A Somber Day At The ISDE

| September 15, 2004

A dark cloud hangs over the International Six Days Enduro at the end of the third day’s competition following the sad news that German Trophy team rider Swen Enderlein died after crashing into a tree midway through the day. As a mark of respect for the 26-year-old German Enduro Champion, the German Trophy and Junior Trophy teams have withdrawn from the competition.

Also on day three, a Dutch support rider, Jose Pruin, was fatally injured, after having been involved in a collision with a car. Due to the severity of the impact, two of the females travelling in the vehicle were also killed with a third seriously injured and taken to a hospital.

Day three also saw a significant change in the weather, as the heat and dust from days one and two were replaced by rain and mud, which made for equally challenging racing conditions. Despite a new course and three new special tests, the names at the top of the Enduro 1, Enduro 2 and Enduro 3 classes remained the same as Finn Samuli Aro topped the E3 class while countryman Juha Salminen claimed victory in the E2 category with Italian Simone Albergoni finishing at the top of the E1 class results.

In the Enduro 1 class it was day one winner Bartosz Oblucki (Right) who led at the end of the first lap before a mistake, early on lap two, saw him drop to just under five seconds behind Albergoni at the end of the day. Even closer than the battle to top the class, the fight to claim the third and final podium position saw Britain’s Paul Edmondson finish less than two hundredths of a second ahead of Poland’s Michal Szuster.

Bouncing back from his day two disappointments, Finn Juha Salminen claimed both the Enduro 2 class and the overall ‘Scratch’ win aboard his factory KTM, beating Australian Stefan Merriman by some 12 seconds. With Juha visibly giving the day his all, and with Merriman falling once, Finnish riders Petri Pohjamo and Tomi Peltola claimed the third and fourth spots finishing ahead of French rider Sebastian Guillaume and US rider Kurt Caselli, who claimed fifth and sixth respectively.

Claiming his third Enduro 3 class win, KTM mounted Finn Samuli Aro (Left) finished just under six seconds ahead of British Trophy team rider David Knight, while Italian Alex Zanni made his first podium visit of the competition in third.

At the head of the Trophy team competition Finland again claimed the win finishing ahead of Italy, with France claiming third. In the Junior Trophy competition France saw two of its riders fail to reach the end of the day, while Italy topped the class ahead of Spain and Finland.

Results: www.isde2004.pl

By Jonty Edmunds