Across the Finnish line...

By TMX Archives on 20th Sep 07

Colunists

THE World Enduro Championship drew to a close at the weekend in Noirtable, France, where the eighth and final event of the series saw Finns Juha Salminen and Mika Ahola named as this year's Enduro 1 and Enduro 2 World Champions while Spain's Ivan Cervantes lifted the Enduro 3 crown with Sweden's Joakim Ljunggren claiming the Enduro Junior world championship for the second consecutive season.

Britain's Tom Sagar ended his first season ofworld championship competition with two more podium results, finishingin third in the Enduro Junior class on both days.

Despite being the final round of the series theFrench event proved to be extremely challenging with all competitorscovering 200km each day as well as having to deal with a short butchallenging extreme test and two long, dry and dusty motocross andenduro special tests...

Juha Salminen, Mika Ahola, Ivan Cervantes andJoakim Ljunggren are the new 2007 World Enduro Champions, each earningtheir titles at the end of the first day's competition at the GP ofFrance. For Juha it was title number seven while countryman Ahola'sdream of becoming a world champion finally came true after 11-longyears on the WEC circuit.

Returning to competition after missing the GP ofSlovakia, having broken his left collarbone prior to the event, JuhaSalminen rode as if he had never been away from WEC competition andlifted a record-equalling seventh world title by finishing in thirdposition in the E1 class on day one.

Battling with Yamaha riders Marc Germain andSimone Albergoni, Juha's third place was enough to secure him the E1title and while he wasn't quite able to claim his 15th day win of theseason - that would have to wait until day two - he showed once againthat he is the world's most successful enduro rider.

''It's always great to win a world championship,''commented Juha at the end of the first day. ''Things were a little moreexciting because I missed the race in Slovakia but everything wentwell. I hadn't done too much riding before the race but I was confidentthat I could win the championship on day one. Marc Germain and SimoneAlbergoni were both riding really well so it was nice to have to fightto win the championship.''

Competing in front of his home crowd, and wantingto bring his '07 WEC campaign to the best possible close, privateerGermain claimed his first win of the season, topping the podium on dayone. Locked in a battle with Albergoni the whole day, justtwo-and-a-half seconds separated the two riders after close to 50minutes of special test action.


WORLD ENDURO CHAMPIONSHIP Rd 8 - Noiretable, FRANCE

DAY ONE

Enduro One: 1 Marc Germain (Yamaha) 49:51.44, 2Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 49:54.06, 3 Juha Salminen (KTM) 50:10.15, 4Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna) 50:16.12, 5 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha)50:26.38, 6 Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 50:57.51, 7 Julien Gauthier(Honda) 50:57.97, 8 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha) 51:06.76, 9 DamienMiquel (Kawasaki) 52:09.18, 10 Mike Hartman (KTM) 52:17.81, 11 PierreDuzellier (KTM) 52:54.55, 12 Daniele Tellini (KTM) 52:55.68, 13 PeterBergvall (KTM) 53:29.86, 14 Nicolas Brousson (KTM) 55:01.47, 15 JurajDozsa (KTM) 55:22.06, 16 Joan Jou (Yamaha) 58:50.43.

Enduro Two: 1 Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 49:48.35, 2Fabien Planet (KTM) 50:06.50, 3 Samuli Aro (KTM) 50:12.46, 4 Mika Ahola(Honda) 50:29.96, 5 Emmanuel Albepart (Honda) 50:38.83, 6 XavierGalindo (KTM) 50:47.47, 7 Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia) 51:07.98, 8 StefanMerriman (Aprilia) 51:25.52, 9 Nicolas Deparrois (Husqvarna) 51:34.54,10 Rodrig Thain (TM) 51:58.21, 11 Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 52:02.44, 12Felipe Zanol (Yamaha) 52:26.04, 13 Jari Mattila (Beta) 52:44.51, 14Mickael Metge (Husaberg) 53:05.12, 15 Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg)58:20.37, 16 Joel Smets (BMW) 1.07:03.91.

