|
|
||
All content © Bob MuIIins | |||
 
European Championship Rd 3 The evening before, the Frenchman Thomas Dubost had already laid the foundation for his day's victory, with a narrow victory in the prologue: In the end, the KTM-rider was eight seconds ahead of Ronny Kytönen from Finland, who is also a junior, but in the 125cc class! Kytönen took second place in the very last special stage, where he managed to take eleven seconds off the Dubost countryman, Hugo Blanjoue: Thus the class winners of the three different junior classes were, all together on place 1-3 in the overall standings! Local hero Albin Elowson (also a junior) retired already after a crash in the lead in the first round. The best non-junior was the Italian Alessondro Battig, who has been leading the championship so far: The Kawasaki rider finished sixth overall and won the class of the four-strokes over 250 cc. Similarly his compatriot Maurizio Micheluz, who won the 250 cc twostroke-class and finally came eighth overall. In the women's singles, the Finn Sanna Kärkkäinen won again ahead of the two Swedes Emelie Karlsson and Hanna Berzelius. Among the seniors, the Swede Anders Eriksson won the day as guest entrant ahead of Sebastian Krywult from Poland, who continues to lead the championship. Eriksson, who lives in the Skövde region and runs a motocross school, had been world champion seven times between 1995 and 2003. With a total of 160 participants from 13 different countries, the parc ferme was filled with respectable numbers. The prologue the evening before was simply evaluated as the first special stage of the first day of driving and was actually so short that there were no evaluation advantages. But more than 1,000 spectators from the city of Skövde took the opportunity to take a close look at enduro sport. The main focus on Saturday was of course the crosstest on the ski slope, which was almost completely overlooked. After three months without rain this changed in the afternoon - during the last lap it started to rain which was especially good for the dust development
Hugo Blanjoue and his KTM colleague Thomas Dubost are not only riding in the same KTM-team, but both are also personally good friends and fight against each other only in the special-tests: this time Blanjoue was 23 seconds ahead after nine special-tests and almost an hour of special stage time. The only third-placed Alessandro Battig defended his lead in the overall standings, but Blanjoue is already close to four points... "This weekend didn't go so well for me, I didn't feel so good on the loose ground and on the grass-tests. And on Sunday I also fell twice," admits the Kawasaki rider from Italy afterwards. All three drivers naturally also won their classes: Blanjoue the junior class E2/E3, Dubost the juniors E1 and Battig the 4-stroke class over 250 ccm. In the senior class, guest entrant and local hero Anders Eriksson won again: the former Enduro World Champion had spontaneously decided to participate in his home country just three weeks earlier. But for him it was the same procedure as before, he fought every stage and did his best to relegate the leader of the class, the Polish Sebastian Krywult, to second place. But this on can take it easy, because he remains in the lead of the championship. In the women's singles, Sanna Kärkkäinen from Finland was pressed by guest entrant Emilie Karlsson, but was able to win both days and extend her lead to 29 points ahead of Nina Klink from the Netherlands and Hanna Berzelius from Sweden. The nocturnal rain had done the track good and bound a lot of dust. Nevertheless, the tracks went deeper and deeper and exposed more and more stones and slippery roots. This made competition more demanding and difficult as the power of the drivers diminished. Those who were not really physically fit fell further and further back during the long day. In addition to the major motorcycle brands of KTM, Husqvarna, Yamaha and Honda, there are increasingly also the small manufacturers in the European Championship: Sherco competed nine times, TM and Beta four times each and GasGas and Kawasaki with one engine each. The final will take place from 14 to 16 September in Kielce, Poland, and will end with a classic launch motocross. The live timing can be found on the weekend at www.nts-timing.se Here is a webcam with a view of the cross-check: http://www.webcams-skandinavien.de/Schweden/Cam-Skovde-First-Hotel-Billingehus.php Directly tot he organizing club: https://enduroemskovde.se/en/welcome/ More information and schedules, results and links, there are always up to
date and right on the official website: Dates 2018 14th/15th April Fabriano / Italy www.motoclubartiglio.it/ 11th /12th August Skövde / Sweden www.skovde.fmck.se/
|
At the end of the second day, the two French riders were back on top of the
podium at the third round of the European Enduro Championship in Skövde,
Sweden: