The second marathon day of the Greece Rally 2026 took the competitors on Wednesday from the forest village in the Rodopi back to Serres, via the coast near Kavala. Stefan Svitko again won both special stages and now leads the rally by 1 hour and 22 minutes. Ruben van der Vlis finished fifth on the day and remains sixth in the standings, while Dennis Schans climbed to tenth place.
The day was all about navigation. Several riders went off route, including two Dutchmen who unintentionally ended up on a busy beach.
Svitko extends his lead
The stage consisted of SS5 Lekani-Paggeo, listed in the results at 123 kilometres, and the short SS6 Symvolo of 34 kilometres. On his Ducati 450, Svitko set the fastest time in both stages and posted a daily time of 3:15:19. Benjamin Harvey-Grounds followed at 10:02, Robert Parry at 18:17.
In the overall standings, Svitko sits on 11:26:11 after four days. Harvey-Grounds is second at 1:21:44, Parry third at 1:59:05. Ferdinand Kreidl and Daniel Rymes complete the top five.
Thomas Dunne did not reach the finish of SS5 and is the only new retirement. Stanislav Pavelka, Vladimír Oboňa, Michal Gazur, Franco Fenati and Andrea Pezzi, who had already missed stages earlier, were again out of action on Wednesday and picked up penalty time once more.
Van der Vlis and Schans on a roll
Ruben van der Vlis (Riding Adventures) again rode a strong day. The fifth time, at 22:26 behind Svitko, keeps him in sixth place in the overall standings, 2:15:34 down. In the M2 class he is fifth. Alastair Bramwell follows four minutes back, Henrik Rahm at eight.
Dennis Schans (Memo Tours) set the eighth-fastest time of the day and climbed from thirteenth to tenth in the standings. He remains comfortably in the lead in the M1 class. Marios Gardelis took second place in that class from Frank de Mik, with 58 seconds between them after four days. Nico Dekker is fourth in M1, Jaap Martens fifth.
Robbert Plarina rode to the eighteenth-fastest time of the day, his best of the rally so far, and sits 24th. Bert Veenje followed as 25th on the day and Henk Nijmeijer as 36th. They are 41st and 34th in the standings respectively. Of the eight Dutch motorcycle riders, all eight are still in the results.
Lost among the parasols
Memo Tours described the day on social media as a real adventure. According to the team, the stories came out on arrival: Schans unintentionally rode a stretch of motorway, off route, and even paid a toll for the privilege. Martens and Nijmeijer lost the trail and, to their own astonishment, ended up on the beach, among the parasols and the sunbathers. Veenje mainly struggled with the bed in the cabin in the forest village, which later turned out to be extendable.
The team called the night in the mountains cold, but the route fantastic. That combination fits the location of the Erymanthos Forest Village, at around 1,350 metres altitude.
SSV: Wouters wins again, two crews retire
Among the SSVs, Wil Wouters and Niels van Limpt (Memo Tours) took their second daily win of the week in 3:24:06. Kees Box and Kees Box Jr. (QFF Racing) followed at 7:03, Kenny de Vries and Jo Lenders at 14:04. Ruud and Patricia Vollebregt were fourth.
Rene and Joyce van Eerd (Van Eerd Racing) and the Greek crew of Giannis Varvakis and Dimitris Kokkinos did not reach the finish of SS5 and both received a penalty time of 5:32:00.
Quads and Rally Challenge
In the quad class, Kenny van Eerd did not reach the finish of SS5. Roy van Eerd did not start the stage. Both received penalty time, which means no quad that completed the stage appears in Wednesday’s results.
In the Rally Challenge, Nico Keijzer (Riding Adventures) won the day in 4:11:47, ahead of Garrett Cahill at 1:18 and Damien Fitzgerald at 14:48. Dave Ouwehand set the fastest time in the class on the first stage but did not start the second and is listed as DNQ. The same applies to Lars de Backker, who did not complete the first stage. No overall standings have yet been published for the Rally Challenge.
Looking ahead: a short but tricky day on the Menikio
At 80 kilometres, Thursday is the shortest day of the week, but according to the organisation certainly not the easiest. The notice for the fifth stage states that there is no live briefing and describes the day as a test of enduro and navigation skills. SS7 Bosdakas Crossing runs to twenty kilometres, of which the first six in particular are difficult. The transfer to the start takes about an hour; the competitors leave the Elpida Resort around 8:40 and the stage begins at 10:00.
For the SSVs and the Adventure Tour, an easier course has been laid out, with its own start about half an hour’s drive away and the same final section and finish as the enduro route. That alternative roadbook is also available to motorcycle riders who choose it, on roll paper, via Terrapirata or as a GPS track.
