Strong to the Finnish
By TMX Archives on 7th Oct 11
The 2011 Enduro World Championship drew to a close last weekend in Mende, France, where Finlands Juha Salminen and Mika Ahola claimed the Enduro 1 and Enduro 3 world titles respectively with Frances Jeremy Joly picking up his first EWC championship in the Enduro Junior class.
Husqvarna's Juha Salminen and Honda's Mika Ahola and Jeremy Joly brought this year's Enduro World Championship series to a close in the best possible way at the GP of France, securing world titles in the E1, E3 and EJ classes respectively.
With Joly claiming his first-ever world championship, for Finns Salminen and Ahola the last round of the 2011 championship ended with both riders setting new records.
For Ahola the E3 championship was the Honda star's fifth consecutive world title, while Salminen secured a record-breaking eighth world crown in style by winning the E1 class on day one.
With a party-like atmosphere ensuring the French event was one of the best, if not the best, event of the year, Honda and Mika Ahola were the first to celebrate, as Ahola's class-topping E3 ride on day one was enough to secure him the ‘big bike' title.
With Mika's closest championship rival Christophe Nambotin only managing fifth – due in part to a big crash in a French Enduro Championship event one week earlier – the Finn placed ahead of Husqvarna's Alex Salvini and Marko Tarkkala.
"It was a tough day but everything went well,” explained Mika.
"My only plan was to push as hard as I could and hope it was enough to secure the title – which it was.
"It's been a great season and to win in the E3 class means a lot to me. Now I have titles in all three classes and five in a row.”
Twenty-seconds behind Ahola, Alex Salvini enjoyed his best result of the series in second.
Showing some impressive form from the mid-point of the series onwards, the Italian finally managed to claim the results many knew he was capable of.
Third went to Finn Marko Tarkkala, who secured Husaberg's best result and showed that he's once again a force to be reckoned with.
Despite admittedly ‘staying up a little too late' on Saturday night having secured the E3 title, Mika Ahola was back to his winning ways on day two, finishing the event well and truly exhausted but close to one-minute ahead of Salvini, who again secured a well-deserved runner-up result.
With Guillaume opting not to compete having secured the runner-up spot in the E3 championship and nursing an injured wrist, Salvini was followed home by Marko Tarkkala.
Although finishing fourth on both days Joakim Ljunggren secured third in the E3 championship.
Winning the Friday night Super Test David Knight's return to the EWC started in the best possible way. But riding at the back of the E3 class due to having missed more rounds of the series than he's competed in, Knighter found himself among slower riders, many of which he caught on the fast, forest based enduro test.
With the dust so thick he was forced to stop on more than one occasion, David decided that it was simply too dangerous to continue.
"It's disappointing because I was looking forward to getting back to racing the world championship but there was no point in risking it. The dust was just too bad, and the last thing I need is to get injured.”
The sizeable French crowds in Mende had plenty to cheer about in the Enduro 2 class, as home riders topped each of the two days.
Husaberg's Pela Renet and already-crowned E2 champion Antoine Meo battled one another for the victory on day one, with Renet getting the better of the newly-crowned champion to claim a nine-second victory.Spain's Cristobal Guerrero placed third.
On day two Meo produced one of the most impressive rides of the weekend, not simply because he topped the E2 class to bring his year to a winning close, but because he won having spent most of both Friday and Saturday night partying with his team!
Beating Cristobal Guerrero by just about the same amount Renet beat Meo by on day one, Antoine ended the series the exact same way he started it – in front – to pick up his eighth win of the year.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX OCTOBER 7
RESULTS
Enduro 1: 1 Juha Salminen (Husqvarna), 2 Eero Remes (KTM), 3 Fabien Planet (Sherco), 4 Matti Seistola (Husqvarna), 5 Rodrig Thain (Honda), 6 Nicolas Deparrois (Kawasaki), 7 Marc Bourgeois (Yamaha), 8 Lorenzo Santolino (KTM), 9 Julien Gauthier (TM), 10 Jeremy Tarroux (KTM).
Enduro 2: 1 Pela Renet (Husaberg), 2 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna), 3 Cristobal Guerrero (KTM), 4 Ivan Cervantes (Gas Gas), 5 Antoine Basset (Yamaha), 6 Aigor Leok (TM), 7 Hans Vogels (Husaberg), 8 Simone Albergoni (Husqvarna), 9 Jeff Goblet (Yamaha), 10 Armand Monleon (KTM).
Enduro 3: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda), 2 Alex Salvini (Husqvarna), 3 Marko Tarkkala (Husaberg), 4 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 5 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas), 6 Seb Guillaume (Husqvarna), 7 Oriol Mena (Husaberg), 8 Marcus Kehr (KTM), 9 Jordi Figueras (Gas Gas), 10 Alessandro Botturi (Gas Gas).
