turned out to be a disaster for him as he crashed
and broke both his collarbones, threatening to
derail what had been, up until that point, an
extremely promising campaign.
He bounced back at rounds seven and eight
in Italy, although he had to settle for runner-up
finish on day one, followed by a DNF on day two,
meaning he still had work to do to recover from
his Spanish downfall.
The official ‘summer break’ followed and then
he was back in action again in the Czech Republic
(rounds nine and 10) and then France (for rounds
11 and 12) in September.
He won both days in the Czech Republic and
wrapped up his campaign by twice finishing
third at the final round in France, giving him an
18-point winning margin over Pavoni, with Spanu
claiming third overall, while Frenchman Nathan
Bererd (Husqvarna) and then Spain’s Sergio
Navarro (Husqvarna) completed the top five for
2019.
The best eight rounds of the 12 were to be
counted towards the world title, with riders to
discard their four worst results, so that became
a blessing for Macdonald who would obviously
drop both his Spanish round results and also
discard his Italian DNF.
22 KIWI RIDER
“I cannot find the words... this title [win] is just
incredible,” said Macdonald, the first Kiwi to race
the world enduro championships since Whibley
left Europe in 2005, and Merriman finished up
there (with four senior world titles to his credit)
at the end of 2008.
“The season was very tricky when I broke my
collarbone, and my rivals have pushed. All I can
say is thank you to my team and my family, but
also to (British enduro legend) Paul Edmondson’s
family for welcoming me and taking care of me
away from home all year.”
For the record, Britain’s Bradley Freeman
won the premier 2019 senior Enduro World
Championships outright (in the process winning
the E1 class title); Frenchman Loic Larrieu won
the E2 class; Britain’s Steve Holcombe won the
E3 class; Italian Andrea Verona won the junior 1
title; Spain’s Enric Francisco won the Junior 2 title;
Britain’s Jane Daniels won the women’s crown;
Portugal’s Goncalo Reis won the open two-stroke
class; Britain’s Thomas Ellwood won the open
four-stroke class and Britain’s David Knight won
the open senior class.
Turn the page to read more on Kiwis who’ve
excelled on the world enduro stage...