Thomas Zoldos is pursuing his Dakar Rally debut in 2026, and an impressive W2RC debut in Portugal has put him on the right track.

Zoldos, who finished third in the 2024 European Cross-Country Rallies Championship and won the French enduro title, has been preparing for Dakar since entering the rally world in 2024. The Frenchman had dabbled in various European amateur rallies like the Hellas Rally Raid, RoRallyMarathon, and Dinaric Rally over the summer before tackling the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal.

He and his trusty Beta 430 RR dominated the Rally3 class, winning all but the last stage to easily clear his competition by over an hour. From there, Zoldos plans to enter the Rallye du Maroc and hopefully clinch the the before he’s off to the Dakar.

After Zoldos won the Prologue, he battled with 2024 Portugal Rally3 winner Gonçalo Amaral throughout the first stage before coming out on top by just 1:20. Amaral gave chase in Stage 2 before being knocked out by mechanical issues on the third leg.

His brother Salvador, who retired from the second stage with a bike problem of his own, finished runner-up in Stage 3 and won the last day. Still, their issues relegated both to the bottom of the order. 2024 Rally3 champion John Medina also retired.

With the Amarals out of the picture, Carlo Cabini was second but an hour and nine minutes behind Zoldos.

While Zoldos was by far the top rider, he had a few hurdles to jump over. En route to his Stage 2 win, he lost a minute due to a fence encounter while he also crashed twice and made a navigational error that cost another 1:30 at the end. Since Rally3 has a lower speed limit than RallyGP and Rally2 (130 km/h versus their 160 km/h), he also opined that “it’s difficult to do better in the scratch (ranking).”

Portugal was the first race of the 2025 W2RC season for Rally3. Since the upcoming Rallye du Maroc ends the season, the enduro bike class is only present at two of five rounds, a quirk it shares with Stock and Truck.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	18	58	Thomas Zoldos	Thomas Zoldos	14:23:12	Leader
2	24	56	Carlo Cabini	RS Moto	15:32:15	+ 1:09:03
3	34	37	Ralf Molander	Desert Fox Rally Project	17:21:16	+ 2:58:04
4	36	40	Eduardo Alan	Xraids Experience	17:32:52	+ 3:09:40
5	41	53	Gonçalo Amaral	Wingmotor Honda	31:58:04	+ 17:34:52
6	44	54	Salvador Amaral	Wingmotor Honda	52:40:45	+ 38:17:33
DNF	DNF	45	John Medina	Xraids Experience	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Rider	Time
Prologue	11	Thomas Zoldos	5:04.6
Stage 1	18	Thomas Zoldos	3:01:32
Stage 2	15	Thomas Zoldos	3:26:56
Stage 3	20	Thomas Zoldos	3:32:51
Stage 4	19	Thomas Zoldos	2:44:41
Stage 5	20	Salvador Amaral	1:04:46

W2RC

Rank	Rider	Points	Margin
1	Thomas Zoldos	25	Leader
2	Carlo Cabini	20	– 5
3	Ralf Molander	16	– 9
4	Eduardo Alan	13	– 12
5	Gonçalo Amaral	11	– 14
6	Salvador Amaral	10	– 15

Featured image credit: Helena Clancy / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO