Ahola's home to roost
By TMX Archives on 18th Jun 09
MIKA Ahola, Johnny Aubert, Ivan Cervantes and Oriol Mena were the big winners at the fourth round of the World Enduro Championship (WEC), the GP of Finland staged in Riihimaki, as all four riders claimed double class wins at the one and only Scandinavian event in this year's schedule.Report and Pictures: JONTY EDMUNDS
EIGHT weeks have passed since the third round of the WEC series took competitors to the Italian island of Sardinia in mid April so last weekend's GP of Finland marked the mid-way point of the eight-round championship, and proved to be the demanding event many expected.
With the WEC having not visited the ‘land of a thousand lakes' for several years the Riihimaki event was a worthy addition to the series and one that certainly separated the men from the boys. With fine weather on day one and wetter conditions on day two following a heavy overnight thunder-storm each of the special tests proved challenging, due in no small part to the unpredictable rocks and tree roots.
But, for Enduro 1 championship leader, Mika Ahola, Finland was an event that ended predictably as the Honda star topped the E1 class on both days. But instead of dominating the E1 class as many expected , Mika was made to work extremely hard for his two podium topping results.
On day one, two riders, Finn Eero Remes and Frenchman Antoine Meo, both showed that they were fast enough to win. But mistakes by both riders enabled Mika to secure victory, finishing less than one-second ahead of Meo.
Determined to go one better and top the class on day two, Husqvarna-mounted Meo again showed great pace but Mika was again the rider who remained mistake free and claimed a comfortable 40-second winning margin come the end of the day. As on day one Remes returned to the podium in third.
"I was expecting things to be much easier for me here,” admitted Mika after the race. "I'd not done a lot of riding in Finland before the race. I was surprised how fast both Meo and Remes were. It was really close on day one, but I enjoyed having to ride at 100 per cent.”
While things were extremely close in E1 on day one, they weren't at the top of the E2 category. Championship leader Johnny Aubert again proved to be simply too fast aboard his KTM and finished 90-seconds ahead of BMW's Juha Salminen. For Salminen second place marked his best result of the season so far, as well as BMW's highest ever WEC results. Third went to Husqvarna's Bartosz Oblucki who ensured that the E2 podium wasn't an all four-stroke affair.
On day two the same three riders filled the top three E2 positions, in the exact same order. Aubert was again comfortably ahead, while behind him things were a lot closer. Oblucki finished just 20-seconds behind Salminen with Finnish Husaberg rider Valtteri Salonen just 11-seconds adrift in fourth.
"It's been another really good weekend for me,” admitted Aubert after the event. "I don't know why but I found it really hard to keep my concentration during the special tests this weekend, especially on day two. The first day was generally good. I didn't have any big problems or make any big mistakes. I enjoyed it, but it was quite hard. I crashed on the motocross test on the second day, which cost me some time, but I still managed to win most of the tests, so I'm pretty pleased. The important thing is that I took more good championship points!”
Aubert remains unbeaten in the E2 class so far this season and is 56-points clear at the top of the table.
With just ten-riders finishing on day one and nine finishing on day two the Enduro 3 class was again the smallest in terms of numbers but competition at the sharp end of the category was fierce.
Despite the best efforts of defending E3 class champion, Samuli Aro, and French Husqvarna rider, Seb Guillaume, it was Spain's Ivan Cervantes who emerged as the day one winner, despite struggling to perform at his best after fitting the wrong front tyre to his KTM.
Winning by less than one-second having been unable to fully attack the special tests, Ivan was joined on the podium by Aro with Guillaume less then five-seconds behind.
Day two again saw Cervantes claim victory and in doing so he stretched his lead at the top of the E3 world standings. Made to work hard by Gas Gas-mounted Frenchman, Christophe Nambotin, the pair pulled themselves clear of third placed rider Samuli Aro.
Husqvarna's Seb Guillaume ruled himself out of any possible top three result when he crashed heavily towards the end of the day, which meant that Cervantes, Nambotin and Aro filled the podium.
"I made a small mistake on the first day by running a sand tyre on the front of my bike,” explained Ivan. "It was great in the sand but there were a lot more rocks and tree roots than I was expecting. Half-way through the first day I realised that it wasn't possible to push hard to try and win. Although I was still trying hard, I was quite lucky because I was able to win the first day by a few seconds, which was a surprise.
"The second day was much better. I really enjoyed the tests and was able to push much harder. I did make some mistakes in the extreme test, which allowed Christophe Nambotin to reduce my lead, but I had a good final lap and managed to win again, which is great.”
