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International Six Days Enduro Jablonec nad Nisou Sports Center After five days of trail and apecial tests, the final day of competition plttecl all of the fast 25Oc:c Ywo-5troke rid.... against one another In thM class' flNlI moto. varna rider had one of his best moments of the Six Days when he smoked everyone in the final MX special test. Finland's third class winner was Juha Saliminen, but his 400cc FourStroke-class victory wasn't decided until the last few laps of the final MX moto. After six days of competition, Saliminen went into the final moto with a one-and-a-half-second lead over Great Britain's Paul Edmondson and, just as everyone had hoped, the two riders started the deciding race one-two. The KTM-mounted Saliminen led the Husqvarna-mounted Edmondson off the start, and the two riders immediately pulled away from the rest of the pack. Edmondson chased Saliminen for a short time before washing out in a rutted turn, which ended up securing the moto and class win for 2002 400cc World Enduro Champion Saliminen. Finn Jani Laaksonen rode well all week but had to settle for third in the 250cc Two-Stroke class behind teammate Aro and Great Britain's David Knight. The Gas Gas pilot, Laaksonen, also finished third in this year's World Enduro Championship in the 250cc Two-Stroke division. STORY AND PHOTOS BY KIT PALMER JABLOl'IEC NAn N1SOO, CZECH REPOBUC, SEPT. 24·29 110u might say that Finland has ~ established itself as the new premier country when it comes to world off-road competition. Not long ago, it was the Italians dominating, but not anymore. And this year's 77th International Six Days Enduro in the Czech Republic is proof. The powerful Finnish team ended up winning three of the six classes, and in the ones that they didn't win, they came close (except for one - the 125cc class - where they suffered a DNF). Their top rider was Mika Ahola, who was this year's overall winner, but this isn't the first time that he has accomplished this amazing feat; he also did it in 1999 and 2001. Ahola also came away with the 500cc FourStroke-class win, and he was one of only three riders of the over 500 entrants mounted on a Vor machine. Finland's Samuli Aro, the current 250cc World Enduro Champion, came away with this year's 250cc Two-Stroke victory, a very tough feat when you consider that this class was the largest of the six. The Husq- French rider Emannuel A1bepart tries to get his dulln back on the sproc:ket after crashing In the first tum of the first 25Oc:c: MX moto. A1bepart was unable to finish the moto and was assessed the same time as the moto's slowest rider a tum of events that cost the French Trophy team second place and dropped It to third behind Finland and Sweden. One of lust a few riders In the Czech Republic: mounted on an italian Vor machine, Finn Mlka Ahola led his country to the victory, taking the !500cc Four-Stroke and overall wins himself. 20 OCTOBER 9, 2002' Current 125cc World Enduro Champion Petteri Silvan was hoping to give Finland its fourth class win, but the Husqvama rider had to settle for third behind Australia's Stefan Merriman and Finnish Club rider Mika Saarenkoski. The only rider on Finland's Trophy team who didn't do quite so well was 125cc Gas Gas-mounted Petri Pohjamo. Pohjamo reportedly had bike problems on day one, had good rides on days two and three, and then had his bike finally seize up for good on day four. But his departure ended up not hurting the team one bit, since each team is allowed to throwaway its worst rider score each day. Overall, the Finnish team dominated this year's lSDE. The team jumped out front right off the bat and increased its lead significantly each day, eventually finishing a hill 25 minutes ahead of the second-place team, Sweden. The Swedes had a rollercoaster week. The team, led by five-time and reigning 500cc Four-Stroke World Enduro Champion Anders Eriksson, lost 125cc enduro specialist Rickard Larsson on the first day when his TM seized while he was trying to make up time on the pavement due to a ridicu- lously fast schedule the organizers had imposed. Still, the team finished the day in second place, and then one of its riders was accused of entering a checkpoint outside the legal boundaries (white flags). As a result, the Swedes were knocked out of the top 10, but the team protested the exclusion and won, putting it back up to third, behind France, where it would hang for the rest of the week until the final MX test. That's when French rider Emannuel Albepart fell in the first turn and the chain came off of his Gas Gas. He was unable to finish out the moto and was assessed the same score as the slowest rider of that moto. That dropped the French to third and put the Swedes into second. The French team, however, had David Fretigne's victory in the 250cc Four-Stroke class to celebrate. Great Britain came into this year's ISDE with a strong team, made up of two-time runner-up in the 250cc Two-Stroke World Enduro Championships David Knight, four-time World Enduro Champion Paul Edmondson, Knight's brother Juan Knight, former trials rider Wayne Braybrook, Edward Jones, and Euan McConnell. The team was never all that far behind France and Sweden and ended up finishing a strong fourth, despite McConnell breaking his hand on day four. You might say that Italy didn't field one of its strongest teams ever, now that some of the country's veteran riders have moved on, but they did pull off a fifth-place finish with a mix of young up-and-comers, "middleaged" pilots, and a couple of veteran ISDE riders, such as brothers Jarno and Ivan Boano. The team lost Ivan, however, on day one, when he crashed hard. He reportedly started day two but didn't last long. As far as Team USA goes, this year's ISDE did not go its way at all. The team, made up of ISDE veteran Fred Hoess (Husqvama 125), David cue I • n __ :IS