Alex McInnes arrived in Badajoz hoping to get back to work after a four-month break for the FIM Bajas World Cup. He ended up learning what the flora of southwestern Spain was like.

The Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura marked a balted return of the Bajas World Cup, which last raced in Jordan in February. The Baja TT Escuderia Castelo Branco was supposed to be the third round of the season in April but was moved to November as the season finale due to devastating storms in Portugal, which bumped Extremadura up.

Unfortunately for McInnes, who entered Extremadura as the points leader, his he missed a corner and ran into bushes at 100 km/h. The crash damaged his throttle and took him 40 minutes to restart the bike, relegating him to 75th and dead last among all riders by a wide margin.

“Rider is equally beat up, but the airbag did its job,” McInnes remarked after the day.. “Crashed by brains out and maybe broke the hand, but here we go again.”

He managed to fight back into 41st overall on Saturday and eighth among the ten BWC points-earning finishers, though being far behind Abdulhalim Al-Mogeera and Mohammed Al-Balooshi means his spot at the top is gone. The latter two were tied for second in the standings with 36 points apiece to McInnes’ 50, while Al-Mogeera beat Al-Balooshi by five minutes for fourth.

With McInnes out of the picture, Ethan Lane and Sara García were the top riders. Perhaps making it all the more impressive for Lane is that he’s a newcomer to the Bajas World Cup and rallies in general. Even with his inexperience, he won the bike overall at the Abu Dhabi Baja Challenge’s fourth and final round in early April then finished runner-up to McInnes in the Qatar Off-Road Championship season opener later that month. The latter was also his first time racing with a roadbook.

Lane hopes to run the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in November, which will be his maiden World Rally-Raid Championship start.

While García has Dakar experience, she hadn’t done a rally since the Addax Rally last November. With a lot of rust to shake off, her goal for Extremadura was mainly on enjoying herself. Naturally, she was pleased to walk away with a P2 for BWC riders and the Women Trophy win.

Mario Olmedilla won the overall among all 75 riders, including non-BWC riders. He finished fourth in the Prologue before taking the outright victory by 3:52 on Bruno Bozzo. Javi Vega rounded out the overall podium, 10:12 back of Olmedilla.

Jorge Sampaio was the top BWC Quad rider in a field of four, while Matteo Bottino and his Kove 800X Rally was the only Trail entrant. A rock punctured the latter’s crankcase during the first special and cost him three hours, while the second one fared better but still left him wondering what could’ve been.

“What a pain. I didn’t see that rock and smashed the whole crankcase. It’s a total disaster,” Bottino stated. “[At least] my race wasn’t over. Very few riders made it to the finish, less than half the field in fact. It was a brutal one. Look at how empty parc fermé is. Unbelievable.”

58 of 75 riders completed the race.

FIM

450cc

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	8	8	Ethan Lane	KTM 450 EXC-F	7:46:49.8	Leader
2	9	98	Sara García	Yamaha WR450F	7:49:20.7	+ 2:39.9
3	12	30	Paulo Cardoso	Kove 450 Rally	7:52:59.1	+ 6:09.3
4	15	24	Abdulhalim Al-Mogeera	KTM 450 EXC-F	7:59:40.1	+ 12:50.3
5	18	1	Mohammed Al-Balooshi	Husqvarna FE 450	8:04:39.1	+ 17:49.3
6	35	47	Victor Moya	Husqvarna FE 450	8:26:40.8	+ 39:51.0
7	41	28	Tomasz Niedźwiedzki	Honda CRF450RX	8:34:55.9	+ 48:06.1
8	42	10	Alex McInnes	KTM 450 EXC-F	8:43:15.0	+ 56:25.2
9	51	12	Mohammed Al-Kubaisi	KTM 450 EXC-F	9:12:58.0	+ 1:26:08.2
10	52	19	Joanna Modrzewska	Triumph TF450-E	9:22:13.4	+ 1:35:23.6
DNF	DNF	4	Philip Horlemann	KTM 450 EXC-F	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	20	Antonio Feliciano	KTM 250 EXC-F	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	56	Richárd Hodola	KTM 450 EXC-F	DNF	N/A

Quad

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	31	164	Jorge Sampaio	Yamaha YFZ450R	8:23:31.0	Leader
2	49	102	Ahmed Al-Jaber	CFMOTO CFORCE 850	9:08:20.7	+ 44:49.7
DNF	DNF	101	Abdulaziz Al-Atawi	Yamaha Raptor 700	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	179	Hani Al-Noumesi	Yamaha Raptor 700	DNF	N/A

Trail

Finish	Overall	Number	Rider	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	57	16	Matteo Bottino	Kove 800X Rally	10:20:34.6	Leader

CERTT

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Vehicle	Total Time
RTT	1	33	Mario Olmedilla	Honda CR450RX	7:10:17.6
RTT2	5	37	Carlos López	KTM 500 EXC	7:35:46.3
Light Trail	23	62	Guillem Montenegro	Rieju Aventura 307 Rally	8:07:56.0
Trail	27	7	Juan José Fernández	Aprilia Tuareg 660	8:13:46.6
Quad	7	176	Toni Vingut	Yamaha Raptor 700	7:44:43.1
Women	9	98	Sara García	Yamaha WR450F	7:49:20.7

Featured image credit: Alex McInnes