2026 Hard Enduro World Championship fires into life at Alestrem
Manuel Lettenbichler heads to 24MX Alestrem this weekend chasing a fifth consecutive FIM Hard Enduro World Championship crown as the 2026 season opens with a stacked field and several fresh subplots.
The nine-round series begins in southern France before heading to Portugal, the United States, Italy twice, Sweden, Lesotho, Turkey and Spain, with every round counting in the outright title chase.
As expected, Manuel Lettenbichler arrives as the man to beat. The Red Bull KTM rider is chasing a fifth consecutive world title after another commanding 2025 campaign in which he secured the crown with four wins and two other podium finishes, and he heads outdoors after also banking sixth overall in the 2026 FIM SuperEnduro World Championship despite missing two of the seven rounds. On paper at least, he remains the benchmark until somebody proves otherwise.
This is no one-man championship. Billy Bolt is back in the Alestrem Top 100 and remains one of the obvious threats, particularly after sealing the 2026 SuperEnduro crown in dominant fashion, while Mitch Brightmore carries strong form of his own after finishing third in that indoor series and winning the final round in France.
Mario Román, Wade Young, Matthew Green, and Teodor Kabakchiev are all entered for Alestrem as well, giving the opening round a deep front end, while Ashton Brightmore and James Moore add further quality on the junior side of the paddock.
The shape of that field also underlines one of the more interesting themes heading into the new season. As the Alestrem entry list suggests, the outright fight still looks heavily weighted toward 300cc two-stroke machinery, with Lettenbichler, Bolt, Mitch Brightmore, Román, Young, Green, and Kabakchiev all listed on familiar combustion-powered weapons. That makes the electric subplot all the more intriguing.
Will 2026 see the battery bikes start to test that dominance…
Legend Graham Jarvis is entered in the new Senior World Cup on an electric machine, while Toby Martyn and Eddie Karlsson are listed in the main HEWC field on Stark Future Alpha machinery. Jarvis’ broader JARV-E project adds another layer of interest, even if the harder question this weekend is where that electric pace sits relative to the established two-stroke runners in outright terms.
Whether Jarvis can trouble the outright runners is another question, but his presence ensures the opening round will offer an early glimpse at how quickly electric machinery is beginning to close on hard enduro’s two-stroke mainstay.
That wider category picture is one of the key talking points for 2026. Under the updated regulations, electric power vehicles are permitted in Pro, while the championship weekend can also include Junior, Women’s, Youth and Senior classifications. The Senior World Cup, new for 2026, is open to riders aged 40 and over, making Jarvis’ presence more than just a novelty entry. It also adds another layer of depth to the championship at a time when the organisers are clearly trying to broaden the sport’s reach without changing its core identity.
The title itself will be shaped by a points structure that leaves little room to give anything away. Each event offers a maximum of 33 points across the prologue, sprint and main event/final; only finishers are eligible to score, and there are no dropped rounds in the World Championship. In other words, raw speed still matters, but a bad weekend in April can carry just as much weight as one in October.
Alestrem itself will unfold over three distinct days. Friday is the Xtrem Test, with the FIM HEWC riders scheduled for their runs late in the afternoon. Saturday brings the Minerva Prologue, including Top 100 heats, semi-finals and the final, before Sunday’s World Race starts at 1400 and is expected to run until around 1800.
For Lettenbichler, the goal is simple enough: strike first and set the tone for a fifth straight crown. But with Bolt, the Brightmores, Román, Young, Green, Kabakchiev, and others all arriving with genuine pedigree, and with Jarvis, Martyn and Karlsson adding fresh intrigue to the electric conversation, the 2026 championship looks set to open with genuine depth and multiple storylines.
2026 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship Calendar
The 2026 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship is set to span nine rounds across Europe, North America and Africa.
- Round 1 – 24MX Alestrem Hard Enduro
France | April 17-19 - Round 2 – Extreme XL Lagares
Portugal | May 1-3 - Round 3 – Silver Kings Hard Enduro
United States (Idaho) | June 18-20 - Round 4 – Abestone Rodeo Miravalle
Italy | July 10-12 - Round 5 – Forza Orza
Sweden | August 20-22 - Round 6 – Wildwood, Genoa
Italy | September 11-13 - Round 7 – Roof of Africa
Lesotho | September 23-26 (TBC) - Round 8 – Sea to Sky
Turkey | October 8-10 - Round 9 – 24MX Hixpania Hard Enduro
Spain | October 23-25
