2010 Indoor Enduro World Cup
By TMX Archives on 1st Feb 10
Victory in final event for KTM's extreme Enduro maestro Taddy Blazusiak Barcelona proved to be yet another venue for KTM's Taddy Blazusiak to thrill the crowds and mount the winner's podium to complete a clean sweep of all four of the events that made up the 2010 Indoor Enduro World Cup.
With the title already in his pocketafter the third event at Vigo, Spain, Taddy, riding for the KTM Enduro FactoryTeam, stayed motivated and undefeated on Sunday in the Palau Sant Jordi indoorarena in Barcelona, thrilling the large crowd with his skill and agility overwhat proved to be a challenging set of obstacles.
At the end of the four World Cup events,he finished with 174 points, a significant lead over the 2009 champion andfellow KTM factory rider Ivan Cervantes of Spain with 115 points. Swedish riderJoakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) was overall third with 95 points.
But on the night, Taddy had some toughcompetition from inside the KTM factory team from both local favourite Cervantesand David Knight, who returns to KTM and only raced in the final round. After abad start in the opening final, Taddy fought back through the field toeventually finish second. He then went out in the second final to take theholeshot and lead the pack right up to the chequered flag, a clear 12 secondsahead of Cervantes. Although Cervantes prevailed in the third final, thecollective result was enough for Taddy to once again mount the top step of thepodium.
"If you don't give 100 percent whenyou are racing indoor Enduro that's when you can get hurt, so although I'dalready won the title I knew that I needed to push as hard as I could and stay100 per cent focused on my racing. Generally it was a great night for me and itwas great to see a full stadium..... It's been a great and almost perfe ctchampionship for me," Taddy commented after the race.
David Knight: "Finishing the night onthe podium, and having won the first final, has been a great way to start thenew season. It's just great to be back racing again. I knew that I wasn'tperfectly prepared for the event as I'd been testing my World EnduroChampionship bike all week before the event and basically put my four-strokesuspension in my 300 and made the best of what I had. Generally the bike wasgreat but there were a few places where I was finding things tough. I had twooptions in the first final once I got into the lead - take things at a speed Iwas comfortable with or go as hard as I could and risk crashing. I took my timea bit and it worked well as I won. I got a bit tangled up with a few otherriders off the start in the second race but finished third, which was ok. Andthen I got third again in the last final. I can't really complain about th e waythings have gone. I really enjoyed the event and to finish on the podium havingonly spent about an hour on my two-stroke in the last few weeks is pretty good.Both Taddy and Ivan rode well, as I knew they would, so to be on the podium withthem is great."
The Indoor Enduro World Cup is a unique opportunityto bring the thrills and skills of the sport to an urban venue and to allow thefans to experience it close up. The competition continues to grow in popularityand was this season increased from three to four rounds.
FinalStandings 2010 Indoor Enduro World Cup
1. Taddy Blazusiak, Poland, KTM,174 points
2. Ivan Cervantes, Spain, KTM, 115
3. Joakim Ljunggren,Sweden, Husaberg, 95
4. Graham Jarvis, UK, Sherco, 70
5. Daniel Gibert,Spain, Yamaha 63