Winners take them all
By TMX Archives on 26th Mar 09
WITH just two days of the 2009 Word Enduro Championship now completed, defending Enduro 1 world champion Mika Ahola, defending Enduro 2 world champion Johnny Aubert, and Spaniard Ivan Cervantes sit comfortably at the top of the E1, E2 and E3 classes respectively having stamped their mark on the GP of Portugal. Unseasonal dry weather resulted in the enduro and motocross tests being incredibly dusty, while rock littered tests created a long challenging course, which took its toll on a number of riders.
The opening round of the season saw the same rider win in each class on both days. In Enduro 1, that rider was defending champion Mika Ahola who finished over one-minute ahead of his nearest rival.
For much of the day KTM's Simone Albergoni looked like being the rider who would claim the runner-up spot but a costly mistake on the final extreme test saw him drop to third. Second went to class newcomer Antoine Meo.
Day two was similar to day one in the E1 class as Ahola took an early class lead with Albergoni close behind. But as the day wore on Ahola edged ahead to finish 35 seconds clear of his Italian rival. With Meo dropping to fifth Ahola was followed home by no fewer than three KTM riders as Albergoni was joined on the podium by countryman Thomas Oldrati.
"It's great to start the season with such a good result,” beamed Ahola at the finish of the event. "I know that Simone Albergoni is really hungry for the championship so I didn't know what to expect.”
One other rider pleased to be leading the world championship was Johnny Aubert. Determined to defend the Enduro 2 world championship the now KTM mounted Frenchman was expected to battle it out with Finn Juha Salminen for top honours but instead claimed two dominant, and largely unchallenged, day wins. Finishing one-and-a-half minutes ahead of two-stroke mounted team-mate Alessandro Belometti on day one, Aubert's expected battle with Salminen simply failed to materialise.
With all BMW team riders struggling with the set-up of their machines Salminen finished an unexpected fifth.
Much to everyone's surprise, two of the three bikes on the podium were two-strokes. With Belometti finishing second Husqvarna's Bartosz Oblucki just managed to finish ahead of TM mounted Frenchman Rodrig Thain.
Day two again saw Aubert dominate. One-and-a-half minutes up on the second placed Cristobal Guerrero from Spain Johnny made things look all too easy as Salminen dropped even further down the results to sixth.
Joining Aubert and Guerrero on the podium was Frenchman Rodrig Thain. Joining Aubert in making a positive start to the '09 WEC series was Ivan Cervantes, who for '09 moved up to the E3 class after failing to beat Mika Ahola to the E1 world title in '08.
In much the same way that Aubert was expected to fight against Salminen in the E2 class, in the E3 class Cervantes was one of several riders expected to battle with David Knight. It didn't happen.
The dry conditions in Penafiel offered the perfect opportunity for Cervantes to claim an early championship advantage and in beating team-mate and defending E3 world champion Samuli Aro the Spaniard did exactly that.
Knight's return the to the WEC was a near disaster. Although topping each of the day's four extreme tests in the E3 class, on the unpredictable terrain of the enduro test and the featurless motocross test he was anything but competitive as he struggled with the set-up of his BMW.
Trying to figure out what was wrong having been extremely competitive just one week earlier at the Spanish Enduro Championship opener, David placed a lowly sixth.
Day two again saw Ivan top the class. Extending his winning advantage it was French Gas Gas rider Christophe Nambotin that got closest to the former three-time world champion with Guillaume again finishing third.
FOR FULL STORY, SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2009
Day 1
Enduro 1: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda), 2 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna), 3 Simone Albergoni (KTM), 4 Marc Germain (Yamaha), 5 Thomas Oldrati (KTM), 6 Xavier Galindo (KTM), 7 Fabien Planet (KTM), 8 Julien Gauthier (Honda), 9 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna), 10 Felipe Zanol (Yamaha), 11 Eero Remes (KTM), 12 Greg Evans (KTM), 13 Jordan Curvalle (Sherco), 14 David Cadek (KTM), 15 Maurizio Gerini (KTM), 16 Nicolas Paganon (Kawasaki), 17 Jakub Horak (KTM).
Enduro 2: 1 Johnny Aubert (KTM), 2 Alessandro Belometti (KTM), 3 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna), 4 Rodrig Thain (TM), 5 Juha Salminen (BMW), 6 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha), 7 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 8 Simo Kirssi (BMW), 9 Nicolas Depparois (Gas Gas), 10 Luca Cherubini (TM), 11 Fabrizio Dini (Beta), 12 Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg), 13 Aaron Bernardez
(BMW), 14 Simon Wakely (Husqvarna),15 Kevin Gauniaux (Gas Gas), 16 Paulo Felicia (Husqvarna), 17 Hans Vogel (Yamaha), 18 Joan Jau (Kawasaki), 19 Emmanuel Albepart (Kawasaki), 20 Paulo Goncalves (BMW).
