Four weeks after breaking his hand in a crash near Bradford, Daniel McCanney won the opening round of the 2018 British Enduro Championship.

When the 26-year-old bust a bone in the back of his left hand after going down on polished stones at a British Extreme event at Tong, he faced an uphill battle to get fit for the BEC opener.

His rehab included cold laser therapy, yoga and long hours in the hyperbaric chamber before finally jumping back on his Gas Gas last week at Ballagarraghyn.

The try out went satisfactorily so and after some bike preparation by Juan Knight he headed south to the Whitley Motor Cycle Club event at Warren Heath, near Hook in Hampshire.

Husqvarna’s Billy Bolt and comeback man Tom Sagar on the Beta took more than 10 seconds out of the Manxman on the opening two tests, but McCanney settled in and ground his way back on the 300cc Gas Gas UK machine.

By half-distance Danny was well into his stride and pulling lumps of time out of his rivals on the sandy-based forest tests.

He ultimately won quite convincingly, beating Sagar by 1min 03sec in E3 and leading E2 riders Joe Wootton (Husqvarna), Bolt and Daryl Bolter (Husqvarna) by an even greater margin.

’I went into the event with no expectations,’ he said. ’The idea was to try and salvage as many points as possible from the day, whether it was one or 10.

’I felt rusty on the first lap, but then I went better and better, taking most of the later tests to win by over a minute. My bike fitness was really down, so I’m really happy.’

’No riding for four weeks before a big event is not ideal but he had no choice,’ said Gas Gas UK team boss John Shirt.

’Danny and I didn’t know what to expect on Sunday. It was important to hopefully finish this first one-day BEC event and get some valuable championship points.

’He rode the event perfectly, the opening lap very sensibly and the first two tests at a ’tight check’ speed until he felt happy to push. Danny was 16 seconds down after the first lap but it didn’t faze him as he knew he had plenty left.

’From lap two he dominated the event, taking chunks out of his rivals to eventually win by a massive 63 seconds.

’Danny was very happy and relieved at the finish, albeit extremely tired.

’It was great to see both him and Gas Gas winning a British Enduro Championship event again. We have a lot of work to do with the bike in the UK enduro scene but this is a dream start.’

Russell Millward finished one-and-a-half-minutes behind defending champion Andrew Edwards in the over-40s class on his four-stroke Yamaha 250.

Jed Etchells retired with arm cramp after six tests on the MPS Racing Sherco. The St Mark’s teenager is contesting E2 and under-23 classes.

McCanney now heads to Spain for EnduroGP training and testing with his factory team-mates.

He and John Shirt would like to thank Juan Knight for help with the bike preparation, while Danny also wishes to mention Steve and Tracy at Chempaka in Ramsey for the cold laser therapy, along with Dave Smyth for the yoga fitness.

- The next round of the BEC series will be at Helmsley, Yorkshire over the weekend of May 12-13.

- Regulations will soon be available for the back-to-back rounds of the championship being hosted by Southern MCC here in the Isle of Man on July 7-8. Keep an eye on www.southernmcc.com

The same club is also hosting rounds two and three of the domestic championship on April 2 and May 7. More details soon.

KNIGHTER’S GOING INDOORS to spain and sweden

David Knight, who did not contest last weekend’s British Enduro Championship event, is taking over Danny McCanney’s factory ride in the final three rounds of the FIM Maxxis SuperEnduro World Championship.

SuperEnduro of Malaga takes place this Saturday, to be followed by further round in Bilbao on March 3 and Sweden on March 31.

Watch the action live from round three this Saturday from 8.30pm (Central European Time) on superenduro.org