as championship leader since the Portugal race, did not need to gamble in a race that could lose more than win, finishing sixth, while her teammate Rosie Rowett, marked the third best time in the Women’s class. For his part, Loïc Larrieu also achieved the third best time in the E3 class.
Great race and title for Mireia Badia in Women’s
On Saturday, the real enduro began, where the riders made a 60-kilometer route through the forest, in addition to completing three long timed special stages, the Enduro Test, Cross Test and Extrem Test, on a terrain of different levels and with the typical grass field, which was in good condition after the rain of the previous day.
In the first special stage of the day, Mireia went out clearly setting the pace among the Women and was placed in the first position, with Rosie Rowett in third place provisionally. Unfortunately, in special stage three Badia suffered a crash with no physical consequences, but she lost valuable seconds, being forced to attack, looking to make up time the rest of the race to climb to the second step of the podium, a result more than enough to get the precious world title.
Meanwhile, the British rider remained very consistent, maintaining her initial position and completing the podium in third place, a result that still gave her a chance to continue fighting for the runner-up position in the world championship.
Rosie Rowett completes a thrilling French GP with podium finish in Women’s
After an emotional and euphoric celebration on Saturday, the second day was still to come. On Sunday, the same specials of the first day were repeated, already quite crushed; again Mireia was imposed in the first special, but in its passage through the Extreme made some mistakes, being overtaken by their rivals and despite trying to recover, this time it was not possible, finishing in sixth place. While Rowett continued to fight with her greatest rival and although she finished in third place, her opponent would win the day, which automatically made it impossible for her to get the runner-up position, however, the season for Rosie has been equally very meritorious, climbing to the final podium as third.
Regarding the top class of Enduro3, on Saturday Loïc Larrieu was fighting among the top five, although in his passage through the Extreme suffered some problems, distancing himself from his opponents, to finish in 8th position of the day, while on Sunday, with a broken terrain and after a heavy fall in which he lost a lot of time, he would finish in 13th position, thus Larrieu closes the season in the ninth final position in his class.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the confidence of several riders from other categories, who despite not being part of the official team, have also competed with our Rieju motorcycles and have enjoyed our assistance in the EnduroGP World Championship.
Mireia Badia:
“Yesterday I went out a little nervous, even though I only had to finish the race to win the title, but well, in the end I finished second. Today honestly quite bad, I’m not happy with my performance, but well, as we already had the work done nothing happens, made a good Enduro test and Cross test, but in the Extreme today I have failed a lot. As always I would like to thank all the Rieju team and the RFME, who have been with me throughout the season helping me and giving me all their support.”.
Rosie Rowett:
“I really enjoyed the previous day, but obviously I would have liked to finish the fight for second place today, and get the runner-up position, but for some reason it just wasn’t possible. Maybe I just need to change something, I was missing something. But I’m sure next year we’ll try again”.
Loïc Larrieu:
“Good weekend with a bad end for me at my home GP. Friday was a good Supertest with a P3 in E3. Saturday was an 8th in E3, with good pace and good day, despite a technical problem.
“Sunday I finished 13th in E3, with a very good pace, but I had a big crash on a trial in the last Enduro Test of the day. I stayed a few minutes on the ground due to the impact against a tree, I had a very strong pain in my left shoulder. Still I wanted to finish the race riding with one arm because it was important for me not to finish the championship with a retirement.
“It was an amazing weekend for me in front of the many fans who supported me, the feeling was incredible!
“Thanks to the whole team for the great support again and especially on Saturday for fixing the technical problem.
“Congratulations to the Team Rieju girls, Mireia for her world title and Rosie for her podium finish!”.
Miquel García – Team Manager Rieju Factory Team:
“From Rieju we are very satisfied with the championship that Mireia has achieved, since the beginning of the season we knew that she had options to win it, so it has been and with it we are all very happy because Rieju is a small, family team, we do things step by step, with great enthusiasm and passion, and this is the line we follow since this all started three years ago, and I hope to continue as long as I’m here. Without forgetting that Mireia has won the championship, very happy with that, but there are also other riders who help us to be here as Larrieu who was world champion a few years ago, the Juniors who support us and we support them. And nothing, happy for the team, the Riera family, for the mechanics and for many people who help us to carry out all this.”.
Jordi Riera – CEO Rieju:
“RIEJU is very proud to have achieved this first world title. Getting a national brand, along with a pilot of our country to obtain a world title, in a specialty such as Enduro, competing against very established brands, is a real feat.
This great world victory comes at an ideal time for the presentation of the next generation of the MR Enduro, which is a big bet of our company for the coming years and we hope it will give us many other joys.”.
Mireia Badia – Rieju Factory Team:
“The truth is that I am very happy to have won the title today, Saturday. We started the day a little bit bad and I had to come back to second position. So I am very excited and grateful to all the people who have come to support me, and also to the whole Rieju team and the RFME for always being by my side.”.
Words and Images by Rieju