Junior: 1 Romain Dumontier (Yamaha), 2 Jeremy Joly (Honda), 3 Mathias Bellino (Husaberg), 4 Mario Roman (KTM), 5 Benoit Fortunato (Yamaha), 6 Jonathan Manzi (KTM), 7 Edoardo D'ambrosio (Honda), 8 Alexandre Queyreyre (Yamaha), 9 Giacomo Redondi (Husqvarna), 10 Alex Rockwell (Husaberg), 11 Danny McCanney (Gas Gas).
Women: 1 Ludivine Puy (Gas Gas), 2 Laia Sanz (Honda), 3 Jessica Jonsson (Gas Gas), 4 Juliette Berrez (TM), 5 Heike Petrick (KTM), 6 Blandine Dufrene (Gas Gas), 7 Samantha Tichet (Husqvarna), 8 Sorina Sandu (Gas Gas), 9 Carmen Segura (KTM), 10 Florence Pillet (KTM).
Day two
Enduro 1: 1 Rodrig Thain (Honda), 2 Juha Salminen (Husqvarna), 3 Eero Remes (KTM), 4 Lorenzo Santolino (KTM), 5 Fabien Planet (Sherco), 6 Matti Seistola (Husqvarna), 7 Nicolas Deparrois (Kawasaki), 8 Marc Bourgeois (Yamaha), 9 Jeremy Tarroux (KTM), 10 Armnaud Devisy (Suzuki).
Enduro 2: 1 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna), 2 Cristobal Guerrero (KTM), 3 Ivan Cervantes (Gas Gas), 4 Hans Vogels (Husaberg), 5 Aigor Leok (TM), 6 Antoine Basset (Yamaha), 7 Simone Albergoni (Husqvarna), 8 Jeff Goblet (Yamaha), 9 Goncalo Reis (Honda), 10 Jordan Curvalle (Sherco).
Enduro 3: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda), 2 Alex Salvini (Husqvarna), 3 Marko Tarkkala (Husaberg), 4 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 5 Oriol Mena (Husaberg), 6 Marcus Kehr (KTM), 7 Jordi Figueras (Gas Gas), 8 Rudy Cotton (Gas Gas), 9 Jonas Karlsson (KTM), 10 Andrea Belotti (Husaberg).
Enduro Junior: 1 Romain Dumontier (Yamaha), 2 Benoit Fortunato (Yamaha), 3 Mathias Bellino (Husaberg), 4 Jonathan Manzi (KTM), 5 Danny McCanney (Gas Gas), 6 Jeremy Joly (Honda), 7 Edoardo D'ambrosio (Honda), 8 Giacomo Redondi (Husqvarna), 9 Antti Hellsten (KTM), 10 Mario Roman (KTM), 11. Alex Rockwell (Husaberg).
Women: 1. Ludivine Puy (Gas Gas), 2 Laia Sanz (Honda), 3 Heike Petrick (KTM), 4 Blandine Dufrene (Gas Gas), 5 Jessica Jonsson (Gas Gas), 6 Samantha Tichet (Husqvarna).
2011 Enduro World Championship final series standings
Enduro 1: 1 Juha Salminen (Husqvarna) 358, 2 Eero Remes (KTM) 329, 3 Matti Seistola (Husqvarna) 308, 4 Rodrig Thain (Honda) 288, 4 Lorenzo Santolino (KTM) 237, 5 Nicolas Deparrois (Kawasaki) 223, 7 Fabien Planet (Sherco) 206, 8 Julien Gauthier (TM) 197, 9 Christophe Robert (KTM) 109, 10 Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 97.
Enduro 2: 1 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna) 366, 2 Cristobal Guerrero (KTM) 310, 3 Ivan Cervantes (Gas Gas) 296, 4 Pela Renet (Husaberg) 265, 5 Antoine Basset (Yamaha) 231, 6 Simone Albergoni (Husqvarna) 212, 7 Jeff Goblet (Yamaha) 207, 8 Hans Vogels (Husaberg) 177, 9 Goncalo Reis (Honda), 10 Aigor Leok (TM) 157.
Enduro 3: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda) 369, 2 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas) 312, 3 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 298, 4 Marko Tarkkala (Husaberg) 266, 5 Oriol Mena (Husaberg) 240, 6 Seb Guillaume (Husqvarna) 215, 7 Alex Salvini (Husqvarna) 179, 8 Jordi Figueras (Gas Gas) 178, 9 Fabio Mossini (Beta) 138, 10 Marcus Kehr (KTM) 134.
Enduro Junior: 1 Jeremy Joly (Honda) 320, 2 Mario Roman (KTM) 308, 3 Romain Dumontier (Yamaha) 279, 4 Mathias Bellino (Husaberg) 262, 5 Jonathan Manzi (KTM) 248, 6 Benoit Fortunato (Yamaha) 246, 7 Antti Hellsten (KTM) 221, 8 Victor Guerrero (Yamaha) 180, 9 Giacomo Redondi (Husqvarna) 160, 10 Edoardo D'ambrosio (Honda) 130.
