Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128348
ri ders in second, with Oblucki third . In do ing so. the Honda Italy r ider, Albergoni, claimed the runner-up spot in the E I class. finish ing the season between Yamaha riders Merriman and Oblucki. With neither rider able to stop Merriman from claiming his 13th class win of the year, the now four-t ime World Enduro Champ ion comfortably topped the day to also finish third in the overall Scratch World Championsh ip. " Everything went well for me this weekend, but the event, and especially the enduro test , was really difficult," Merriman said. " We had to push our bikes in places, which meant that all riders were completely exhausted w hen they reached the end of the tests. " The organizers seemed to forget Now Juha Salminen will be heading to the U.S. for a new challenge he '04 Ma xxis FIM World Enduro Championship d rew to a clos e last w eekend when the eighth and fina l ro und of the championship took place in Zschopau , Germany. W ith Australian Stefan Merr iman having already cla imed the Enduro I Wo rld Champ ionsh ip two weeks earl ier i n Greece, Finnish KTM Racing r iders Juha Salminen and Samuli Aro were crowned Enduro 2 and Enduro 3 World Champi ons after they claimed victory in their respective classes on day one . The final round of the '04 season, however, wasn't without controversy as the opening day of the event sawall but a handful of riders lose time due to horrendous weather cond itions and numerous T 28 NOVEMBER difficult climbs , both on the special tests and on the course. With the riders that rema ined clean on time expecting to claim good results and knowing - like all competitors - that the event would be a difficult one, the international jury "edited" the opening day's results by scrapping many of the time penalties. Needless to say those r iders that had decided to try . and remain on time and not worry about too much about performing on the special tests were. not for the first time this season, unimpressed by the jury's decision . With the majority of the WEe's regular competitors unhappy about the severity of some of the clim bs used in the event and t he tight time schedule used on day one, the start of the second day's competition was delayed by one hour as riders decided to take a stance against the organizers' decision not to listen to their con cerns. W ith the organizers eventually deciding to reduce the day by one lap and make modifications to several points of the course, the majority of riders commented that if day one had been the same then the event would have been a challenging and fitting end to the '04 season. With Stefan Merriman already crowned Enduro 3, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS I World Cham pion, the focus in the E I class was the batt le for second in t he championship between Pole Bartosz O blucki and Italian Simone Albergoni. With Ob lucki ho lding a slim advantage going into the event . sizeable crashes on both the enduro and extreme tests saw him finish in a lowly eighth in class, wh ile rival Albergoni claimed the runner-up spot ahead of wet-weather specialist Rickard Larsson from Sweden in third . With Albergoni fin ishing six positions ahead of Oblucki, it was a simple case of whoever finished highest on day two would claim the runner-up spot in the E I Championship. With everything on the line for Albergoni and Oblucki, they finished just one place apart on day two, w ith Albergoni placing the better of the two 40th Anniversary that this is a rou nd of the WE C and not a one-off extreme enduro ," Merriman continued. ':t>.fter they made a few changes to the course at the start of day two, the event was great - a really challenging and enjoyable day. I felt that I rode pretty well, and I'm just happy to be able to end the season with a win." Needing just a handful of points to secure the Enduro 2 World Championship titl e, Juha Salminen produced one of his best performances of the year to claim E2 class victory on both days. Finishing close to one and a half min utes ahead of his nearest competitor on day one, Salminen claimed his sixth World Championship class title as well as topping the overall results in Germany. Finishing behind Salminen on day one was the Honda duo of Spaniard Arnau