Cervantes 'lands a Polish double
By TMX Archives on 18th Jun 08
WITH ten long weeks having past since the dry and dusty GP of Spain the 2008 World Enduro Championship returned to action with the GP of Poland which marked the half way point of the 16-day championship. Expected to be a sandy event, with no rain having fallen in the Kwidzyn area in a month, the race not only ended up being even drier and dustier than Spain, it also proved to be an extremely physical and tiring event.
With Finn Mika Ahola having claimed a double E1 class win at Spaniard Ivan Cervantes' home event most were expecting the reigning E2 world champion to claim two more day wins in Poland but Cervantes had other ideas. Ahola was unable to stop Cervantes on either day as the KTM rider closed to within ten points of the Finn at the head of the E1 standings.
On day one Cervantes claimed victory by 15 seconds, which if Ahola hadn't crashed twice on the second timed extreme test probably wouldn't have been enough to claim the win. But with Mika making more than one costly mistake on the unforgiving extreme test Cervantes claimed the win with French Yamaha rider Marc Germain third.
On day two Ivan raised his game and beat Ahola fair and square as the Spaniard topped seven of the day's nine special tests. Also finishing as the overall fastest rider on day two, the Spaniard showed that he certainly isn't planning on letting Ahola walk away with the '08 E1 world championship.
"Being beaten by Mika in Spain was really disappointing but it made me determined to win here,” commented the Spaniard. Third on day two went to UFO Yamaha rider Simone Albergoni.
For British riders Tom Sagar and Daryl Bolter the Polish GP proved tough but both riders rode well. For Sagar the event ended with the reigning British Enduro Champion having shown a notable increase in his speed after struggling with bad luck and misfortune at the opening three rounds of the series. Seventh on day one Tom dropped to eighth on day two but happy enough with his riding ahead of the GP of Wales, which takes place in four weeks.
Suffering with hay fever and a heavy cold, for Bolter it was simply a case of doing the best he could. Just missing out on a top 10 result on day one Bolter improved to ninth on day two.
Losing valuable championship points to Enduro 2 class rival Johnny Aubert in Spain, Juha Salminen arrived in Poland knowing that he needed to win, which is exactly what the seven-time world champion did. Quickly into his stride on day one the Finn placed over one-minute ahead of Aubert who in turn finished more than two-and-a-half minutes up on Italian Alessandro Belometti.
On the shorter second day Juha did exactly what he had on day one – made no mistakes and claimed another comfortable E2 win with Aubert managing to sneak just one special test victory away from the Finn. With three riders – Finn Simo Kirssi, Frenchman Antoine Meo and Italian Alessandro Belometti, separated by next to nothing it was WEC newcomer Kirssi who snatched the final podium place giving BMW their first ever enduro world championship podium.
But for Salminen the GP of Poland ended just as he hoped it would with a double E2 class win. Stated the KTM rider, "The hardest thing has been making sure that I didn't lose my concentration, which is difficult when you have a good lead. The enduro test was really tough because it was so dry and had one rut from start to finish. I liked the motocross because it was really long. It's not going to be easy taking back the points I lost in Spain, but all I can do is try to keep winning.”
Topping the Enduro 3 class on day one, to the surprise of many, was CH Racing Husqvarna rider Seb Guillaume. Reverting back to two-stroke machinery having campaigned a four-stroke at the first three GPs, Seb showed that he was determined to make up lost ground as far as the E3 championship was concerned and placed just under 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Samuli Aro.
"I decided to revert to a two-stroke with the team, and it seems to have been the right decision,” commented Seb. "I've ridden two strokes for 20 years – I guess I just find it easier. "
For Aro, Poland was tough. Having come close to chopping the top off one of his fingers while grinding a bolt shortly after the GP of Spain the Finn had spent no more than two hours on his bike in preparation for the race and was competing with a metal pin in his injured finger. The determined former world champion showed amazing resilience and kept the pressure on Guillaume throughout the first day.
Third on day one was Aprilia mounted Stefan Merriman. Claiming his best result of the season so far the Aussie rider's fortunes took a turn for the worse on day two as he failed to finish following a mechanical problem.
Day two saw KTM's Marko Tarkkala top E3 for the first time this season. Tarkkala spent day two battling with Gas Gas rider Christophe Nambotin and they finished less than eight seconds apart. Third, having found the second day extremely painful, was Aro.
Britain's top rider in the E3 class, Scot Euan McConnell, scored points on both days. Struggling with his long legs on the one-lined and extremely rutted enduro test, McConnell rode well on the motocross test but was unable to make any impression on the top 10. Euan's TM team-mate Gordon Clarke finished both days but ended the event never wanting to see a dry Polish forest ever again.
With Welshman Greg Evans a spectator in Poland having broken his leg in a car crash, Britain's best finisher in the Enduro Junior class was Husqvarna rider Si Wakely, who finished 11th in class on day two. Clipping a tree and damaging his gear selector shaft on day one and failing to finish, Si put in some impressive times on the extreme test but failed to get to grips with the long and dusty motocross test.
