Two wins, then third as Husqvarna’s Mario Roman wins finale
The Short Answer: Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Billy Bolt closed the 2026 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship with third place in the final round, Hixpania Hard Enduro in Aguilar de Campoo, Spain. Riding a Husqvarna TE 300, he won Friday’s SuperEncierro and Saturday’s Campoo Xtreme, then took third in Sunday’s main race behind teammate Mario Roman and champion Manuel Lettenbichler.
Some riders end a season by limping across the line and booking a long nap. Billy Bolt ended his by winning two races in two days, finding a second wind halfway through a two-hour slog in Sunday’s main event, and making the pass for a podium spot on the final lap. That’s quite a comeback for a man who, by his own account, hadn’t ridden a two-stroke since his last championship race at Abestone.
The Hixpania Hard Enduro was round eight of eight in the 2026 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship (HEWC), staged in and around Aguilar de Campoo in northern Spain. Husqvarna also had a big Sunday: Spain’s Mario Roman won the main race on home soil, which put two blue-and-white bikes on the final podium of the year. Here’s how the weekend went.
Friday: Bolt Wins the SuperEncierro
Hixpania opens with the SuperEncierro, a short, multi-lap, SuperEnduro-style race in Hixpania Village. In other words, it’s a stadium-style brawl in a hard enduro paddock, and that’s Bolt’s home turf. The Brit, a SuperEnduro specialist, won the final and got the weekend off to a fast start. According to the official FIM Hard Enduro report, Ashton Brightmore (GASGAS) finished second and Teodor Kabakchiev (Sherco) third. Only the top three score points in that race.
Friday night was also when the championship got settled. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Manuel Lettenbichler came to Spain 32 points ahead of Mitch Brightmore (GASGAS), with 33 points left on the table. Brightmore finished fourth in the SuperEncierro and Lettenbichler fifth, so neither one scored. That left 30 points to race for over the final two days, against a 32-point gap. The math was done before the weekend’s two longest races had even started. Lettenbichler clinched his fifth consecutive FIM Hard Enduro World Championship, riding a KTM 300 EXC.
Saturday: 74 Minutes, 3.5 Seconds
Saturday’s Campoo Xtreme sprint race brought out the best in Bolt. In a race that ran past the 74-minute mark, he kept the newly crowned world champion behind him and won by just 3.5 seconds. That’s very little time to waste on a stalled engine, a botched line or a sneeze. It was Bolt’s second win of the weekend, and it came against a rider who, per the FIM’s season review, had won five of the seven rounds before Hixpania and finished on the podium at all seven.
Beating Lettenbichler head-to-head in a long hard enduro race is a little like beating the house in Las Vegas. It happens, but you’d better enjoy it when it does.
Sunday: The Lost Road Main Race
Sunday’s main race, called The Lost Road, was the longest and hardest event of the weekend. Spanish news agency EFE reported that the format included a start from a cave, a two-hour circuit around the Aguilar de Campoo reservoir, and a final section for the top 10 at Hixpania Hill, the “final trap.” Our featured image, a Husqvarna press photo of Bolt picking his way across lakeside boulders, suggests the reservoir was mostly there to make the rocks look scenic.
EFE’s report says Lettenbichler controlled the early laps, but Roman took the lead on the third lap, after the first half-hour, and pulled away on the fourth. Bolt didn’t have much energy early on. “Honestly, I was pretty dead in the first half of the race and didn’t have much in the tank,” he said, “so I found myself in a battle that I didn’t really have the energy to be in.” He hung on, found a second wind, and started picking off positions. On the final lap he made the pass for third.
Roman took the win in 2:11:18, Lettenbichler was second in 2:12:19, and Bolt finished third in 2:16:45. Mitch Brightmore (GASGAS) and James Moore (Beta) completed the top five.
2026 Hixpania Hard Enduro Results and Final HEWC Standings
| 2026 FIM HEWC Round 8: Hixpania Hard Enduro, Main Race (The Lost Road) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Rider (Manufacturer) | Time |
| 1 | Mario Roman (Husqvarna) | 2:11:18 |
| 2 | Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM) | 2:12:19 |
| 3 | Billy Bolt (Husqvarna) | 2:16:45 |
| 4 | Mitch Brightmore (GASGAS) | 2:20:33 |
| 5 | James Moore (Beta) | 2:21:59 |
| 2026 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship Standings (After Round 8) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Rider (Manufacturer) | Points |
| 1 | Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM) | 223 |
| 2 | Mitch Brightmore (GASGAS) | 183 |
| 3 | Teodor Kabakchiev (Sherco) | 149 |
| 4 | Ashton Brightmore (GASGAS) | 143 |
| 5 | James Moore (Beta) | 138 |
| 7 | Billy Bolt (Husqvarna) | 104 |
Source: Husqvarna Motorcycles press release, Oct. 25, 2026. Husqvarna’s release doesn’t list sixth place.
Seventh in the Title Fight, Despite Missing Three Rounds
Bolt’s final position, seventh overall with 104 points, doesn’t tell the full story. Husqvarna says he missed three rounds of the championship, and SPEEDWEEK reported that he came to Spain after recovering from knee surgery. Taking seventh in an eight-round series after sitting out three of them takes some doing. Add two wins and a podium at the final round, and his 2026 campaign looks a lot better at the end than it did in the middle.
“Overall, I’m really happy to come away with third place,” Bolt said. “Considering how things went at my last championship race at Abestone, I didn’t really have any expectations coming into this weekend, especially as I hadn’t ridden a 2-stroke since then. All in all, it’s been a really good weekend. My body, my riding and everything else are finally starting to feel like me again, which is a great feeling.”
