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All content © Bob MuIIins | |||
 
Dan Mundell pushes Erik Willems again On the first riding day of the Borilli European Enduro Championship 2022, the ELEVEIT MOTOBOOTS ROUND 2#, in Tamasi, Belgian Erik Willems won again ahead of Englishman Daniel Mundell and thus extended his lead in the European Championship. But it was a long day until then, which presented Willems with particular problems: "I hadn't eaten enough during the day. This gave me slight cramps at the end. We drove for more than eight hours, I'm not used to that. I still have to find the right balance there." His toughest rival was Daniel Mundel, but he could not keep up the Belgian's pace in the cross stage. In the end, after the total of 12 special stages, his gap added up to 30 seconds, just half a minute. In the E1 class, reigning champion Maurizio Micheluz switched from the Husqvarna two-stroke to the four-stroke of the same brand. - Obviously, however, this was able to upset the Italian, because he won the class again and rode to sixth place in the overall standings. In the senior category, the Italian Alessandro Rizza dominated again on the smallest engine, a 125cc, against the more powerful competition. In the women's class, Nieve Holmes from England was still able to make up for her crash in the crosstest: "I fell down a slope and had to fight my way back up there, which cost a lot of time." But in the end of the day she was again 50 seconds ahead of Vilde Holt of Norway, who had finished second for the first time in her life. The riders were lucky with the weather: After the rain and mud of the previous days, it stayed dry for more than half of the competition, before the light rain made the track very slippery again. But the precautionary modifications of the track were successful and there were no problems because of that. But because snow has even been forecast for Sunday, the organizers shortened the competition to three rounds, so that the riders will only be on the road for just over five hours. Overjoyed, the day's winner Dietger Damiaens from Belgium received the victory trophy in Hungary. The KTM rider himself was surprised at how strong he suddenly was after only one year in the European Championship. Frenchman David Abgrall proved to be his fiercest competitor this time:
without any mistakes, he repeatedly steered his Sherco almost to Damiaens'
times, but in the end he was just 18 seconds off. On the second riding day of the 2022 Borilli European Enduro Championship, the ELEVEIT MOTOBOOTS ROUND 2#, in Tamasi, the riders initially fought more against the weather than against the competition: snow had fallen overnight in Hungary, making the track particularly slippery. In the end, almost a quarter of the riders, who started, did not see the finish. In view of the weather forecast, the race distance had already been shortened from four to three laps. The previous day's winner Erik Willems had problems of a completely different kind: From the beginning he had a dragging front brake, which sometimes blocked at the most inopportune moment. But there was not much time on the stages for him to change the brake system, so he fought his way to the finish with this handicap. In the overall standings, he slipped to sixth place for the day, but was still able to defend his lead in the championship at the current halfway point. Right behind Willems was Maurizio Micheluz, the reigning champion of the two-stroke class: This time he started with a four-stroke bike, but on the one hand he was not so happy with the choice, but admitted that the conditions had also been particularly difficult: "I also crashed in the first round in the enduro test, which cost me a lot of time. But because the distance was shortened today, there weren't enough special stages to make up for that." In the seniors, a sweep by Alessandro Rizzo is in the offing: The Italian seems to be uncatchable by the competition even with the small capacity 125cc KTM: At the halfway point he has won every day and already has a healthy points cushion for the championship because the competition is taking turns behind him. The situation is similar in the women's category, where former motocross rider Nieve Holmes, of all people, is riding so strongly in the enduro test that she can even compensate for a one-minute time delay on the transport stage compared to her competitors. Now there is a two-and-a-half month break in the European Championship before it continues in Finland in the far north on 23/24 June. All information about the competitions, results, live-timing, championship standings and more can be found at: https://www.enduroeuropean.com/
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