Solid result for Jarvis at AlèsTrêm
By Team TMX on 25th Jan 16
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racings Graham Jarvis has finished on the podium at the opening event of 2016 Extreme Enduro season - AlsTrm in France. Placing third behind Jonny Walker and Wade Young at the end of the events main race, Jarvis worked his way onto the podium following a near race-long battle with Alfredo Gomez.
A notably harder race than the first running of AlèsTrêm last year, Jarvis found himself trailing the majority of expected frontrunners following a steady start to the main race. With the relatively simple terrain of the first lap making it difficult for Jarvis to make back time on his rivals, the slippery ground caught out the experienced Brit on more than one occasion.
Finding his rhythm during the second lap, Graham fought his way around countless lapped riders while also battling with Spaniards Alfredo Gomez and Mario Roman. As the track became harder, Graham moved ahead of Gomez while tackling a rocky, uphill climb. Remaining mistake free for the remainder of the lap he reached the finish in third position.
Jarvis' team mate Mario Roman ended his first extreme event of 2016 in fifth. After spending the last few months training for the FIM SuperEnduro series aboard a four-stroke, switching to extreme competition on a 300cc two-stroke took a little adjusting to. Nevertheless, the young Spaniard worked hard to earn a well-deserved fifth place result.
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing's Graham Jarvis and Mario Roman return to action at Hell's Gate in Italy, February 6th.
Graham Jarvis: "It's been a really enjoyable event. The organiser said that they were going to make things harder than last year, and they certainly did. The qualifying special test and the Endurocross races all went well enough – the main thing was just to qualify for the first row for Sunday's main event, which I did. I didn't get a great start, but I knew it was going to be a long, tough race. The first lap was fairly easy, quite fast. I pushed hard but had a few small crashes because the ground was really slippery. Catching riders made things hard, it was an extra challenge. Lap three was tough. There were a few really slippery climbs, and I had one big crash. I was fighting with Gomez during the third lap and managed to get ahead of him in one of the rocky climbs. It's been seriously tough. It's been good.”
Mario Roman: "I think I was the last rider away from the start, but I knew there were many hours of racing ahead of me. I followed Alfredo Gomez and Graham Jarvis for the first two laps but in one of the more difficult river sections they took some time from me. I was expecting things to be tough – this is my first race on a two-stroke after many months of training on a four-stroke, so that took some getting used to. My training has been for indoor enduro racing and this was very different. The track was so slippery, some of the rivers were like ice, but overall I'm happy with my result.”
