Taddy Blasuziak opens Hell's Gate
By TMX Archives on 9th Feb 08
KTM Factory rider Taddy Blasuziak of Poland put in a superb start-to-finish race on Saturday to take victory in the Hell's Gate Extreme Enduro event in Il Ciocco, in Italy's northern Tuscany.
Taddy, who has been making a huge impression on the international extremeEnduro calendar in the winter months in his first season as a fully-fledged KTMfactory rider took the holeshot and led through the entire race. Going into thelast lap, Britain's Graham Jarvis, riding a trial bike had narrowed the gap tothe KTM extreme star to about one minute. Then Taddy turned up the gas andcrossed the finish line with a very comfortable margin.
Tom Sagar fourth
KTM factory rider Tom Sagar finished fourth after a tough battle with thirdplaced Paul Bolton. Cyril Despres, KTM Red Bull rally rider used Hell's Gate tokeep his hand in after the disappointment of the cancellation of the Dakar Rallyand finished in seventh place. U.S. MX KTM rider Mike Metzger got a taste ofEuropean riding in the morning but failed to qualify for the main event, whichstarted at 3.00 p.m. and concluded about 30 minutes after nightfall.
Another trophy for Taddy's collection
Taddy now adds the Hell's Gate trophy to his collection, which includes thevictory in the Hare Scramble at the 2007 Erzberg Rodeo, a result that saw himelevated to factory rider status for KTM, the coveted Last Man Standing inTexas, victory in the final round of the AMA Endurocross series in Las Vegas andat the RodeoX Endurocross in Linz, Austria. The Polish rider also finishedsecond overall behind the mighty Knighter (KTM's David Knight) in the justconcluded 3-race series Enduro Indoor World Cup and in "The Tough One" in the UKin January.
Taddy, who has been away from Poland since December will now take a breakfrom competition. He admitted that he was looking forward to resting his wrists,which he said had become sore during recent competition. Conditions for thisyear's Hell's Gate were tough. Unlike earlier years, the ground was not frozenand with rivers running low it the track surface was also dry and very hard.
Results
1. Tadeusz Blasuziak, KTM
2. Graham Jarvis, Trial Sherco
3. Paul Bolton, Honda
4. Tom Sagar, KTM
5. Simone Albergoni, Yamaha
7. Cyril Despres, KTM