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All content © Bob MuIIins | |||
 
European Championship kicks off In the very last special stage, Belgian junior Erik Willems took the overall victory of the first day of riding at the opening round of the Borilli European Enduro Championship at MOTOCROSS MARKETING ROUND 1#, in Pietramontecorvino, Italy. Italian Enrico Rinaldi had been leading until the end: but the reigning European Junior Champion admitted that he was not fast enough in the cross test. His competitors, the Belgian Erik Willems and the Briton Dan Mundell, saw it the other way round. Above all, Mundel struggled in the over 10-minute long Eleveit Enduro test with slower riders in front of him: "I have such a late start time, so I had to overtake four to five riders each time, which of course cost a little time each time." That added up in the end, leaving Mundel in a close position behind the two rivals. But all three riders were separated by just SEVEN seconds throughout the day and in the end, it was less than a single second. "I used all my motocross experience and made up over six seconds," Willems was able to announce afterwards as the day's winner in his E2-class and the overall: The Husqvarna rider, who is only 23 years old, had switched from motocross to enduro only two years ago. With this start into the new season, he has had set an example for the first time. He was followed by the British Beta rider Mundell, who was just 0.41 seconds behind. Only another 3 hundredths of a second behind was Rinaldi, who was a little happy because as the reigning champion he also won Junior Class 1 - but only a little happy because he was beaten by a narrow margin in the overall standings for all classes.
Not at all Italian were the outside conditions and the unusually low temperatures: In the first round all riders still had to struggle with the slippery mud on the track, but in the course of the day the conditions even stabilised and 94 riders of a total of 112 participants reached the finish in classification after three rounds. Nieve Holmes in 79th was the Best Woman. Two of the five 50cc bikes that started fought their way to the finish, but even the winner Nico Guastini was not without time penalties for being late at the checkpoints. For the 50cc class, the championship will be decided tomorrow, Sunday, in the new 24MX 50cc Trophy, which will be held in just one round this year. Day 2 On the second day of the opening round of the Borilli European Enduro Championship, the MOTOCROSS MARKETING ROUND 1#, in Pietramontecorvino, Italy, victory was again decided only on the very last special stage: After a heavy crash right in the first enduro test of the year, local hero Enrico Rinaldi lost almost half a minute. In the course of the competition, the GasGas rider fought his way further and further to the front, but third place was the end for him. At the front, the previous day's winner Erik Willems from Belgium had taken the lead. But in the last Enduro stage, "I was just playing it safe, but maybe a little too safe," Willems said afterwards. So the Briton Dan Mundell took the overall lead before the last crosstest with just half a second ahead. This made it really exciting once again, but as on the previous day, Willems again played out his motocross skills. He won the last cross test by less than two seconds ahead of Mundell, thus turning the tide in his favour once again. In the championship, he now leads both the overall standings and the E2 class by a clear margin and goes to the second round in Hungary as the leader. Tom Ellwood was maintained consistency with anther 3rd in the E2 class and 14th overall. The new class classification meant that Maurizio Micheluz was still at the top of the podium: The Italian had been thrown into the same class as the four-stroke riders with his 250cc two-stroke Husqvarna - but according to the motto " the more competitors, the more honour'." he was also able to win the new Enduro 2 class and is perhaps heading for his fourteenth championship title! Micheluz is even not yet racing in the seniors. In the women's category, Nieve Holmes won by a clear margin on both days: The British rider has returned to the brand with which she started in international enduro racing with a Sherco. Faster than her was the Frenchwoman Marine Lemoine - but always only a few seconds and only in the cross tests. In the demanding enduro stage, Holmes was usually at least a minute faster than the other ladies. Italian Luca Piersigilli won already the championship: the 24MX 50cc Trophy, on his Beta. This class is only contested in Italy this year, so Piersigilli, who is only 15 years old, was crowned the new champion here. Of the total of five young participants, only two riders were classified in the end - the terrain had simply proved too difficult, both for the small-displacement motorbikes and for the still inexperienced riders. Several hundred spectators were present at the big award ceremony. In less than two weeks, the starting signal for the second round of the Borilli European Enduro Championship will be given again: then it's off to Hungary: Tamasi is located southeast of Lake Balaton. All information, results, live-timing, championship standings and more can be
found at: Dates 2022
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Tom
Ellwood was 3rd in the E2 class and 14th overall.