BIRCH WARMING UP | Bikesportnz

It is two from two for Auckland’s Chris Birch already this season and he’s really only just starting to warm up.

Riding two different models of KTM motorcycle, the Kiwi international won the New Zealand Enduro Championships at Oparau, near Kawhia, on the Saturday of Easter Weekend, and then won the KTM Extreme Enduro Series at the fifth and final round of that competition at the same venue on Easter Monday.

“It was one massive weekend for me,” the 33-year-old Birch acknowledged afterwards.

The Glen Eden man won the fifth round of six in the KTM-sponsored New Zealand Enduro championship on the KTM 350XC-F and then jumped on the two-stroke 300EXC to win the No Way in Hell extreme enduro , and therefore also wrapped up the separate but parallel KTM Extreme Enduro Series.

Birch had won rounds one, two and three of the national series – at Whangamata, Porirua and the Riverhead Forest respectively – but was forced to settle for runner-up spot at round four near Christchurch early in April, placing him in a solid position to seal the title early with another strong showing at Oparau, and that’s exactly what happened, picking up the crown for overall national champion on the Saturday with a round to spare.

Birch also secured the over-300cc four-stroke class title for 2014.

He had been similarly dominant in the KTM Extreme Enduro Series and, despite being forced to miss round two of that contest because of overseas commitments, his win at the No Way In Hell event on Easter Monday gave him a final tally of 97 points, 15 more than his nearest challenger, Wainuiomata’s Jake Whitaker (Husqvarna FE250).

Birch scored 1-DNS (did not start)-1-2-1 over the five rounds, while Whitaker went 2-5-4-3-2 for the series.

Third overall in the KTM Extreme Enduro Series was national cross-country champion Adrian Smith (Yamaha YZ250), from Mokau, with a 5-14-20-1-3 score-line for the series.

“The KTM Extreme Enduro Series was an adventure, as always,” said Birch. “The No Way in Hell (final round) was really tough and I was knackered.”

“The course was extremely steep in places, pretty hard going and I feel absolutely broken down afterwards. I had not been feeling well the week prior to Easter and was diagnosed with tonsillitis after the weekend.”

It was probably a surprise that he managed to finish, let alone win both events over the weekend.

In the end, Birch was so far in front that he was the only rider allowed to start the third loop at the No Way In Hell event.

“If I had known I was the only rider out there on the final loop, I may just have stopped for a wee sleep,” he laughed.

“It has been a good season so far for me … I hope I can continue this overseas.”

Birch now prepares to tackle the Dacer Rally in Canada in June, an 800-kilometre one-day enduro, before he heads to Romania for the big annual Romaniacs Extreme Enduro in the unforgiving Carpathian Mountains from July 15-19.

“I had a shocker at the Romaniacs event last year and I want to make up for that this time around,” said Birch, who beat all the world’s elite off-road racers when he won the iconic event outright in 2010.

Somewhere along the way, Birch will also try to squeeze in an appearance at the sixth and final round of the New Zealand Enduro Championships, set for Waimiha, in the King Country, on May 10.

His attendance there is not vital, seeing as he’s already won the crown, but Birch is not the sort of man to let a challenge pass him by.

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