The fourth edition Hell’s Gate enduro recently took pace at the Il Ciocco tourist centre in the heart of the Tuscan Apennine mountains, where close to 80 riders gathered to take up the challenge of competing in one of Europe’s most demanding events.
With a select group of Europe’s best extreme enduro riders among those competing the absence of KTM’s three-time event winner David Knight meant that in ’07 a new name would top the event.
That name turned out to be Britain’s Wayne Braybrook. Twice a runner-up to Knight, Braybrook held of the challenges of former four-time World Enduro Champion Paul Edmondson as well as Italy’s top two enduro riders Simone Albergoni and Alessandro Botturi to claim a well deserved victory.
With conditions much wetter than in any of the past three years the ’07 Hell’s Gate event was extremely demanding for all competitors. With Italian Fabrizio Dini topping the qualifying morning race ahead of Edmondson and Botturi during the main event it was clear that Braybrook would be hard to beat. With little to separate Braybrook from Edmondson and Albergoni early on in the race as darkness fell, and despite having crashed and dislocated his finger, Braybrook opened up a five-minute lead to win the event comfortably from Edmondson with Albergoni third. With riders excluded from the event if they dropper further than 40 minutes behind the leader, just seven rider eventually made it to the end of the race.
