24/09/02

ISDE Czech Republic

Day 1

In freezing cold conditions the International Six Days of Enduro began in Jablonec nad Nisou in the Czech Republic. World Champion, Stefan Merriman was the fastest in the special tests in the 125cc class, ahead of Husky teammate, Petteri Silvan and GP Motocrosser, Erik Eggens. The temperature ranged between 3-5 degrees and the trail was primarily set on the road due to protests against the race by conservationists- green people! Despite the trail being relatively easy, the time to get between checks was tight and almost all riders recieved time penalties.

The offical results will not be known until after the jury meeting this evening. On test times alone Stefan was more than 45 seconds faster than his opponents in total for the day.

Stefan won the 125cc class again today, despite crashing in the third enduro test. It started spitting and the bridge was wet and slippery. He crashed and lost about 15 seconds, but had a 18 second lead at that stage. He won the following tests and finished up about 11 seconds in front of Pohjamo, who was second. Fellow Aussie, Damien Smith did quite well today and finished 5th in the 125cc class.

Many of the time penalties were removed yesterday, as the trail times, which were mostly on the road were unrealistic. Stefan did not get any time penalty yesterday. In other news, Damien Smith was excluded yesterday as the lady at the route check forgot to write his number down as he went past on the trail and there is nothing we can do to prove otherwise.

Day 3

After an inch of snow last night where we are staying in the hotel, the race continued today. Stefan Merriman set a blistering pace today, winning the 125cc class by 28 seconds, and finished second overall behind 500cc rider Mika Ahola. The trail today was different from the first two days. All four tests today had a lot of steep off-camber corners. One enduro test was set on a ski run and became very difficult to get up as the rain from the night before made it very slippery.

Today a few riders had problems, Bjorne Carlsson from the Swedish team got a two minute penalty at a time check and Juha Salminen got a 4 minute penalty after arriving to a time check late due to mechanical problems. Fortunately, Damien Smith has been included in the Australian trophy team results, as he faced the jury panel last night and explained how the person at the route check missed writing his number down. Unfortunately, Ben Grabham was forced to retire today, after a he lost a bolt from his bike and the engine seized. At the end of Day 2 the Australian Trophy Team were running 6th behind Finland, Sweden, France Great Britain and Italy respectively.

At the end of Day 2, Merriman was winning the 125cc class by more than a minute, but was coming 9th overall. The tests on Day 3 and 4 are better suited to Stefan as they are more technical.

Day 4

Merriman remains the leader of the 125cc class, after the fourth day of racing. Today didn’t go as smoothly as the others for the Husqvarna 125 rider. After a night of solid rain the trail was very wet, and it was no surprise that the special tests deteriorated rapidly. The first riders of the 125cc class had the best track and the latter riders as the track dried throughout the day.

Merriman ran into difficulties on the third test (enduro) on a steep ski hill, his clutch started to fail and he took 30 seconds to get up the hill. After an adjustment at the next service time control, Merriman was able to replace the clutch plates and continue. However Stefan said, he found it difficult to get good lines in the special tests and made many mistakes throughout the day.

Thankfully he did not lose any time at the controls and finished third behind Albergoni (1st) and Silvan (2nd) by a small margin(less than 30 secs). Actual results are not available as yet due to computer problems at the special tests. However Merriman has more than a 3 minute lead over Silvan and a 33 minute lead over Albergoni. Thus he will remain in the lead after Day 4. Pohjamo broke down today and did not appear at the last special test.

Fellow Aussie 125 rider, Damien Smith produced some excellent test times today and finished fourth behind Stefan. Tomorrow is the same track as Day 1 and 2, so we hope it dries out a little.

Day 5

Merriman remains the undisputed leader of the 125cc class after the fifth day leading over Husky teammate, Silvan by more than 4 minutes. The 125cc class start first everyday at the ISDE. Which is not always a good thing as this morning the trail was very wet and slippery and the time to the first time check was totally unrealistic. All the trophy team 125cc riders and some of the 250cc 2 stroke riders got penalty minutes at the first time check.

The other riders were warned and by the time the later classes got there it dried out. Hopefully they will take those penalties away at this evenings’ jury meeting, as they were obviously unrealistic, if none of the first class could make it on time. The weather dried up today and the sun made an appearance after 10am, but it was cloudy until then. The rain from the past few days made the tests (same as Day 1 and 2) very slippery.

The track seemed to get better as each rider went through. Stefan did really well today, beating Petteri Silvan by 30secs in the first test and 1min 3secs(!!!) in the second test. He had a small crash in the third test, but did not lose more than 10 secs. He finished the Day 5 in 1st place in the 125cc class, beating Silvan in second place by a massive 1min 35secs and Australian, Damien Smith who finished 5th in the class.

At the end of Day 4, Stefan was placed 5th in the Overall results behind Ahola, Eriksson, Knight and Aro. Yesterday 125 Finnish rider, Pohjamo retired due to clutch problems and GP motocrosser, Erik Eggens also retired due to his KTM breaking down. Tomorrow will be the last day of racing consisting of a short trail ride to the final motocross.

Day 6

The Six Days of Enduro came to a close today, as the final motocross was ridden in cloudy conditions, without rain. Stefan Merriman has won the 125cc class, despite finishing third in the final moto. The track was set on a ploughed field and after all the rain we've had it wasn't the best conditions.

The wind had dried it out not too badly, but it got faster as the day went on. The final moto was more of a special test as it wasn't very wide and weved from left to right not leaving many places for passing. Stefan was third off the holshot and was unable to pass Finnish junior rider, Saarenoski and Italian, Bazzuri who finished first.

There was limited space for passing and only 5 laps of the 3min track to race. As Merriman had more than a 4 minute lead coming into Day 5 behind Silvan, he had no trouble securing first place over all six days in the 125cc class. Silvan finished 8th in the final moto, 31 secs behind Merriman. Samuli Aro won the 250cc 2 stroke class, Juha Salminen won the 400cc class and Mika Ahola won the 500cc class.

Unfortunately for the Australian Trophy Team we were unable to place as 125cc rider, Damien Smith was excluded at the end of Day 5 as the organisers believe he received outside assistance to change a tyre. This was not true at all, and despite efforts by our jury man, Peter Dooley, he was excluded and unable to start the final moto. As we had two riders out, we were unable to be included in the country trophy team results.