Enduro Three: 1 Seb Guillaume (Husqvarna)50:01.32, 2 Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 50:09.02, 3 Marko Tarkkala (KTM)50:17.81, 4 Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 50:46.09, 5 Jean-Francois Goblet(KTM) 51:09.09, 6 Anders Eriksson (Husqvarna) 51:12.66, 7 AlessandroBotturi (Honda) 51:46.56, 8 Marcus Kehr (KTM) 51:52.56, 9 EuanMcCONNELL (TM) 52:23.56, 10 Vita Kuklik (KTM) 52:25.46, 11 AlessioPaoli (Beta) 52:36.02, 12 Rudy Cotton (Beta) 54:02.46, 13 ErwinPlekkenpol (Honda) 54:21.58, 14 Alessandro Zanni (TM) 54:28.73, 15Gordon Clarke (TM) 59:57.37, 16 Andrea Belotti (KTM) 1.00:43.19.

Enduro Junior: 1 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg)50:33.78, 2 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas) 50:35.21, 3 Tom SAGAR (KTM)51:00.07, 4 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna) 51:10.13, 5 Thomas Oldrati (KTM)51:27.62, 6 Mirko Gritti (Beta) 51:43.74, 7 Oriol Mena (Yamaha)51:57.04, 8 Benoit Fortunato (Husqvarna) 52:06.31, 9 Jeremy Joly(Sherco) 52:28.33, 10 Lucas Puerta (KTM) 52:37.58,...

DAY TWO

Enduro One: 1 Juha Salminen (KTM) 51:46.07, 2Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 51:53.69, 3 Marc Germain (Yamaha) 52:04.67, 4Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha) 52:51.61, 5 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha)52:56.74, 6 Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 53:14.18, 7 Bartosz Oblucki(Husqvarna) 53:24.34, 8 Mike Hartman (KTM) 53:49.42, 9 Julien Gauthier(Honda) 54:01.06, 10 Damien Miquel (Kawasaki) 54:57.31, 11 DanieleTellini (KTM) 55:11.37, 12 Pierre Duzellier (KTM) 55:56.49, 13 GoncaloReis (KTM) 58:11.14, 14Nicolas Brouson (KTM) 59:45.80, 15 Helio Santos(Yamaha) 1.00:22.71.

Enduro Two: 1 Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 50:43.14, 2Mika Ahola (Honda) 51:03.15, 3 Fabien Planet (KTM) 52:24.05, 4 StefanMerriman (Aprilia) 52:37.15, 5 Xavier Galindo (KTM) 52:37.96, 6 SamuliAro (KTM) 53:00.89, 7 Emmanuel Albepart (Honda) 53:08.61, 8 NicolasPaganon (Aprilia) 53:36.37, 9 Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 53:38.59, 10 JariMattila (Beta) 53:44.79, 11 Nicolas Deparrois (Husqvarna) 53:54.77, 12Thierry Klutz (Husqvarna) 54:03.19, 13 Rodrig Thain (TM) 54:15.42, 14Felipe Zanol (Yamaha) 55:37.20, 15 Joel Smets (BMW) 56:17.38, 16 DavidCadek (KTM) 56:25.75, 17 Mickael Metge (Husaberg) 56:40.42.

Enduro Three: 1 Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 51:36.33, 2Seb Guillaume (Husqvarna) 52:26.49, 3 Alessandro Botturi (Honda)52:59.85, 4 Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 53:03.67, 5 Marko Tarkkala (KTM)53:07.50, 6 Jean-Francois Goblet (KTM) 53:10.41, 7 Anders Eriksson(Husqvarna) 53:38.34, 8 Euan McCONNELL (TM) 53:38.79, 9 Marcus Kehr(KTM) 53:42.73, 10 Andrea Belotti (KTM) 53:55.01, 11 Vita Kuklik (KTM)54:15.70, 12 Alessandro Zanni (TM) 55:07.39, 13 Rudy Cotton (Beta)56:33.42, 14 Gordon Clarke (TM) 59:36.70, 15 Erwin Plekkenpol (Honda)59:48.70.

Enduro Junior: 1 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas)52:33.65, 2 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 52:39.79, 3 Tom SAGAR (KTM)53:21.25, 4 Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 53:50.38, 5 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna)54:05.05, 6 Lorenzo Santolino (KTM) 54:52.57, 7 Benoit Fortunato(Husqvarna) 54:54.74, 8 Carlos Andreu (KTM) 54:55.02, 9 Romain Boucardy(KTM) 55:05.49, 10 Victor Guerrero (Yamaha) 55:18.68,...


For full story and pictures, see T+MX NEWS, Friday, September 21, 2007.

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