Enduro

Enduro is a form of motorcycle sport run on extended cross-country, off-road courses. Enduro consists of many different obstacles and challenges. The main type of enduro event, and the format to which the World Enduro Championship is run, is a time-card enduro, whereby a number of stages are raced in a time trial against the clock.

In a traditional time-keeping enduro, riders leave together in groups or rows, and each row starts at a certain minute. The object of the event is to arrive at pre-defined checkpoints according to a strict schedule. Early or late arrivals result in the riders' scores being penalized. Throughout a day there will also be allocated periods for refuelling and servicing the machine. Penalties apply for not meeting defined times or for outside-assistance when not permitted.

A world championship course must be at least 200 km and a maximum of 30% of its length can be on paved roads. American Motorcycle Association (AMA) rules are different with respect to course length and other variables (i.e. average speed, terrain type, etc.). The rules of the regional sanctioning body can also affect the rules for a particular enduro course.

Casual observers often confuse the two different types of events, enduros and rallies, but within the international off-road motorcycle community, the term enduro refers specifically to time keeping events which require competitors to maintain a prescribed mile per hour average over varying terrain. Competitors are moderated by a series of secret time keeping checkpoints along the race course, and are penalized based on their arrival time to the checkpoints.Rallies, on the other hand, are run on point to point courses where the competitor with the fastest time between the two points being declared the winner. Such courses may be shorter than the total length of the race, in which case the course is repeated several times, with each repetition being referred to as a lap. Such courses may also be very long such that competitors never cover the same ground twice.

Certainly part of the confusion stems from the fact that rallies and enduros share two pronounced qualities; they are usually lengthy compared to most forms of motorsport racing and they cover varying off-road terrain, usually without repeating any section of the terrain in the course of an event. Examples of such rallies include the Baja 500 and Baja 1000, which are promoted and administered by SCORE International and are amongst the most well known long-distance off-road races. Off-road races that span multiple days and that have different types of stages, some that are timed and others that are not, are generally referred to as rallies (or rallyes) or rally raids (a term widely used in the United Kingdom that is synonymous with off-road rally) such as the Dakar Rally.

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