Ahola and Meo wrap up World Enduro titles
By TMX Archives on 1st Oct 10
Mika Ahola and Antoine Meo were the big winners at the eighth and final round of the 2010 Enduro World Championship series as they respectively secured the Enduro 2 and Enduro 1 Enduro World Championship titles to join David Knight as this year's EWC champions.
A much tougher event than most were expecting, heavy rain during the first day's competition at the GP of France ensured conditions were extremely slippery, causing problems for just about all riders.
For the fourth consecutive season Finland's Mika Ahola has earned himself an Enduro World Championship title, this year the coveted Enduro 2 crown. Needing just a handful of points from the season's final event to secure the championship, the Honda rider did it in style by claiming E2 class victory on day two.
But things didn't go exactly to planned for the experienced Finn!
Making a complete mess of his routine end-of-day tyre change on day one, Mika was forced to place his bike in the parc ferme with no mousse inside his rear tyre. With no time allowed for working on bikes at the start of the second day in WEC events, the Finn was unable to start day two.
"I don't really know what happened,” explained Mika. "I just couldn't get the rear tyre on. In the end I just had to get the bike into the parc ferme. I knew that was all I had to do to win, but it was a bit unexpected. Clinching the title is great. It's been a tough season with some great battles with Ivan Cervantes. Four titles from four seasons is just amazing.”
One rider who certainly won't forget the GP of France any time soon is Husqvarna's Antoine Meo. Leader of the Enduro 1 world championship from the start of the season, Meo eventually claimed his first ever EWC title with a winning ride on day two, but had to endure two tough days of racing before he and his team could start celebrating.
For much of the opening day it looked as if Meo wasn't going to finish on the podium. Struggling with the slippery conditions early in the day, it wasn't until the final lap that he was able to up his pace and claim a third place result. In doing so he ensured an all-France 1-2-3.
Full story and pictures in T+MX issue dated October 1, 2010.
WORLD ENDURO CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 8 (Final) - Noiretable, FRANCE
DAY ONE
Enduro 1: 1 Johnny Aubert (KTM), 2 Marc Germain (Yamaha), 3 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna), 4 Eero Remes (KTM), 5 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha), 6 Nicolas Deparrois (Kawasaki), 7 Matti Seistola (Husqvarna), 8 Jordan Curvalle (Sherco), 9 Fabio Mossini (Honda) 10 Maurizio Micheluz (TM).
Enduro 2: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda), 2 Pierre Alexandre Renet (KTM), Thomas Oldrati (KTM), 4 Ivan Cervantes (KTM), 5 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna), 6 Nicolas Paganon (Kawasaki), 7 Rodrig Thain (TM), 8 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 9 Oscar Balletti (Honda), 10 Juha Salminen (Husqvarna).
Enduro 3: 1 Seb Guillaume (Husqvarna), 2 Simone Albergoni (KTM), 3 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas), 4. Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna), 5 Oriol Mena (Husaberg), 6 Michal Kadlecek (TM), 7 Marcus Kehr (KTM), 8 Antoine Lettelier (Beta), 9 Alessandro Botturi (Husaberg), 10 Romain Barberger (Sherco).
Enduro Junior: 1 Jeremy Joly (Honda), 2 Antti Hellsten (KTM), 3 Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna), 4 Toby Price (KTM), 5 Antoine Basset (Husqvarna), 6 Mario Romain (KTM), 7 Pierre Pallut (KTM), 8 Benoit Fortunato (Husaberg), 9 Berenger Carrier (Husqvarna),10 Josh Green (TM), 24 Jordan Scott (TM).
DAY TWO
Enduro 1: 1 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna), 2 Julien Gauthier (Honda), 3 Johnny Aubert (KTM), 4 Eero Remes (KTM), 5 Marc Germain (Yamaha), 6 Matti Seistola (Husqvarna), 7 Nicolas Deparrois (Kawasaki), 8 Jordan Curvalle (Sherco), 9 Maurizio Micheluz (TM), 10 Chris Hollis (Husqvarna).
Enduro 2: 1 Pierre Alexandre Renet (KTM), 2 Thomas Oldrati (KTM), 3 Rodrig Thain (TM), 4 Oscar Balletti (Honda), 5 Nicolas Paganon (Kawasaki), 6 Juha Salminen (Husqvarna), 7 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 8 Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg), 9 Jeff Goblet (Yamaha), 10 Jordi Figueras (Gas Gas).
Enduro 3: 1 Seb Guillaume (Husqvarna), 2 Simone Albergoni (KTM), 3 David Knight (KTM), 4 Marcus Kehr (KTM), 5 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna), 6 Oriol Mena (Husaberg), 7 Kevin Hamard (Husaberg),8 Nicolas Boyer (Gas Gas).
Enduro Junior: 1 Jeremy Joly (Honda), 2 Antti Hellsten (KTM), 3 Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna), 4 Benoit Fortunato (Husaberg), 5 Mario Romain (KTM), 6 Toby Price (KTM), 7 Antoine Basset (Husqvarna), 8 Johan Carlsson (Beta), 9 Berenger Carrier (Husqvarna), 10 Alexandre Queyreyre (Husaberg).