The snow must go on
By TMX Archives on 19th Mar 08
MIKA Ahola, Joakim Ljunggren and Samuli Aro were the big winners at the opening round of the World Enduro Championship the GP of Sweden staged in Ostersund, as Ahola claimed a double Enduro 1 class win, Ljunggren gave Husaberg's new 2009 model a winning debut in Enduro 2, while Aro topped the Enduro 3 class podium on both days aboard a 300cc two-stroke...
THE World Enduro Championship opened for business at the weekend with the GP of Sweden getting the eight-round series under way in Ostersund for the third consecutive year. Despite relatively mild weather conditions a thick blanket of snow covered the event on day one, which ensured that the race proved challenging for all but the most experienced of winter enduro riders.
As expected, Scandinavian riders dominated the top of the results on both days but there were a few exceptions as Italian Simone Albergoni and Spaniard Ivan Cervantes performed well in the Enduro 1 class and Johnny Aubert muscled in on the action and claimed podium finishes in Enduro 2.
Despite starting out a very wintry winter enduro the above freezing daytime temperatures resulted in the enduro test quickly becoming extremely rough, rutted and muddy, which helped level the playing field considerably.
Expected to perform well as a known spiked-tyre specialist, Mika Ahola got his Enduro 1 class campaign off to the best start possible as he claimed two dominant class wins. Not putting a foot wrong all weekend Mika also finished the event as the fastest outright performer and admitted that he could have gone even faster had he needed to.
It's been a great weekend for me, commented the Honda Italy rider. I increased my speed steadily on day one and only really pushed hard on the second lap. I had already opened up a good lead so I rode safely after that. On day two I attacked the first lap and with another good lead eased off a bit after that. It was easy to make mistakes on the enduro test so I didn't want to risk not taking maximum points.
Second to Mika on day one was Simone Albergoni. Having travelled to Finland the week before the GP of Sweden to train with Ahola, the Yamaha rider performed much better than he did in 2007 or 2006, yet still finished two-minutes behind Ahola.
Third on day one was WEC newcomer Eero Remes from Finland. Making his full-time enduro debut, the former Finnish motocross champion showed that he'll be a rider to reckon with this season as he placed ahead of more experienced WEC competitors Marc Germain, Bartosz Oblucki and Ivan Cervantes.
Competing in what was his first world championship event as a factory backed KTM rider Britain's Tom Sagar suffered a disastrous start to his season as he crashed out of the event on day one. Getting things wrong on the final motocross test Tom landed heavily on his hip and after a hospital visit to check nothing was broken took no further part in the event.
I'm not sure what happened exactly, explained a disappointed Tom. I got it wrong on one of the jumps on the motocross test and landed heavily on the frozen ground. I was lucky not to break anything.
Day two saw Ahola again dominate the proceedings in E1 but a second world champion Ivan Cervantes, joined him at the top of the results. Switching classes for 2008, Ivan made a costly mistake early on day one to finish sixth but showed his true metal on day two and claimed the runner-up position.
WORLD ENDURO CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 1 Ostersund, SWEDEN
DAY ONE
Enduro 1: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda) 1:00:08.11, 2 Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 1:01:51.23, 3 Eero Remes (KTM) 1:01:53.39, 4 Marc Germain (Yamaha) 1:02:28.23, 5 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna) 1:02:41.89, 6 Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 1:02:53.48, 7 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha) 1:02:56.76, 8 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha) 1:03:57.56, 9 Niklas Gustafsson (Honda) 1:04:30.77, 10 Jordan Curvalle (Suzuki) 1:05:58.63, 11 Marko Leponiemi (Kawasaki) 1:06:09.00, 12 Damien Miquel (Suzuki) 1:06:30.58, 13 Luca Cherubini (TM) 1:07:17.43, 14 Daniele Tellini (Suzuki) 1:07:26.82, 15 Mike Hartmann (KTM) 1:07:57.57, 16 Tobias Burman (KTM) 1:09:10.78, 17 Fernando Ferreida (Yamaha) 1:09:29.30, 18 David Cadek (KTM) 1:09:55.66, 19 Jakub Horak (KTM) 1:11:31.25, 20 Waclaw Skolarus (Yamaha) 1:12:53.99.
