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French Enduro Championship 
Round 1 - Uzerche

Saturday

The beautiful city of Uzerche is accustomed to hosting large enduro events, including the 6 days in 2001 and the World Enduro Championship in 2008. It was the perfect setting for the start of the 2014 French Enduro Championship season . With it's prestigious legacy the Moto Uzerchois Club and its new president Lawrence Moy succeeded in pleasing a large audience of spectators despite the bad weather and delighting the 350 riders who had entered .

Category E1:

Christophe Nambotin was the logical favorite in the E1 class but no one could have imagined how well he would win. He build a lead of more than 1 minute ahead of seasoned riders such as Anthony Boissiere ( Sherco - Pulsion ) or Marc Bougeois (Yamaha) . It was the latter who came closest to Nmabotin for the first 2 laps as he carried the momentum of his victories in the Val de Lorraine and the Cluster but a fall on the last test lost him twenty seconds and forfeited 2nd to Anthony Boissiere who picked up the pace late in the day . Last season's Junior Champion Loïc Larrieu ( Husqvarna ) did well to finish 4th. 

Category E2:

The anticipated duel between Antoine Meo ( KTM) and Pela Renet ( Husqvarna ) looked to be going in Meo's direction but Romain Dumontier (Yamaha ) had not read the script and he finished the first lap in the lead with 3 excellent times . It forced Meo and Renet to raise their game and the battle became became mano a mano down to the line with Renet taking the win by 4 tenths of a second. Meo was runner up and Dumontier was 3rd.

Category E3:

The battle of big bikes was more open. The game of musical chairs began in the morning with Antoine Basset ( GasGas ) taking command. He was quickly joined by Jeremy Joly (KTM) who was very fast. The southerner has not  taken long to learn how the big KTM 300 handles and he won his first victory in this category. Mathias Bellino was disappointed by his first round in which he made "many mistakes" but he still finished 2nd thanks to a last minute mistake by Antoine Basset who finished 3rd.

Junior Category :

The man of the day in the junior catagory was Theo Bazerque. The rider from the Sherco Academy in his first full season of Enduro dominated all day losing only 3 of the 9 special tests. Behind him, his teammate Sylvain Fournier snatched second place from Jeremy Mirror ( EEAT - Yamaha). After an inconsistent day Jeremy Carroll (Honda) had to settle for 4th place.

Women Category :

Geraldine Fournel ( Sherco Academy) and Juliette Berrez (Yamaha ) confirmed their good form after an early season clash in the World Championships and it was Fournel won the duel in Uzerche by 11 seconds. Samatha Tichet joined them on the podium in 3rd.

Category Manufacturer: - 1 KTM - 2 HUSQVARNA 3  SHERCO

Tomorrow's race should take on a whole new dimension with the arrival of rain expected all day. Some parts of the course are already deeply rutted and the rain may make it a much harder race.

Sunday

It was a very long day for the organisers of the first round of the French Enduro Championship at Uzerche despite the decision to reduce the last lap as heavy rain showers made conditions very difficult. 

Category E1:

It was a difficult day for Christophe Nambotin (KTM) as he was continually pursued by Marc Bourgeois (Yamaha)' To make matters worse , Nambotin lost his time card and he incurred 10 seconds penalty. It reduced his winning margin to a mere 3 seconds ahead of Bourgeois. Anthony Boissiere (Sherco -Moto Pulsion) is not noted as a mud specialist but he performed very consistently and finished third .

E1 championship standings 1 Christophe Nambotin 40 Pts - 2 Anthony Boissiere 29 Pts

- 3 Marc Bourgeois 29 Pts

Category E2:

The E2 Catagory was a battle between Antoine Meo (KTM) and Pierre-Alexandre Renet (Husqvarna). As the two riders pushed each other they extended their lead over the following pack by 3 minutes. Meo held the lead for the first 2 laps but Renet overtook him on the 3rd and he went on to win. The spectators also witnessed a great battle for 3rd place between Romain Dumontier (Yamaha), Romain Boucardey (TM) and Xavier De Soultrait (Yamaha)  It was decided on the last lap and Romain Dumontier took his second podium of the weekend .

E2 championship standings 1 Pierre-Alexandre Renet 40 Pts - 2 Antoine Meo 34 Pts - 3 Romain Dumontier 30 Pts

Category E3:

Jeremy Joly (KTM) made a very big impression this weekend by winning almost every special tests on the 2nd day. It had a very significant influence over his fellow competitors. The first of them, Mathias Bellino ( Husqvarna ) admitted that he had done his best to beat Joly but he was more comfortable on dry land. Antoine Basset ( GasGas ) finished 3rd day without being able, unlike yesterday, to keep in contact with the leading duo .

E3 championship standings 1 Jérémy Joly 40 Pts - 2 Mathias Bellino 34 Pts - 3 Antoine Basset - 30 Pts

Junior Category:

There was a surprising result in this category as Antoine Meo's protoge Mika Barnes (KTM) took a tremendous win despite dropping 30 seconds on the last test, Army rider Antony Geslin (EEAT - Yamaha) mounted his first podium this season in 2nd beating teammate Jeremy Mirror by one tenth of a second in 3rd.

Junior Championship 1 Jérémy Mirror 30 Pts - 2 Mika Barnes Pts 29 pts 3 Anthony Geslin 28 Pts

Women Category

In a tough race which saw half the entry retire, the girls were dominated by the Sherco Academy rider Géraldine Fournel ahead of Juliet Berrez (Yamaha) and Audrey Rossat ( KTM). 

Ranking Championship Women 1 Géraldine Fournel 40 Pts - 2 Juliette Berrez 34 Pts - 3 Samantha Tichet 26 Pts

Category Manufacturer: 1 HUSABERG - 2 KTM - 3 SHERCO 

Jacques Bolle, the president of the French Motorcycling Federation, attended the opening round and he saw for himself the exemplary management of deteriorating conditions by the members of the motorcycle club of Uzerchois. "They have done an outstanding job" he confirmed.

 The next round is in Brittany, 21st and 22nd June .

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