WORLD ENDURO CHAMPS
Rd 4 – Kwidzyn, POLAND
DAY ONE
ENDURO 1: 1 Ivan Cervantes (KTM), 2 Mika Ahola (Honda), 3 Marc Germain (Yamaha), 4 Simone Albergoni (Yamaha), 5 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha), 6 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha), 7 Tom SAGAR (KTM), 8 Jordan Curvalle (Suzuki), 9 Mike Hartmann (KTM), 10 Luca Cherubini (TM), 11 Daryl BOLTER (Husqvarna), 12 David Cadek (KTM), 13 Concalo Reis (KTM), 14 Fredrick Georgsson (KTM), 15 Jakub Horak (KTM).
ENDURO 2: 1 Juha Salminen (KTM), 2 Jonny Aubert (Yamaha), 3 Alessandro Belometti (KTM), 4 Rodrig Thain (TM), 5 Simon Kirssi (BMW), 6 Aaron Bernardez (Husqvarna), 7 Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg), 8 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 9 Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha), 10 Hans Vogel (KTM), 11 Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia), 12 Alessandro Zanni (Honda), 13 Fabio Mossini (Honda), 14 Rudy Cotton (Beta), 15 Daniel Persson (Husaberg).
ENDURO 3: 1 Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna), 2 Samuli Aro (KTM), 3 Stefan Merriman (Aprilia), 4 Marko Tarkkala (KTM), 5 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas), 6 Marcus Kehr (KTM), 7 Alessandro Botturi (Honda), 8 Xavier Galindo (KTM), 9 Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg), 10 Antoine Letellier (Aprilia), 11 Stefan Svitko (KTM), 12 Jordi Figueras (KTM), 13 Anders Ericsson (BMW), 14 Vita Kuklik (KTM), 15 Euan McCONNELL (TM),... 19 Gordon CLARKE (TM).
ENDURO JUNIOR: 1 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna), 2 Roni Nikander (KTM), 3 Thomas Oldrati (KTM), 4 Oriol Mena (KTM), 5 Mirko Gritti (Beta), 6 Jeremy Joly (Sherco), 7 Robert Kvarnstrom (TM), 8 Edward Hubner (KTM), 9 Lucas Puerta (Yamaha), 10 Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna), 11 Armand Monleon (Yamaha), 12 Bert Mayer (BMW), 13 Lauri Salonen (Honda), 14 Martin Kuklik (KTM), 15 David Gannac (Suzuki).
DAY TWO
ENDURO 1: 1 Ivan Cervantes (KTM), 2 Mika Ahola (Honda), 3 Simone Albergoni (Yamaha), 4 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha), 5 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha), 6 Marc Germain (Yamaha), 7 Mike Hartmann (KTM), 8 Tom SAGAR (KTM), 9 Daryl BOLTER (Husqvarna), 10 Jordan Curvalle (Suzuki), 11 Sandro Marcos (Suzuki), 12 David Cadek (KTM), 13 Concalo Reis (KTM), 14 Jakub Horak (KTM), 15 Fredrick Georgsson (KTM).
ENDURO 2: 1 Juha Salminen (KTM), 2 Jonny Aubert (Yamaha), 3 Simo Kirssi (BMW), 4 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna), 5 Alessandro Belometti (KTM), 6 Alessandro Zanni (Honda), 7 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 8 Fabio Mossini (Honda), 9 Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha), 10 Rodrig Thain (TM), 11 Nicolas Deparrois (Gas Gas), 12 Hans Vogel (Yamaha), 13 Nicolas Paganon (Aprilia), 14 Filipe Zanol (Yamaha), 15 Daniel Persson (Husaberg).
ENDURO 3: 1 Marko Tarkkala (KTM), 2 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas), 3 Samuli Aro (KTM), 4 Sebastian Guillaume (Husqvarna), 5 Marcus Kehr (KTM), 6 Alessandro Botturi (Honda), 7 Anders Eriksson (BMW), 8 Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg), 9 Jordi Figueras (KTM), 10 Stefan Svitko (KTM), 11 Erwin Plekkenpol (Honda), 12 Vita Kuklik (KTM), 13 Euan McCONNELL (TM), 14 Gordon CLARKE (TM) 1212728.
ENDURO JUNIOR: 1 Thomas Oldrati (KTM), 2 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna), 3 Oriol Mena (KTM), 4 Oscar Balletti (Honda), 5 Roni Nikander (KTM), 6 Robert Kapajcik (KTM), 7 Robert Kvarnstrom (TM), 8 Mirko Gritti (Honda), 9 Jeremy Joly (Sherco), 10 Bert Mayer (BMW), 11 Simon WAKELY (Husqvarna), 12 Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna), 13 Armand Monleon (Yamaha), 14 Sebastien Bozzo (Husqvarna), 15 Edward Hubner (KTM),... 19 Philip McLAUGHLIN (TM).