Enduro 3: 1 Ivan Cervantes (KTM), 2 Samuli Aro (KTM), 3 Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna), 4 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas), 5 Fabio Mossini (Honda), 6 David Knight (BMW), 7 Marcus Kehr (KTM), 8 Marko Tarkkala (BMW), 9 Tom Sagar (Husaberg), 10 Fernando Ferreira (Yamaha), 11 Rudy Cotton (Beta), 12 Adrian Garrido (Yamaha), 10 Mark Risse (Gas Gas).
Enduro Junior: 1 Oriol Mena (Husaberg), 2 Lorenzo Santolino (KTM), 3 Sebastien Bozzo (Husqvarna), 4 Jeremy Joly (Honda), 5 Vanni Cominotto (KTM), 6 Goncalo Reis (KTM), 7 Matthieu Gagnoud (Honda), 8 Antoine Basset (Husqvarna), 9 Edoardo D'Ambrosio (KTM), 10 Ellie Vecchie (Gas Gas), 11 Marc Sola (Gas Gas), 12 Armand Monleon Hernandez (Gas Gas), 13 Michael Pogna (KTM), 14 Ashley Wood (Gas Gas), 15 Pierre Pallut (Husqvarna), 16 Jonathon Manzi (Husqvarna), 17 Arnaud Devisy (Gas Gas), 18 Romain Dumontier, 19 Carrecero Dominguez Daniel (Gas Gas), 20 Josep Rallo Genover (Yamaha).
Day 2
Enduro 1: 1 Mika Ahola (Honda), 2 Simone Albergoni (KTM), 3 Thomas Oldrati (KTM), 4 Eero Remes (KTM), 5 Antoine Meo (Husqvarna), 6 Julien Gauthier (Honda), 7 Fabien Planet (KTM), 8 Xavier Galindo (KTM), 9 Nicolas Paganon (Kawasaki), 10 Felipe Zanol (Yamaha), 11 Jordan Curvalle (Sherco), 12 Marc Bourgeois (Husqvarna), 13 Greg Evans (KTM), 14 Maurizio Gerini (KTM), 15 David Cadek (KTM), 16 Jakub Horak (KTM), 17 Norberto Teixeira (Yamaha).
Enduro 2: 1 Johnny Aubert (TM), 2 Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha), 3 Rodrig Thain (TM) 4 Alessandro Belometti (KTM), 5 Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg), 6 Juha Salminen (BMW), 7 Bartosz Oblucki (Husqvarna), 8 Simo Kirssi (BMW), 9 Valtteri Salonen (Husaberg), 10 Luca Cherubini (TM), 11 Fabrizio Dini (Beta), 12 Mike Hartmann (Husaberg), 13 Nicolas Deparrois (Gas Gas), 14 Hans Vogel (Yamaha), 15. Jean-Francois Goblet (BMW), 16 Joan Jou (Kawasaki), 17 Kevin Gauniaux (Gas Gas), 18 Luis Correia (Yamaha), 19 Oscar Balletti (Honda), 20 Erwin Plekkenpol (Honda).
Enduro 3: 1 Ivan Cervantes (KTM), 2 Christophe Nambotin (Gas Gas), 3 Sebastien Guillaume (Husqvarna, 4 Samuli Aro (KTM), 5 Marcus Kehr (KTM), 6 Fabio Mossini (Honda), 7 Marko Tarkkala (BMW), 8 Jordi Figueras (Gas Gas), 9 Fernando Ferreira (Yamaha), 10 Rudy Cotton (Beta), 11 Adrian Garrido (Yamaha), 12 Marc Risse (Gas Gas).
Enduro Junior: 1 Oriol Mena (Husaberg), 2 Jeremy Joly (Honda), 3 Lorenzo Santolino (KTM), 4 Sebastien Bozzo (Husqvarna), 5 Benoit Fortunato (Yamaha), 6 Vanni Cominotto (KTM), 7 Philip Mclaughlin (TM), 8 Goncalo Reis (KTM), 9 Calle Sjoo (Husaberg), 10 Elie Vecchi (Gas Gas), 11 Romain Dumontier (Husqvarna), 12 Michael Pogna (KTM), 13 Jonathon Manzi (Husqvarna), 14. Armand Hernandez Monleon (Gas Gas), 15 Matthieu Gagnoud (Honda), 16 Pierre Pallut (Husqvarna), 17 Marc Sola (Gas Gas), 18 Ashley Wood (Gas Gas), 19 Guillem Pares Camps (Gas Gas), 20 Milan Ensel (KTM).
Britain's Ashley Wood scored valuable Enduro Junior class points in Portugal, finishing in 14th and 18th over the two days.