The stars of EnduroGP had to cope with overwhelming heat on Day 1 in Greece, despite a huge storm on Friday night before the Super Test.
These demanding conditions made their mark on both man and machine, as was proven when Alex Salvini (Honda) suffered a shoulder injury. Despite the difficulties, the LAMS Moto Club did a great job with the course.
We’ll start with the premier category, EnduroGP, where Salvini was looking to be one of the favourites at the beginning of the day. The Honda RedMoto rider was in the fight with Matteo Cavallo (Sherco) for third place overall before he took a heavy hit on his shoulder in the Champion Lubricants Enduro Test.
There were no such problems for the British duo of Steve Holcombe (Beta) and Brad Freeman (Beta Boano). The former, who seems to be largely recovered from the debilitating virus he’d been in the grip of since the German GP, was running well at the start of the day and held a 12 second advantage at the end of the first lap.
Meanwhile Freeman initially found it tricky to ‘open the road’, but the Beta Boano rider quickly regained control of the EnduroGP class to pull out an amazing 39 second lead on Holcombe by the end of the day.
Behind these two top guns, Matteo Cavallo (Sherco) achieved his first career podium in EnduroGP.
The class which saw the most twists and turns was Enduro 2 where Salvini had been establishing himself as a potential winner before he fell and injured his shoulder. And at that time, the category win was all to play for between Giacomo Redondi, Loic Larrieu and Christophe Charlier. but it was Redondi who nailed the E2 win
In E1, Brad Freeman remains unbeaten in front of Matteo Cavallo and Thomas Oldrati.
In E3, Steve Holcombe was back on the top step of the podium after he lost out to his rival, Danny McCanney (TM), in Spain. The factory TM rider, struggling with a hand injury, still clung on to second place, just in front of Anthony Geslin (Beta).
In the Juniors, Andrea Verona (TM) took a scored a victory, 47 seconds ahead of his Enric Francisco (KTM)
In the Champion Lubricants Enduro Open World Cup, David Knight (TM) won his 7th race day right in front of the friendly Austrian duo of Werner Muller (KTM) and Hans Peter Musil (KTM).
Brad Freeman: “The start of the day was not easy with the big storm that came yesterday afternoon. It was not easy for me to open the tests and Steve took advantage. But I managed to find a good feeling on the second lap and I could finally ensure another good victory. I’m very happy with it but I really want to stay focused.ā
Steve Holcombe: “Even if I’m a little bit frustrated to have lost the win today, I’m still very happy with this second place! It must be said that a month ago, I did not know if I could participate in this race, so I’m really happy to be here and running at the front. I know what I need to work on and I’m looking forward to tomorrow to try and get closer to Brad!”
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