Jacopo Cerutti is now a twice defending winner of two different rallies. After winning the Africa Eco Race for the second year in a row, he dominated the Hellas Rally Raid for his second consecutive title there too.

Cerutti was the only rider of the 165 participants to set a total time under 20 hours, clearing the mark by less than three minutes. He won four stages (1, 3, 4, 7) including the last. Julien Jagu finished second overall and 17 minutes back of Cerutti.

Marco Menichini completed the outright podium while placing second in the M5 class for multi-cylinder bikes between 650cc and 1300cc. He, Cerutti, and fifth-overall Francesco Montanari comprised an M5 podium sweep for the Aprilia Tuareg 660. Montanari faced a challenge from the Kove 800X of Matteo Bottino, falling behind after a “minor issue” on the first stage before pulling away.

“It was seven fantastic days of racing,” said Cerutti. “It’s always a tough challenge, but I really liked how it was organized this year. It’s a pity the unstable weather spoiled some of the stages a bit. In the end, we finished first, third, and fifth overall, all three in the top class positions, so I’m very happy and satisfied.”

Jagu, who’s raced the Dakar Rally twice, was tops for M2 bikes with a displacement from 400cc to 475cc with 18 minutes on runner-up Thomas Zoldos. While he mostly pursued Cerutti, Jagu was able to pip him for the Day 5 victory by just one minute.

Leonardo Tonelli was the only other rider to claim an overall stage win when he beat Cerutti and Jagu on Day 2. However, he retired after crashing on the penultimate day.

Andrew Houlihan made his return to racing after last competing at Dakar in January, where he retired after six stages because of a crash that resulted in fractures to his collarbone, scapula, and three of his ribs. Save for a handful of small snags, he successfully finished 25th overall, tenth in M2, 11th among Malle Moto riders, and second for riders over 55.

Vincent Biau, who ran the Africa Eco Race in January but plans to head back to the Dakar Rally in 2026, had a tough going on his Suzuki V-Strom 800DE. The navigation system was already glitching on the first day before the front wheel got caught in a rut; he then hit a menhir that sent the bike’s handlebars into his face and caused the roadbook to come loose. He then fell off the bike due to mud and a surprise boulder in Day 2 and got lost and hit a dead end in the closing run of Day 3 (a predicament that befell other riders, causing the section to be neutralized). The fourth day saw a myriad of mechanical issues like skid plate come off during a water crossing and the front wheel locking up in the mud, the latter of which necessitated the front fender being removed at the risk of damaging the hoses; to cap it all off, the crankcase suffered an oil leak. Despite everything, Biau reached the finish in 68th overall and 12th for M5.

Tomaž Podvratnik won M1 (bikes between 125cc and 390cc) while Sebastiano Antonello topped M3 (single-cylinder motorcycles from 480cc to 600cc) and Loïc David in M4 (single-cylinder 650cc–750cc). Jeremy Halter won the five-rider battle in Quad.

Philippe Herbain scored the SSV victory ahead of Heatcliff Zingraf. Hugues Lacam, who won SSV Open at the Carta Rallye in April, was third.

The sixth day of racing was canceled due to severe weather. Day 5, the second under marathon rules, had also been shortened to 200 kilometers because of the conditions.

“It was really cold on some stages, and there was fog on the mountaintops,” Menichini remarked.

Class winners

Class	Overall	Number	Competitor	Vehicle	Total Time
M1	10	9	Tomaž Podvratnik	GasGas EC 350F	21:53:06.64
M2	2	258	Julien Jagu	Triumph TF 450-RC	20:14:07.53
M3	8	358	Sebastiano Antonello	Beta RR 480	21:30:49.47
M4	23	401	Loïc David	KTM 690 EXC	23:06:30.75
M5	1	55	Jacopo Cerutti	Aprilia Tuareg 660	19:57:49.34
Quad	30	705	Jeremy Halter	Polaris Scrambler	23:39:25.25
SSV	1*	902	Philippe Herbain / Paul Duramé	Can-Am Maverick X3	21:04:09.06

Subcategories

Class	Overall	Number	Competitor	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
Malle Moto	6	256	Andrea Gava	Kove 450 Rally	M2	20:47:05.82
Veterans	17	31	Gilles Bartolini	KTM 500 EXC-F	M3	22:31:01.12
Women	16	15	Jasmin Riccius	Husqvarna FE 450	M2	22:23:07.53

Featured image credit: Aprilia Racing