Wim Vanderheyden gets victory in his lap!
For the third round of the Belgian Enduro Championship, the championship moved to a beautiful Ardennes setting. After two convincing victories, Jean-François Goblet (Yamaha) was the top favorite at the start in Saint Hubert.
By missing a time control at the start of a connecting stage, the four leaders Michaël Vukcevic, Cédric Cremer, Kevin Gauniaux and Jean-François Goblet sidelined themselves! As a result, all four of them incurred a time penalty of 28 minutes, and the four top players therefore dropped all the way to the basement of the rankings.
This highly unusual race event opened the gate wide for a victory for Wim Vanderheyden. The sympathetic Husaberg pilot was consistent all day and made few mistakes. Only in the last special did Vanderheyden get stuck in a weak 11th time after being stuck for 2 minutes. Anyway, at the end of the day, Wim was able to add his second ever enduros victory to his list of achievements.
The young Jérôme Martiny followed 26 seconds behind Vanderheyden with his GasGas 250 four-stroke. Third place went to Liège's Thierry Klutz, who had mechanical problems with his Husqvarna for about half the day but still managed to reach the finish.
The next match will take place on May 9 in Bilstain.
Comments
Wim Vanderheyden (Husaberg Belgique) – Winner
« Cédric Cremer, Jean-François Goblet and Kevin Gauniaux were clearly faster today, but they made a mistake and I was given the win. Of course, I would have preferred to see it differently... The race was also quite difficult today. You couldn't really rest anywhere and in the last lap it even became dangerous in some places. Staying 100% concentrated was the message! All in all I rode quite well, without making many mistakes. Even though I was blocked for 2 minutes by an obstacle in the last special when I crashed again. I was absolutely devastated! »
Jérôme Martiny (GasGas Belgium) – Second
«I am very happy with my victory in E1. It is nice to come second in the Scratch today, but you cannot attach much importance to that because the four favorites were so far behind. Today was tough and I made mistakes left and right, but I think everyone fell at least once today! «
Thierry Klutz (Husqvarna) – Third
« Saint-Hubert was fantastic once again! Such a course is truly unique in Belgium! Unfortunately, from a sporting point of view, I cannot be satisfied with my day. I had technical problems with the engine and I lost a lot of power. Still, I kept going. I kept attacking, but I couldn't follow the rhythm of the fastest guys. For the next races I hope that my bike is optimal so that I can finally perform at my best level. »
Rash
1 VANDERHEYDEN WIM HUSABERG 45:01.72 ; 2 MARTINY JÉRÔME GAS GAS 45:28.03 ; 3 KLUTZ THIERRY HUSQVARNA :48.99 ; 4 CROSSET DANIEL GAS GAS 46:15.62 ; 5 DESPONTIN FABRICE BETA 46:53.87; 6 DERMINE ARNAUD GAS GAS 47:27.72 ; 7 VERPOORTEN ROEL HM 47:35.92; 8 BAILLEUX BERTRAND BETA 48:39.35; 9 BOTRON DAVID BETA 49:18.93 ; 10 CUVELIER DAVID KTM 50:27.75
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