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By - Lexy Thorogood:
Check out the WEBSITE: of Stefan Merriman, the Kiwi born Enduro ace (across the ditch they claim him as an Aussie) for photos (including this event) his profile, events calendar, etc.
(The website will be out of action, until approximately 20th June 2004.)
In the small village of St Remy Sur Durolle, France the fourth round of the World Enduro Champs was held on the weekend. The town is 40km east of Clermont Ferrand. The area is very green and mountainous and the main industry appears to be logging. The riders completed three loops of 90 km trail (the longest loop in WEC this year) with mostly offroad and forest trails. The riders had to complete three cross tests and one extreme on each loop. The Extreme Test (XT1) located near the paddock, is a mixture of \'Trials\' type obstacles. There is a granite rock hillclimb, a very steep sand downhill, followed by an almost concave sandhill climb and finishes through a stretch of large, unstable rocks/boulders.
The other Cross test near the paddock (CT4) winds through a steep gully with many off-cambered grassy corners. The other two cross tests are fast and flowing on open paddocks with one or two mudholes thrown in to make it difficult. Weather here had been strange considering it is nearly Summer - snow showers for the past three days prior to the race, amidst skies of sun and cloud. It is very cold at around 2 degrees. Unfortunately heavy rain on Friday night made it difficult on Saturday. Merriman shone in all tests, setting the fastest time overall in 7 out of 10 specials!
He won both the class and the overall classification on the Yamaha 250F by more than 70 seconds! from Yamaha team mate Bartoz Oblucki. The rain held off for most of the day although dark skies threatened more rain to come. The rain arrived as the riders reached the final test and continued all night long.
After the first day, Merriman said, \"I really liked the tests today. It was a hard day\'s riding and most definitely the most difficult race this season. The worst thing was the cold weather and rain last night. The organisers will need to modify the track to enable all riders to pass through the tests tomorrow, as some severe bogholes are starting to form.\" Merriman\'s main rival in the Enduro 1 class, Finnish rider, Petteri Silvan made a serious error and checked into the time control 7 minutes early, effectively surrendering any chance of gaining points on Day one.
After so much rain on Saturday night, Merriman was the unlucky first rider who had to sweep the water out of the well formed ruts of the day before. Despite walking the tests on Saturday night, the organisers made more changes in the morning before the race as the rain was so heavy. On the first lap through the Extreme test, Merriman was the first rider and encountered some changes to the rocky section to make things more difficult. The organisers had put large rocks in the middle of the line through the stones. Merriman came into the section carrying quite a lot of speed and hit one large stone which had been placed in the middle of the well formed line from the day before, lost balance and stopped the bike. He lost a bit of time trying to free the bike from the rocks it had jammed in between, leaving the line clear for the riders to follow. He won the following tests and moved up into second position behind Petteri Silvan. Despite starting on the same minute, Silvan was very unsportsman-like, making Merriman go first in every test to clear any obstacles and leave a well placed mark of the best lines in the test. Usually in the past, riders take it in turns in bad conditions to go first to make it fair, but Silvan was not willing to oblige.
The organisers insisted the riders complete three loops on Day 2 (usually the second day is shorter as the tests get ridden out), which meant the tests were getting quite destroyed with all the mud and so many bikes passing through. Merriman was unlucky to get caught in a boghole up to his waist, on the second loop in the second cross test. This mistake cost him 15 secs, leaving him on the backfoot on the catch up on Silvan. Then in the third loop of the Extreme the course Marshalls decided to fill in the ruts on the steep muddy downhill with foreign objects such as stones and sticks. The first three riders in the Enduro 1 class (Merriman, Oblucki, and Silvan) came down the hill and hit these objects in the ruts and ran straight into a tree, all losing time. After they passed the Marshalls understood their error and removed the objects making it clear for the other riders in the class to follow. Highly unfair, modifying the tests in this way! Merriman got going faster than Silvan and made up some time, with only half a second separating the two in the final tests. Merriman won the final test but lost the second day win to Silvan by 0.2 of a second!
On Sunday, Merriman said, \"I struggled in the morning with all the changes to the tests and being the first rider through I had to clear new lines in the slippery mud and push the water out of the ruts. Silvan (on the same minute) wouldn\'t take it in turns to go first and so I had more difficult conditions for most of the day. The bogholes were almost impassable in places, and I was relying on my team members to tell me of the lines before arriving to the test.\"
Merriman now leads the class by a massive 34 points over Oblucki who moves up to second in the Enduro 1 championship standings, whilst Silvan\'s silly error on Day 1 shifted him back to third position 40 points behind Merriman.
Enduro I Classification Day 1
1st Stefan Merriman (AUS) YAM 250 4T 52:23.36
2nd Bartoz Oblucki (POL) YAM 250 4T 53:33.54
3rd Rickard Larsson (SWE) TM 125 2T 53:57.52
4th Fabien Planet (FRA) KTM 125 2T 54:17.94
5th Marc Germain (FRA) YAM 125 2T 54:34.01
6th Roberto Bazzuri (ITA) HUS 125 2T 54:47.79
7th Simone Albergoni (ITA) HON 250 4T 54:54.81
8th Mario Rinaldi (ITA) YAM 250 4T 54:57.59
9th Damien Miquel (FRA) YAM 250 4T 55:11.94
10th Homero Diaz (MEX) KTM 125 2T 55:15.78
Enduro I Classification Day 2
1st Petteri Silvan (FIN) KTM 125 2T 55:05.73
2nd Stefan Merriman (AUS) YAM 250 4T 55:05.98
3rd Bartoz Oblucki (POL) YAM 250 4T 56:01.47
4th Roberto Bazzuri (ITA) HUS 125 2T 56:07.20
5th Fabien Planet (FRA) KTM 125 2T 56:08.38
6th Alessandro Belometti (ITA) KTM 125 2T 56:13.47
7th Marc Germain (FRA) YAM 125 2T 56:15.12
8th Peter Bergvall (SWE) HUS 250 4T 56:29.18
9th Simone Albergoni (ITA) HON 250 4T 56:37.53
10th Rickard Larsson (SWE) TM 125 2T 57:17.42
