Manuel Lettenbichler is the 2026 FIM Hard Enduro World Champion. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider sealed his fifth consecutive title on Friday evening in the SuperEncierro at the 24MX Hixpania Hard Enduro in Aguilar de Campoo, Spain, with two races to spare.
Lettenbichler arrived in Spain 32 points clear of Mitch Brightmore, with a maximum of 33 points still available at the final round. He is champion again after a season in which he won five of the seven rounds before Hixpania and finished on the podium at all seven.
How the title was sealed
Billy Bolt won Friday evening's SuperEncierro final, the short multi-lap race in Hixpania Village that opens the weekend, ahead of Ashton Brightmore and Teodor Kabakchiev. Only the top three score points. Mitch Brightmore finished fourth and Lettenbichler fifth, so neither added to their total.
That left the gap at 32 points with only 30 still to race for: 10 in Saturday's Campoo Xtreme sprint and 20 in Sunday's main race, The Lost Road. Brightmore can no longer catch him.
“We got the results we needed. We actually didn't get any points. We only ended up fifth in the [SuperEncierro] race. I had a pretty decent race, honestly, which was quite nice,” said Lettenbichler. “But yeah, it was enough to basically clinch the title today.”
The Team held him back at the finish for an impromptu celebration. “I was kind of surprised. The people held me back there, just that they want to do a little bit of a celebration today. I was confused at first, but yeah, pretty stoked, man. What a year. What an achievement again. I didn't believe it at the beginning of the year.”
A season at the front
Lettenbichler opened the season by winning the 24MX Alestrem Hard Enduro in France, with only Billy Bolt leading him on points after round 1. He followed it with the maximum 33 points at Extreme XL Lagares in Portugal, where he beat Brightmore by 7.9 seconds after more than two hours of racing.
Brightmore struck back at the Silver Kings Hard Enduro in Idaho, taking his first career HEWC win. Lettenbichler finished third, and his lead was down to 13 points at the halfway mark.
From there, he pulled away. He won the inaugural Forza Orza in Sweden, then took another maximum at Abestone in Italy, winning by more than six minutes. He was second to Teodor Kabakchiev at the Roof of Africa in Lesotho.
Sea to Sky in Türkiye showed why he is so hard to beat. A ten-minute penalty in the Forest Race left him 15th on the grid for the Mountain Race. He won it anyway, by more than four minutes, for a third consecutive Sea to Sky victory.
| Round | Event | Result | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 24MX Alestrem Hard Enduro, France | Winner | 28 |
| 2 | Extreme XL Lagares, Portugal | Winner | 33 |
| 3 | Silver Kings Hard Enduro, United States | 3rd | 27 |
| 4 | Forza Orza, Sweden | Winner | 29 |
| 5 | Abestone Hard Enduro, Italy | Winner | 33 |
| 6 | Roof of Africa, Lesotho | 2nd | 25 |
| 7 | Sea to Sky, Türkiye | Winner | 22 |
Five in a row
The title is Lettenbichler's fifth consecutive FIM Hard Enduro World Championship, after his wins in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Away from the championship, he also won the Red Bull Erzbergrodeo for a fifth consecutive time in June.
He won this year's title on the KTM 300 EXC with Red Bull KTM Factory Racing.
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager Fabio Farioli credited the people behind it. “Another championship in a row, and it's amazing for Mani, for us, for all the people that trust in us, in him, and for all the people that are working hard during the year, in winter, to give Mani and also all the other riders of our team the best material,” he said. “Then they ride as well as they can, and then the results are coming. So congrats to Mani, congrats to the team and to the company, another title achieved.”
Credit to the challengers
Brightmore pushed him for most of the year. The X-GRIP Racing Team rider won Silver Kings, held second in the standings from Round 3 onwards and took podiums at four of the first five rounds. Brightmore and Kabakchiev, who won the Roof of Africa, were the only other riders to win a round this season.
Lettenbichler knows the pressure is growing. “I think the young boys are coming, you know, everybody's hunting me down,” he said. “So I'm just trying to enjoy it as much as possible now this weekend. And we definitely have a good party on Sunday night.”
Still to come this weekend
With the title decided, Saturday's Campoo Xtreme sprint and Sunday's main race, The Lost Road, still settle the rest of the championship podium and the Junior World Championship, where James Moore and Ashton Brightmore went into the weekend three points apart.
The Lost Road is live and free on the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship YouTube channel from 13:30 CET on Sunday 25 October, with Hixpania Hill from 14:00.
Watch Sunday's race live→The FIM Hard Enduro World Championship is supported by official partners Plews Tyres, S3 and Factory Links.