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By - Anita Merriman.
Day one of rounds 5/6 in Italy opened with beautiful blue skies and a temperature of 23 degrees. After 3 weeks of heavy rain the ground was wet and muddy. Stages consisted of 3 moto x tests which had good drainage and one flat paddock test that did not seem to dry out. There was one enduro test. Three laps to ride. Stefan was first rider away being the top seeded rider in Enduro 1. Not always a good place to be in. Stefan rode a top race all day and found the change in front forks stopped the front end from folding beneath him. He was neck and neck with Salminen from Finland on his 450KTM all day. Salminen had to pull out towards the end due to a technical problem. Stefan blitzed the field on the last Enduro test and finished a massive one minute ahead of Bazzurri of Italy in his class and also took out the outright trophy, something that doesn\'t happen very often with a 250 4 stroke!!!
Pray for sun on day two, Stef told me!!! Well the heavens opened up during the night and found the temperature had dropped to a mere 4degrees with rain and cold to open the day. Stef first away again had difficulty finding good lines in the mud. Following riders were able to gain from his experience which also saw Stef take a bad fall early in the day. No brakes due to clogging mud and a very mud-heavy bike. Stefan chose to ride conservatively for the rest of the day and finished 5th in Enduro 1 behind Silvan (Fin), Larsson (Sweden), Albergoni (Italy) and Bergvall (Fr)
Mario Rinaldi, an old time Enduro rider quoted \"I have never seen mud like this in the entire time I have been riding\"
The standings after rounds 5/6 are:
Enduro 1
Merriman 138 Aus
Silvan 120 Fin
Albergoni 113 Italy
Obluck 107 Pol (Stef\'s team mate)
Overall
Aro (Fin)
Cervantes (Spain)
Knight (GBR)
Salminen (Fin)
Merriman (Aus)
The team are now on to France for rounds 7/8 on May 8/9th
Regards
Anita
