South Africa’s Wade Young endured nine hours of racing through some of the toughest terrain imaginable to secure to win at Hell’s Gate Extreme Enduro in Italy. The Sherco rider put on a dominant display of skill and technique in the prologue and main event to finish ahead of Husqvarna’s Graham Jarvis and Mario Roman.
“After a total of a 9 hours of racing to be crowned the winner at hells gate, was an Indescribable feeling. Also My first big extreme race win in Europe.” Said Young after the event.
This year’s event featured a revised format and a slightly shorter course to what we’ve seen in the past but this did little to impact the quality of racing and level of difficulty. After wining the morning’s prologue, Young was perfectly positioned for another strong performance in the main event.
The Sherco rider got off to a good start, installing a healthy lead over Jarvis who suffered from a poor start. From there Young maintained his lead and crossed the line first.
Young has been one of the most anticipated extreme enduro riders to burst onto the scene after becoming the youngest rider in history to win the Roof of Africa, winning the event at 16-years-old. Young finished over 11 minutes ahead of former Roof of Africa winners Graham Jarvis and Chris Birch and was the first South African to win the event since 2007.
