2026 Extreme XL Lagares Race - Behind the scenes with Mike Skinner | S2E11

Firstly, we’d like to make a special note about Felix Bähker who had a very unfortunate accident during race day 1 and sustain some serious spinal injuries. Hard enduro is a tough sport and at times the circumstances riders are in can be quite dangerous. A Go Fund Me page has been set up to support Felix. Every small amount counts to help this young rider on his road to recovery - https://www.gofundme.com/f/felix-muss-zuruck-auf-die-beine?attribution_id=sl:bb77b834-df88-46e5-bd53-efa074719dde&lang=de_DE&ts=1777798296&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_content=amp20_t1&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=instagram_story. 

We had another great chat with Mike Skinner about round 2 of the HEWC that took place at the XL Lagares hard enduro race in Portugal. This round had some brilliant live coverage on the main race day and fans can find plenty of race content online however there is nothing quite like have a good post race chat to get a real idea of what it was like on the grown from a rider, media and spectator perspective. 

In this episode we cover a variety of topics from how the terrain and racing differed this round compared to the previous race, the tight competition between the top pro and junior riders as well as a deeper understanding of what happened on track from the riders perspective. 

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Chapters:
00:00 Extreme XL Lagares 
01:49 Felix Bähker
05:04 Event format breakdown 
07:26 Points allocation  
08:29 Riders race strategy
10:12 Wade Young 
12:38 Media & coverage improvement 
13:06 Day 1 results
16:09 Day 2: 120KM
19:53 Teo’s mid-race advice approach
21:12 What makes Manny so dominant?
23:00 Day 2 results
24:33 Points system debate
27:44 A game changer for spectators 
30:29 Day 3
35:51 Manny vs. multi-lap racing
37:25 Junior class recap


If you'd like to support Felix Bähker on his road to recovery, the GoFundMe link is in the description — every little bit counts. And if this episode resonated with you, drop a comment below and let us know your thoughts on the racing at Lagares ↓↓↓