04/22/2002

World Enduro Championship, Kalavrita GREECE

For the first time, the World Enduro Championships was held in Greece. The organisation, motor club Pegasus and the Iron Team were no strangers to hosting such events though, having organized a number of National enduro rounds and European Supermotard Championships.

Held in the small town of Kalavrita, at the foot of Mt Helmos, the race would see riders climb through the rocky mountainside and complete two cross tests and one enduro test for each of the three loops on the first day and two on the second. Not even the rain leading up to the race could soften the hard, stony ground and only managed to keep the dust down. Husqvarna's Stefan Merriman once again proved the TE 400 was the bike to beat winning the 400cc class and the overall classification on Day 1 from Juha Salminen.

The test times were close on the second day, until Merriman crashed in the second to last test. Stefan finished second on Sunday by a small margin of five seconds. "I had a great day on Saturday and felt good on all tests. Sunday was a little more difficult as the track wore in, and I was disappointed about crashing in the second last test". Merriman remains the leader of the class, with a four point margin over his rival Salminen.