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~_. - - -- ------ - - OFF-ROAD .. .. ' .. -- Round 1 ~ Maxxis FIM W orld Enduro Championship Ivan Cervantes First in Enduro 3 • .. STORY AND PHOTOS BY JONTY EDMONDS Ivan Cervantes reigns in WEC series opener in Spain he open ing r o u nd of t h e 2004 World Enduro Charnpi o nship t urned out to be an event that few competing will forget any time soon , as an unusual mixture of extreme dust and rain over the weekend made for a challenging season opener. With just three World Championsh ip titles up for grabs t his year, it was UFO Corse Yamaha rider Stefan Merriman and Honda Italy 's Simone Albergoni who shared victory in the 125cc two-stroke! 250cc four -stro ke combined Enduro I class in Spain. For Merriman the weekend would have resulted in a maximum points haul had it not been for a costly mistake on day two. Finishing comfortably at the top of the E I class on day one, the Aussie then finished less than one second behind Albergoni on day two and now leads the class by just four points . Finishing second to Merriman on day one and then placing th ird on day two to lie now in third in the E I championship, Finnish KTM Racing rider Petteri Silvan proved the only two-stroke rider capable of splitting the four-stroke riders at the top of the EI class. Lying just four points adrift of Merriman in the E I class after finishing T 40 MARCH 31 , 2004 • fourth on day one and topping day two, Albergoni took advantage of the fact that Merriman was the first rider onto all of day two's slippery special tests and was able to find much more grip than his Yamaha-mounted classmate. Having been forced to miss almost all of the '0 3 WEC season due to break ing his collarbone wh ile testing for round one, Albergoni, along with Merriman's teammate Bartosz Oblucki , who claimed third on day one, and Silvan, look to be the th ree riders who will battle it out for the runner-up spot behind Merriman . As expected , KTM Racing Rider Juha Salminen proved a cut above the rest in the Enduro 2 class, even though he was riding with a re injured right thumb. To pping both days with relative ease, last year's Over 500cc Four-Stroke World Champion set about claiming yet another World title in his usual re laxed way to finish 40 seconds ahead of his nearest com petitor. Providing the surprise result of the weekend was Honda-mounted Spaniard Arnau Vilanova. Having been missing from WEC compet ition for the past two seasons, the you ngster claimed the run nerup spot to Salminen on day one and then again on day two. CYC LE NEWS Proving fast, consistent and seemingly ready to make a name for himself in the E2 class in '04, Vilanova finished ahead of more than a few factory-backed r iders, much to his surprise and delight . Two riders shared the third-place spot in the E2 class in Spain - Italian Alessandro Botturi on day one and Finn Petri Pohjamo on day two. Making it two 450cc KTMs on the podium on day one, Botturi dropped to fifth on day two and now shares third place in the E2 championship with Pohjamo and Honda's Paul Edmondson . Topping both the Enduro 3 class and the overall, Farioli KTM r ider Ivan Cervantes was in a class of his own at his home round of the WEC series. Despite the added pressure of the many hundreds of spectators who had come to see him and Dakar winner Nani Roma compete, even a crash on day one didn't stop Cervantes from running away with victory on both days. "I was very nervous this weekend because with it being the first race of the new championship , and my home race, I put a lot of pressure on myself to win ," Cervantes said. "Everything has turned out to be really good. My bike worked really well , I rode well , and I got the 40th Anniversary r esults I wanted . To have finished first in both the E3 class and the overall is the perfect start to the season for me ." Claiming one second-place finish and one third-place finish each in Puerto Lumbreras were D3-Racing KTM r ider David Knight and KTM Racing's Samuli Aro. With Knight claiming the run ner-up spot on day one, the Manx ri der fought off close competition by Finn Marko Tarkkala and seven-time World Champion Anders Eriksson on day two to finish th ird and now lies tied for second in the E3 championship. Tweaking his knee on day one as well as briefly struggling with carburetion problems, Aro upped his game on day two and moved to second from his third place finish on day one. eN SPAN ISH EN DURO GP P UERTO LUMBRERAS, SPAIN RESULTS: MARCH 13 - 14 , 2004 (ROUND 1) Da y I ENDURO I: I. 5tefan Merri man (Yarn); 53:56.39; 2. Pen eri 5ilvan (KTM); 55:03.36; 3. Barton Oblucki (Yam); 55:20.48 ; 4. Simone A1bergoni (Hon ); 55:2 1.71; 5. Alessandro Belometti (KTM); 55: 31.89; 6. Richard Larsson (TM) ; 55:15.77; 7. Roberto Bazurri (Hus); 55:'15.56; 8 . Xevi Puigdemont (KTM); 55:49.05; 9. Helder Rodrigues (KTM); 55:57.66; 10. Peter Bergvall (Hus); 56:00.11; I I. Fabien Planet (KTM); 56;13.25; 12. Mario Rinald; (Yam 56;15.8 1; ); 13. Simone Tonelli (Ya 56:38.04; 14. Alessio Paoli (TM); m); 56:'12.71: IS. Marc Germain (Yam); 56:5 1.71; 16. Andrea Raphael (Hon ); 57;00 .5 1; 17. lama Boano (Hon); 57 ;0 1.94; 18. Pierre Duzellie r (KTM); 57:32.79; 19. Jacob Stapleton (TM); 57;41.6 2; 20. He rrero Diu (KTM); 57A8.61.