Enduro 2: 1 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 1:01:10.08, 2 Jonny Aubert (Yamaha) 1:01:38.63, 3 Juha Salminen (KTM) 1:01:50.26, 4 Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg) 1:01:55.44, 5 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna) 1:01:56.22, 6 Rodrig Thain (TM) 1:04:47.20, 7 Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 1:04:47.20, 8 Fritz Andersson (KTM) 1:05:19.95, 9 Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 1:06:00.97, 10 Daniel Persson (Husaberg) 1:06:04.94, 11 Alessandro Zanni (Honda) 1:06:32.62, 12 Nicolas Deparrois (Gas Gas) 1:06:33.02, 13 Torbjorn Back (Honda) 1:06:46.90, 14 Olle Lothman (KTM) 1:06:49.91, 15 Jean Francois Goblet (BMW) 1:06:56.87, 16 Fabio Mossini (HM Honda) 1:07:35.47, 17 Freddy Blanc (Suzuki) 1:07:53.73, 18 Rudy Cotton (HM Honda) 1:07:58.68, 19 Aaron Bernadez (Husqvarna) 1:08:08.018, 20 Antti Lehtonen (KTM) 1:08:15.06.
Enduro 3: 1 Samuli Aro (KTM) 1:01:23.92, 2 Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 1:01:33.85, 3 Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 1:02:11.94, 4 Anders Eriksson (BMW) 01.03:05.16, 5 Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna) 1:04:00.30, 6 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas) 1:04:57.97, 7 Marcus Kehr (KTM) 1:05:40.31, 8 Alessandro Botturi (Honda) 1:06:36.16, 9 Stefan Svitko (KTM) 1:06:52.58, 10 Daniel Johansson (Gas Gas) 1:06:59.24, 11 Xavier Galindo (KTM) 1:07:04.28, 12 Patrik Stahl (Husqvarna) 1:07:31.78, 13 Stefan Merriman (Aprilia) 1:08:36.15, 14 Ervin Plenkkenpol (Honda); 15, Euan McCONNELL (TM) 1:09:08.54, 16 Jordi Figueras (KTM) 01.09:12.67, 17 Vita Kuklik (KTM) 01.09:51.65, 18 Juraj Dozsa (Gas Gas) 1:10:36.47, 19 Juan Pedrero (Yamaha) 01.11:50.13.
Enduro Junior: 1 Roni Nikander (KTM) 1:03:26.23, 2 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna) 1:04:07.43, 3 Oskari Kantonen (KTM) 1:04:23.67, 4 Anti Hellsten (Husqvarna) 1:04:24.14, 5 Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 1:04:41.49, 6 Olli Turma (KTM) 1:05:13.57, 7 Jari Pulkkinen (Honda) 01.05:35.96, 8 Oriol Mena (KTM) 01.05:39.85, 9 Ricard Wressel (Aprilia) 01.05:40.74, 10 Jens Westerlund (Honda) 1:06:10.81, 11 Robert Kvarnstrom (TM) 1:06:43.90, 12 Victor Guerrero (KTM) 01.07:08.27, 13 Michal Szuster (Yamaha) 01.07:11.84, 14 Oscar Balletti (Honda) 1:07:41.36, 15 Tomas Jansson (KTM) 01.06:11.37, 16 John Christian Seljord (Honda) 1:08:17.48, 17 Martin Sundin (Husaberg) 1:08:25.78, 18 Miko Mellin (KTM) 1:08:30.50, 19 Fredrik Berg (KTM) 1:08:33.01, 20 Kai Estola (KTM) 1:08:36.13.
