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IN THE WIND P48 NAMBOTIN, MEO, PHILLIPS TOP PORTUGUESE WORLD ENDURO T he FIM World Enduro Cham- pionship carried on with the third stop of the series in Gou- veia, Portugal. The first day of the GP of Portugal saw new win- ners in all three classes as Eero Remes, Alex Salvini and Mat- thew Phillips celebrated victories in the E1, E2 and E3 classes, respectively. Sunday saw Nam- botin and Meo rebounding to top the podium in the E1 and E2 classes while Phillips celebrated a double victory in the E3 class. It was a memorable weekend for Team Honda as Alex Salvini rode to an outstanding victory on Saturday, capturing the E2 win by six tenths of a second ahead of Antoine Meo. Salvini celebrated another podium finish on Sunday, finishing third behind Meo and Pela Renet to take an important step forward in the championship. Meo re- mains in control of the E2 class, however, and the KTM Factory Rider used a 2-1 tally to top the weekend. "I'm very happy about Satur- day's victory, although I have to say it was a tough race until the end," said Itali Salvini. "On Sunday I started good but then I made a disastrous third round with some mistakes, losing four seconds in the extreme test and 11 in the cross one. These two small errors cost me the race and also the second place that was within my reach. I tried to push harder in the last two special tests, but unfortunately it was not enough." Salvini was narrowly edged out by defending champion Pela Renet, who took the runner-up position by only three tenths of a second. "It was a really tough race," Renet said. "There were so many rocks during each lap that there was no place to relax. It was really hard going both on and off the special tests. It was hard to know if you had to use the ruts or the soft, dusty berms on the outsides of the corners. It's been a real enduro." Factory KTM E1-class star Christophe Nambotin injured his knee on Friday evening dur- ing the KTM Super Test, but he fought through the pain all weekend to card a 2-1 finish in the small-bike class. Although TM rider Eero Remes cel- ebrated the E1 win on Saturday, Nambotin protected his lead in the championship by winning nine out of 11 tests on Sunday. "I just wanted to forget about the pain on Saturday," said Nambotin. "I went on the attack and that paid off. I had a really good feeling in the Enduro test and this helped me to widen the gap to the others." Nambotin also credited his strong finish to his trainer and the support from the team. "Without this, I wouldn't have been able to tackle such a Christophe Nambotin overcame a knee injury to top the E1 class on Sunday, and extend his lead in the championship. PHOTOGRAPHY BY FUTURE 7 MEDIA