WORLD ENDURO CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 4 – Riihimaki, FINLAND
DAY ONE
ENDURO ONE: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda) 1:05:01, 2 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna) 1:05:02, 3 Eero Remes (KTM) 1:05:45, 4 Simone Albergoni (KTM) 1:06:27, 5 Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 1:07:12, 6 Fabien Planet (KTM) 1:07:41, 7 Jari Mattila (Suzuki) 1:07:43, 8 Julien Gauthier (Honda) 1:07:56, 9 Xavier Galindo (KTM) 1:09:10, 10 Filipe Zanol (Yamaha) 1:09:45,... 15 Aston BIRD (Husqvarna) 1:11:18,...
ENDURO TWO: 1 Johnny Aubert (KTM) 1:04:59, 2 Juha Salminen (BMW) 1:06.25, 3 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna) 1:07:21, 4 Matti Seistola (Husqvarna) 1:08:02, 5 Simo Kirssi (BMW) 1:08:09, 6 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 1:08:11, 7 Rodrig Thain (TM) 1:08:33, 8 Fabrizio Dini (Beta) 1:08:35, 9 Hans Vogels (Yamaha) 1:08:50, 10 Nicolas Deparrois (Gas Gas) 1:08:56,...
ENDURO THREE: 1 Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 1:05:52, 2 Samuli Aro (KTM) 1:05:52, 3 Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna) 1:05:578, 4 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas) 1:06:17, 5 Fabio Mossini (Honda) 1:07:29, 6 Marko Tarkkala (BMW) 1:07:36, 7 Marcus Kehr (KTM) 1:08:32, 8 Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 1:10:05, 9 Gordon CLARKE (TM) 1:15:39, 10 Antti Lehtonen (KTM) 1:21:02,...
ENDURO JUNIOR: 1 Oriol Mena (Husaberg) 1:07:45, 2 Benoit Fortunato (Yamaha) 1:07:47, 3 Mirko Gritti (Beta) 1:08:43, 4 John Christian Seljord (Honda) 1:09:26, 5 Calle Sjoo (Husaberg) 1:09:52, 6 Vanni Cominotto (KTM) 1:10:19, 7 Antti Hellsten (KTM) 1:10:25, 8 Adrien Metge (Husqvarna) 1:10:43, 9 Philip McLaughlin (TM) 1:10:50, 10 Victor Guerrero (Yamaha) 1:10:53,...
DAY TWO
ENDURO ONE: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda) 1:04:47, 2 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna) 1:05:28, 3 Eero Remes (KTM) 1:06:08, 4 Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 1:06:14, 5 Simone Albergoni (KTM) 1:06:44, 6 Fabien Planet (KTM) 1:07:44, 7 Jari Mattila (Suzuki) 1:08:24, 8 Julien Gauthier (Honda) 1:09:02, 9 Filipe Zanol (Yamaha) 1:09:33, 10 Jari Pulkkinen (Honda) 1:09:34,... 12 Aston BIRD (Husqvarna) 1:11:57,...
ENDURO TWO: 1 Johnny Aubert (KTM) 1:05:01, 2 Juha Salminen (BMW) 1:06:21, 3 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna) 1:06:42, 4 Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg) 1:06:53, 5 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 1:07:10, 6 Simo Kirssi (BMW) 1:07:50, 7 Rodrig Thain (TM) 1:09:05, 8 Mike Hartmann (Husaberg) 1:09:15, 9 Fabrizio Dini (Beta) 1:09:40, 10 Nicolas Deparrois (Gas Gas) 1:09:47,... 14 Si WAKELY (Husqvarna) 1:10:47,...
ENDURO THREE: 1 Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 1:05:44, 2 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas) 1:05.53, 3 Samuli Aro (KTM) 1:06:32, 4 Fabio Mossini (Honda) 1:07:54, 5 Marcus Kehr (HTM) 1:08.08, 6 Marko Tarkkala (BMW) 1:08:08, 7 Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna) 1:08:50, 8 Gordon CLARKE (TM) 1:16:42.77, 9 Antti Lehtonon (KTM) 1:18:24.08,...
ENDURO JUNIOR: 1 Oriol Mena (Husaberg) 1:08:02, 2 Jeremy Joly (Honda) 1:08:20, 3 Mirko Gritti (Beta) 1:08:35, 4 Benoit Fortunato (Yamaha) 1:08:41, 5 Victor Guerrero (Yamaha) 1:09:11, 6 Calle Sjoo (Husaberg) 1:09:50, 7 John Christian Seljord (Honda) 1:10:45, 8 Adrien Metge (Husqvarna) 1:10:55, 9 Jonathon Manzi (Husqvarna) 1:10:56, 10 Lorenzo Santolino (KTM) 1:11:37,...
NEXT ROUND: June 20/21 – Puchov, SLOVAKIA.
On the straight and Aro! Defending Champ, Samuli Aro, was denied day one victory in Enduro Three after a photo finish with man-on-form Ivan Cervantes.