EWC Andorra: Meo E2 world champion!
A year after his first Enduro world title, Antoine Meo has crowned himself world champion for a second time. In Andorra, the French Husqvarna rider was assured of the world title in the Queen Class one GP before the end.
Saturday
Antoine Meo was already leading the E2 standings before this weekend. Still, the Husqvarnadriver was not simply offered his second world title. On Saturday, the World Cup leader had to fight for what he was worth against a particularly strong one Ivan Cervantes. So close “Gas Gas' home base in Catalonia, the Spaniard would probably have come to the start extra motivated. Also that other Frenchman, Pierre-Alexandre Renet, made Meo's life miserable. Cervantes seemed to end the opening day as the winner, but that was not counted by Meo. In the last Special of the day, the Husqvarna rider knocked the Spaniard from the leading position. However, Cervantes did not lose his good mood. “Even though I was in the lead for a whole day, I am still satisfied. Meo was just faster than me in the last special. I am especially happy for the team. We are riding here this weekend with a brand new engine and I am already satisfied with it." Jean-François Goblet turned 8e. Hans Vogels finished 12the.
Went into the lightest EWC class Eero Remes continues the momentum of the ISDE. The KTM rider had no opposition at all, especially when he was the World Cup leader Juha Salminen disappeared early from the race with a broken gearbox. Matti Seistola couldn't prevent that Rodrigue Thain snuggled between him and Remes.
'Business as usual' at the front of E3 Mika Ahola secured the day's victory. This time it was Christophe Nambotin in the battle for second place Joakim Ljunggren. And that was a bit against the flow of the match. Because until after the 3e Ahola and Nambotin had kept pace during the round. The French ambulance driver started to pile up mistakes on the last lap, allowing Ahola to open a gap. Ljunggren, on the other hand, put in a strong final lap and stayed ahead of Nambotin. Kurt caselli, who rode a number of off-road races in the States after the ISDE, had to get used to the weather conditions.
Sunday
In the Queen Class, Cervantes once again pulled out all the stops on Sunday morning to achieve a first victory for the Girona brand. However, he would not succeed because Cristobal Guerrero started a strong final offensive and ended the day with a 3 second lead over Cervantes. Antoine Meo finishes 3e and that is enough for the Husqvarna rider to win his second world title.
In E1, Juha Salminen was determined to stay ahead of Eero Remes on Sunday. He managed to do that on the first special of the day, but after that the KTM rider took matters into his own hands again. The battle for third place is less exciting. This time Thain cannot keep up with the pace of the Finns and has to let Matti Seistola go first.
The most exciting class is the E3 on Sunday. The three tenors: Christophe Nambotin, Mika Ahola and Joakim Ljunggren sit close to each other all day long. At the finish line, Nambotin even has just over a second lead over the Swede. Ahola has to give up 5,6 to the Frenchman.
Results GP Andorra:
Saturday:
E1: 1. Eero Remes, 2. Rodrig Thain, 3. Matti Seistola, 4. Fabien Planet, 5. Lorenzo Santolino, 6. Julien Gauthier, 7. Nicolas Deparrois, 8. Marc Bourgeois, 9. Christophe Robert, 10. Andreas Beier, 11. Nicolas Sabatier.
E2: 1. Antoine Meo, 2. Ivan Cervantes, 3. Pierre-Alexandre Renet, 4. Cristobal Guerrero, 5. Sébastien Bozzo, 6. Tadeusz Blazusiak, 7. Simone Albergoni, 8. Jean-François Goblet, 9. Joan Barreda, 10 .Antoine Basset, 11. Goncalo Reis, 12. Hans Vogels, 13. Aigar Leok, 14. Armand Monleon, 15. Jordan Curvalle, 16. Jonathan Rosse, 17. Helder Rodrigues, 18. Romain Cadillac.
E3: 1. Mika Ahola, 2. Joakim Ljunggren, 3. Christopher Nambotin, 4. Mark Tarkkala, 5. Sebastian Guillaume, 6. Alex Salvini, 7. Kurt Caselli, 8. Oriol Mena, 9. Marcus Kehr, 10. Fabio Mossini, 11. Jordi Figueras, 12. Maurizio Micheluz, 13. Juan Perez, 14. Rudy Cotton, 15. Jonas Karlsson, 16. Christian Spain.
Sunday :
E1: 1. Juha Salminen, 2. Eero Remes, 3. Matti Seistola, 4. Rodrig Thain, 5. Lorenzo Santolino, 6. Fabien Planet, 7. Nicolas Deparrois, 8. Christophe Robert, 9. Julien Gauthier.
E2: 1. Cristobal Guerrero, 2. Ivan Cervantes, 3. Antoine Meo, 4. Pierre-Alexandre Renet, 5. Tadeusz Blazusiak, 6. Antoine Basset, 7. Jean-Francois Goblet, 8. Hans Vogels, 9. Aigar Leok, 10 .Joan Barreda, 11. Goncalo Reis, 12. Jordan Curvalle, 13. Sébastien Bozzo, 14. Armand Monleon, 15. Jonathan Rosse, 16. Helder Rodrigues, 17. Romain Cadillac
E3: 1. Christophe Nambotin, 2. Joakim Ljunggren, 3. Mika Ahola, 4. Mark Tarkkala, 5. Kurt Caselli, 6. Oriol Mena, 7. Sebastien Guillaume, 8. Alex Salvini, 9. Jordi Figueras, 10. Marcus Kehr, 11. Fabio Mossini, 12. Maurizio Micheluz, 13. Rudy Cotton, 14. Juan Perez, 15. Jonas Karlsson, 16. Christian Spain.
Photos: ABC Communication/Matthew
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