DAY TWO
Enduro 1: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda) 49:15.05, 2 Ivan Cervantes (KTM) 50:59.63, 3 Simone Albergoni (Yamaha) 51:18.37, 4 Eero Remes (KTM) 51:23.04, 5 Niklas Gustafsson (Honda) 51:36.33, 6 Marc Germain (Yamaha) 52:20.19, 7 Maurizio Micheluz (Yamaha) 52:29.48, 8 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna) 52:45.61, 9 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha) 53:06.10, 10 Fredrik Georgsson (KTM) 53:12.33, 11 Marco Leponiemi (Kawasaki) 53:27.85, 12 Jordan Curvalle (Suzuki) 53:37.44, 13 Mike Hartmann (KTM) 54:33.72, 14 Luca Cherubini (TM) 55:44.87, 15 Daniele Tellini (Suzuki) 56:37.52, 16 David Cadek (KTM) 56:41.78, 17 Jakub Horak (KTM) 58:00.07, 18 Fernando Ferreida (Yamaha) 59:37.26, 19 Waclaw Skolarus (Yamaha) 1:02:49.54, 20 Eemeli Muraja (Yamaha) 1:06:12.87.
Enduro 2: 1 Juha Salminen (KTM) 49:34.02, 2 Joakim Ljunggren (KTM) 49:55.10, 3 Johnny Aubert (Yamaha) 50:04.54, 4 Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg) 50:15.31, 5 Jari Mattila (Honda) 50:18.90, 6 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna) 50:53.51, 7 Alessandro Belometti (KTM) 51:57.28, 8 Simo Kirssi (BMW) 52:10.95, 9 Rodrig Thain (TM) 52:23.23, 10 Fritz Andersson (KTM) 52:29.92, 11 Daniel Persson (Husaberg) 53:38.44, 12 Fabrizio Dini (Yamaha) 53.:46.07, 13 Alessandro Zanni (Honda) 53:55.00, 14 Nicolas Deparrois (Gas Gas) 54:15.89, 15 Torbjorn Back (Honda) 54:40.71, 16 Ollie Lothman (KTM) 51:46.31, 17 Jean Francois Goblet (BMW) 54:59.19, 18 Freddy Blanc (Suzuki) 55:26.38, 19 Antti Lehtonen (KTM) 57:13.11, 20 Sebastian Adielsson (Beta) 57:26.08.
Enduro 3: 1 Samuli Aro (KTM) 50:01.17, 2 Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 50:38.54, 3 Bjorne Carlsson (Husaberg) 50.50:95, 4 Anders Eriksson (BMW) 50:54.89, 5 Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna) 51:57.01, 6 Christophe Nambotin (GasGas) 52:18.32, 7 Alessandro Botturi (Honda) 52:42.08, 8 Marcus Kehr (KTM) 53:10.17, 9 Euan McCONNELL (TM) 53:38.56, 10 Xavier Galindo (KTM) 54:15.38, 11 Stefan Svitko (KTM) 54:25.28, 12 Patrik Stahl (Husqvarna) 54:38.25, 13 Stefan Merriman (Aprilia) 55:34.78, 14 Daniel Johansson (Gas Gas) 56:29.25, 15 Ervin Plekkenpol (Honda) 56:33.79, 16 Juraj Dozsa (Gas Gas) 58:02.38, 17 Jordi Figueras (KTM) 1:03:4.43.
Enduro Junior: 1 Roni Nikander (KTM) 51:18.13, 2 Thomas Oldrati (KTM) 51:53.03, 3 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna) 51:33.06, 4 Oskari Kantonen (KTM) 52:13.69, 5 Anti Hellsten (Husqvarna) 53:07.40, 6 Michal Szuster (Yamaha) 53:16.41, 7 Oriol Mena (KTM) 53:24.97, 8 Oscar Balletti (Honda) 53:54.40, 9 Mirko Gritti (Beta) 54:05.10, 10 Tomas Jansson (KTM) 54:09.61, 11 Olli Turma (KTM) 54:16.89, 12 Victor Guerrero (KTM) 54:24.53, 13 John Christian Seljord (Honda) 54:48.32, 14 Robert Kvarnstrom (TM) 54:42.78, 15 Kristoffer Jonsson (Gas Gas) 55.01.33, 16 Fredrik Berg (KTM) 55:16.79, 17 Bert Mayer (BMW) 55:35.35, 18 Carl Svensson (KTM) 56:05.22, 19 Martin Sundin (Husaberg) 56:27.86, 20 Carl Sjoo (KTM) 56:30.38.
For full report and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, March 21, 2008