Anyone who has come back from an injury knows that the “feel like me again” moment beats any trophy. Okay, almost any trophy.
Next Up: SuperEnduro on the 350
With the outdoor Hard Enduro season over, Bolt is heading back indoors. Husqvarna says his focus now turns to the 2027 FIM SuperEnduro World Championship, which starts in December. “Now it’s time to get back on the 350 and switch the focus to SuperEnduro,” Bolt said. SuperEnduro packs the logs, rocks and tires of hard enduro into an arena, and it’s the series where Bolt has built much of his reputation. Expect him to be a front-runner when the gate drops.
The Bike: Husqvarna TE 300
Bolt raced the Hixpania weekend on a Husqvarna TE 300, the fuel-injected 300cc two-stroke that Husqvarna calls “the ultimate woods machine.” His factory bike is a full-on race machine, and Husqvarna doesn’t publish its specs. For riders who want to try something similar, the specs below are for the production 2027 TE 300 sold in the U.S., taken from Husqvarna’s U.S. website and converted to imperial units.
| 2027 Husqvarna TE 300 (U.S. Production Model) Specifications | |
|---|---|
| U.S. MSRP | $12,049 |
| Destination (freight) charge | $690 |
| Availability | N/A (not listed; check Husqvarna dealers) |
| Warranty | N/A (not listed on model page; closed-course competition use only) |
| Engine | Single-cylinder, two-stroke, liquid-cooled |
| Displacement | 293.2cc (17.9 cu. in.) |
| Bore x stroke | 2.83 x 2.83 in. (72 x 72 mm) |
| Fuel system | Keihin EFI, 39 mm throttle body |
| Engine management | Vitesco Technologies EMS |
| Starter | Electric |
| Transmission | 6-speed |
| Clutch | Wet DDS multi-disc, Brembo hydraulics |
| Primary / secondary ratio | 26:72 / 14:50 |
| Frame | Central double-cradle 25CrMo4 steel |
| Subframe | Aluminum-reinforced polyamide |
| Front suspension | WP XACT 48 mm (1.9 in.) cartridge fork, 11.8 in. travel |
| Rear suspension | WP XACT monoshock with linkage, 11.8 in. travel |
| Brake disc diameters (front / rear) | 10.2 in. / 8.7 in. (260 / 220 mm) |
| Wheels | Spoked, aluminum rims: 1.60 x 21 in. front, 2.15 x 18 in. rear |
| Tire sizes (front / rear) | 80/100-21 / 110/100-18 |
| Steering head angle | 63.9 degrees |
| Wheelbase | 58.6 in. (1,489 mm) |
| Ground clearance | 13.5 in. (343 mm) |
| Seat height | 37.5 in. (952 mm) |
| Fuel capacity | 2.1 gal. (8.0 liters) |
| Weight (without fuel) | 235.5 lbs. (106.8 kg) |
| Handlebar | Pro Taper aluminum, 1-1/8 in. tapered (28/22 mm) |
| Chain | 520 X-Ring |
Production specs from husqvarna-motorcycles.com/en-us. Prices exclude tax, title and dealer fees. Bolt’s factory race bike is not a stock TE 300.
Husqvarna says the TE 300’s throttle-body fuel injection gives controllable power, and its handlebar map switch lets riders choose between a smoother, linear map and a sharper one with more throttle response. That’s useful when “line choice” means picking which boulder to bounce off. If you’re shopping for a woods bike, a good set of boots is worth budgeting for too. Our Alpinestars Tech 10 Enduro vs. Leatt 6.5 Boot Shootout covers two of the toughest.
Why It Matters
For Husqvarna, a win and a third at the season finale is a strong way to start the off-season, and it shows the TE 300 platform can run at the front of the hardest off-road racing in the world. For Bolt, the Hixpania weekend answers the question every rider coming back from injury has to face: is the speed still there? Two race wins and a last-lap podium pass say yes. That’s a confident start heading into the SuperEnduro season.
Hard enduro fans in America don’t get to see much of this series in person, since this year’s U.S. round was Idaho’s Silver Kings Hard Enduro. Off-road racing at home is doing fine, though. If you’d rather ride than watch, read our preview of In Dust We Trust 2026: Desert Racing Fest Hits Johnson Valley. For a street-legal Husqvarna that can still handle rough terrain, see our 2025 Husqvarna FE 501S Review. For something tamer, there’s our Husqvarna Vitpilen 401 Review.
FAQ
Where did Billy Bolt finish at the 2026 Hixpania Hard Enduro?
He finished third in Sunday’s main race, The Lost Road, with a time of 2:16:45. He also won Friday’s SuperEncierro and Saturday’s Campoo Xtreme sprint race.
Who won the 2026 Hixpania Hard Enduro main race?
Husqvarna’s Mario Roman won in 2:11:18. KTM’s Manuel Lettenbichler was second in 2:12:19.
Who is the 2026 FIM Hard Enduro World Champion?
Manuel Lettenbichler (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) won with 223 points. He clinched his fifth consecutive title at Friday’s SuperEncierro.
Where did Billy Bolt finish in the 2026 championship?
Seventh, with 104 points, after missing three rounds.
What bike did Billy Bolt race at Hixpania?
A Husqvarna TE 300 two-stroke. The production 2027 TE 300 has a U.S. MSRP of $12,049, plus a $690 freight charge.
What’s next for Billy Bolt?
He’s switching back to his 350 for the 2027 FIM SuperEnduro World Championship, which starts in December.
