It's Hell on earth...
By TMX Archives on 18th Feb 09
Taddy Blazusiak wins for the second consecutive year and Lampkin, Jarvis and Sagar finish third, fourth and fifth. SUB-zero temperatures and frozen terrain welcomed competitors at this year's Hell's Gate extreme enduro in Italy where Poland's Taddy Blazusiak topped the event for a second consecutive time. Joining the KTM rider on the podium was home favourite Alessandro Botturi while Britain's DOUGIE LAMPKIN claimed a well-deserved third place result in what was the last of his indoor and extreme enduro outings before the start of the 2009 World Trials Championship.
The weather was cold, the terrain frozen and the '09 edition of Hell's Gate was arguably harder than any other. Yet despite the challenging conditions seven riders made it to the finish of the event, with British riders Dougie Lampkin, Graham Jarvis and Tom Sagar finishing third, fourth and fifth respectively.
From close to 50 starters just seven riders made it to the top of Hell's Peak - the impossibly steep final climb to the finish of Italy's premier extreme enduro event - as the always demanding race again proved too hard for most. Making the event all the more challenging was the fact that close to the entire course remained frozen due to sub-zero temperatures.
But despite the cold, which caused many riders to part company with their machinery during both the morning qualifying enduro and the main Hell's Gate event, Poland's Taddy Blazusiak emerged as the race winner. Having started as favourite the Pole comfortably topped the morning enduro but didn't have things all his own way in the Hell's Gate event as Italian Alessandro Botturi pushed the former trials rider hard and taking the lead away from Taddy on the second of four laps.
Jumping into an early lead Taddy found himself stuck on the second lap and having injured his right wrist when he crashed in the qualifying enduro was left struggling to get going again. With Botturi passing him and opening up a two to three minute lead the Pole was forced to fight back in order to reclaim the lead.
"I had a big crash, like lots of riders in the morning qualifying event, and hurt my right wrist and fingers. That made it really hard for me,” explained Blazusiak. "I got a good start and opened up a bit of a lead off the start in the main race, but with the conditions it was easy to make mistakes. I made a mistake on the second lap, which allowed Botturi to pass me. He was riding really well so I had to push hard to catch him.”
Although made to work hard during the first half of the race, once in the lead for a second time Taddy wasted no time moving clear of his closest rival. Extending his lead with each kilometre completed, come nightfall the KTM rider was all but home and dry.
Arriving at the top of Hell's Peak close to ten minutes ahead of Botturi Taddy claimed the result most expected he would. "Once I moved past Botturi for the second time I pushed as hard as I could. I guess I managed to open up a pretty good lead and on the third lap I was just trying not to make too many mistakes. The last lap was tricky because the track became even more slippery in places once the sun went down. I managed to stay upright and got to the finish in one piece. It's great to have won Hell's Gate again.”
In claiming the runner-up position home rider Botturi produced the most surprising result of the event. Second to Taddy in both the morning qualifying race and the main event, Botturi showed that despite not being an extreme event regular he certainly knew how to deal with the demanding Hell's Gate course.
"I just tried not to make any mistakes,” commented the burly WEC regular. "I knew that I wouldn't be as fast as Taddy and some of the other trials riders so I tried to make the most of my good start and then just rode as hard as I could.”
Hell's Gate Extreme Enduro
Italy
Overall: 1 Taddy Blazusiak (KTM Enduro Factory Team), 2 Alessandro Botturi (KTM), 3 Dougie Lampkin (Beta), 4 Graham Jarvis (Sherco), 5 Tom Sagar (Husaberg), 6 Andreas Lettenbichler (BMW), 7 Piero Sembenini (Gas Gas).
Qualifying: 1 Taddy Blazusiak (KTM) 29.50:68, 2 Alessandro Botturi (KTM) 30.33:74, 3 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna) 30.41:31, 4 Graham Jarvis (Sherco) 30.50:56, 5 Tom Sagar (Husaberg) 30.50:65, 6 Dougie Lampkin (Beta) 31.31:91, 7 Andreas Lettenbichler (BMW) 32.43:93, 8 Daniele Maurino (Gas Gas) 32.43:93, 9 Piero Sembenini (Gas Gas) 32.52:38, 10 Maurizio Gerini (KTM) 33.02:76...22. Mark Jackson (KTM) 37.41.00, 25 David Myers (KTM) 43.09:60, 27 David Wood (Yamaha) 44.49:68, 34 Martin Craven (KTM) 59.31:25.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2009
Cumbrian David Myers speeds down a slippery section on his way to 17th overall.