Made up of three days tough riding by daylight and at night, the 2016 edition was not without its difficulties, even for riders who had experience of the race in and around the city of Porto.
Alfredo Gomez successfully launched his bid with a solid win in the spectacular City Scramble Prologue in Porto on Friday night but Roman took him to task in Saturday’s Time Trial and pushed him back to second overall. The various components of the competition scored cumulative points and Gomez was hoping to return the favor in the Night Race on Saturday. But this part of the competition proved to be more dramatic than organizers intended when some outside interference to the track markings resulted in many of the competitors getting lost.
Gomez’s hopes of a comeback were raised when organizers scrapped the Night Race results for the Pro and Expert riders and he went into the third and final day hoping to claw back the time advantage from Roman. He knew if he was able to take the victory in the feature race the overall win was still his.
Roman was equally determined and he was fastest through the first series of slippery rider beds before Gomez grabbed the initiative and took control half way through the first lap on his new KTM 300 EXC. He then had to fight hard to maintain the advantage and while Gomez finally took the prize, Roman was a fierce opponent throughout the race. Third place went to South African rider Wade Young, who was competing in the Portuguese event for the first time. Germany’s Philipp Scholz was fourth.
情報提供元 [ KTM ]