The Dolomites turned dark before Tristan Botteram found his line. On 28 June 2026, at the third round of the UCI Enduro World Cup in Val di Fassa, the Dutchman took the first World Cup win of his career, beating home favourite Tommaso Calonaci by six tenths of a second. The final margin read 0.623.
It arrived from a weekend the weather refused to allow.
The second day of racing saw the planned four stages cut to just two for the juniors and elite women, while the elite men were tested on only one stage due to adverse weather conditions.
Stage four was cancelled for the elite men due to an electrical storm, and stages five and six were cancelled for all riders.
For the Elite Men, the race narrowed to a single timed test on day two: Stage 7,
1.32 km long, with 223 metres of descending and 19 metres of climbing.
One run to settle everything.
One stage, decided in seconds
Botteram had left himself work to do.
After three stages on day one, Italian racer Tommaso Calonaci was fastest on home soil, with Alex Rudeau holding second and Botteram third.
The gap was real:
Calonaci sat on 13:05.658, with Botteram third at +5.891.
With the storm erasing the rest of the schedule, the Dutchman had a single stage in which to overturn it.
He did. On ground softened by overnight rain,
Botteram set the fastest elite men's time on Stage 7 at 3:08.650, with Lief Rodgers second at +0.877 and Calonaci fifth at +6.514.
That was the swing. The Italian, so composed across the opening day, lost more than six seconds on the one run that mattered, and the overall result flipped on the finish line.
Botteram emerged from the chaos to take his first elite World Cup win, storming the final stage to take the top of the podium from Calonaci by just 0.623 seconds.
Tommaso Francardo went over the line in third, making it two Italian racers inside the top three.
A first, earned in the hardest conditions
The context sharpens the achievement. Botteram came to Val di Fassa without a World Cup victory to his name, third overall through day one and behind two of the faster men in the field. He did not win on accumulated advantage. He won on the only stage the storm left standing, against a rider racing at home and leading the race.
The final elite men's order read Botteram at 16:20.199, Calonaci at +0.623, Francardo at +5.525, ahead of Lief Rodgers and Alex Rudeau.
For a career that had circled the podium without reaching its top step, six tenths were enough. Tristan Botteram is a World Cup winner now, and the weather that shortened the race could not take that from him.
