Mika Ahola and Ivan Cervantes wrapped up the E1 and E3 class titles in the final round of the World Enduro Championship in France.
After dominating much of the season, scoring nine wins, HM-Honda rider Ahola actually suffered his worst weekend of the year at the French finale, but third and fourth places finishes were enough to seal a deserved E1 class title.
“I feel very, very relaxed now,” said the Fin after securing the crown. “I could have taken it easy today but it’s easier to go full gas and think about nothing. Actually this season was better than last year when I was fighting until the end. This year I was thinking I’m already the champion at the halfway point. Then I started to take it easy.
“Next season everything is still open. I don’t have a contract yet and I haven’t chosen my category.”
Cervantes also failed to add to his tally of 10 wins, but finished on the podium in both events to hold off Christophe Nambotin’s late charge.
“I knew here that Nambotin and Guillaume would be very hard to beat, so I didn’t want to take too many risks,” he said. “I preferred to make my own race. I lost some seconds by riding safely but here a result in top 4 was enough to win the title. I am very happy with this new world crown. We had a hard battle this season. Victory comes back home, finally.”
E1
With Ahola happy to race for points, Antoine Meo continued his stunning end of season form to take a double victory, making it six consecutive wins to round out the year. He secured second in the final standings in the process.
The Husqvarna rider finished almost 20 seconds up on Yamaha’s Marc Germain in Day One’s race, with Ahola almost a minute further back in third. KTM rider Simone Albergoni was fourth with Sherco’s Jordan Curvalle scoring a surprise result with fifth.
On Day Two, Meo again beat Germain, but this time by just 3.45 seconds. Eero Remes was third for KTM ahead of Ahola and Albergoni.
E2
With Frenchman Jonny Aubert already securing the E2 class title in the last round in Great Britain, the KTM opted to sit out his home event.
With Aubert boasting a 100% winning record from the races he’s contested (he also missed the second race in the UK) it handed BMW’s Juha Salminen and Kawasaki’s David Knight the chance to taste the victory champagne.
Salminen finished 7.40 seconds clear of Knight, taking part as a guest rider, in race 1 with Yamaha’s Cristobal Guerrero in third and TM’s Rodrig Thain fourth.
On Day Two, British rider Knight was in fine form, taking a 13 second victory ahead of Thain, with Salminen third and HM-Honda’s Oscar Balletti fourth.
E3
The E3 class was still up for grabs heading to France, but third place for Cervantes on Day One settled the title race.
Nambotin had done all he could to wrestle the crown from his Spanish rival’s grasp, the Gas-Gas rider dominating the first race by over 70 seconds ahead of Husqvarna’s Sebastien Guillaume, but Cervantes settled for a comfortable third. Alessandro Botturi was fourth for KTM and BMW’s Marko Tarkkala fifth.
The pressure was off Cervantes on Day Two, but he couldn’t prevent Nambotin from taking another crushing victory, this time by over a minute. Cervantes was second with Guillaume third and Fabio Mossini (HM-Honda) and Botturi completing the top five.
EJ
Junior champion Oriol Mena again opted miss the final round, as he had done in Great Britain two weeks ago.
That left Frenchman Sebastien Bozzo free to take a surprise first victory of the season in the opening event. The Husqvarna rider was almost 20 seconds clear of Benoit Fortunato (Yamaha) in second and over 50 seconds ahead of Yannick Bossi (TM) in third.
Bozzo could do no better than fifth on Day Two as Fortunato sealed second in the standings with an easy win. KTM Spain rider Lorenzo Santolino was second with Husaberg’s Carl Sjoo third.
Final Championship Standings
E1
1 Mika Ahola – 373pts
2 Antoine Meo – 358
3 Simone Albergoni – 305
4 Eero Remes – 253
5 Thomas Oldrati – 237
E2
1 Jonny Aubert – 325
2 Juha Salminen – 319
3 Joakim Ljunggren – 264
4 Cristobal Guerrero – 251
5 Rodrig Thain – 225
E3
1 Ivan Cervantes – 366
2 Christophe Nambotin – 342
3 Sebastien Guillaume – 325
4 Samuli Aro – 258
5 Marcus Kehr – 226
EJ
1 Oriol Mena – 294
2 Benoit Fortunato – 246
3 Jeremy Joly – 216
4 Victor Guerrero – 212
5 Mirko Gritti – 190
Watch WEC highlights on Motors TV.
Andy Wilkinson
International
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