Italian championship Tolmezzo race report

The first day started with the motocross test up on the mountain. It was the one I hoped will not be timed on the first lap. The organizer had cut the grass which made it reasonable (so they thought) but the grass even if it was cut made it still difficult to see what lay beneath it! Anyway, it was timed and I pushed hard for a good time. Everything went well until in one corner my front wheel washed out because of the cut grass that was very slippery in some places. I didn’t loose too much time but I ended up doing 8:30:67 which was about 16s slower than the best time made by French 300 2T Husky pilot Seb Guillaume!! Bad news was that also Alex Belometti was about 8s faster than me and Simone Albergoni 4s! The trail from this special test to the time check was over the mountain and had long rocky trails descending from 1000m to 300m back to near Tolmezzo. Some parts were so steep we had to be on the brakes too much almost overheating them. After the service and the time check we had some more trail by the river and then the Enduro test without time. I didn’t get it. This special test was perfectly visible and was getting only worse during the race so we should have timed this one on the first lap not the MX test up on the mountain! Only few minutes after the Enduro there was the shorter MX test on the grass fields on the mountain side near Tolmezzo. I couldn’t quite find the best feeling on this special test and my time was 4:10:02 while Belometti was again faster than me, but this time by 1s only! Albergoni was nearly 2s slower than me and Guillaume crashed losing all 16s he had gained on the first MX test!!

The second lap started and it was getting hotter. I was nearly 9s behind Belometti and nearly 3s behind Albergoni but I was on the same second with Guillaume. I was only interested about Belometti and Albergoni for I wanted to be in front of them to increase my lead in the overall championship. The MX test 1km high on the mountain went better 8:25:72 but Belo & Simo Albergoni were both over 2s faster! Guillaume was this time 0,2s slower than me. I was starting to get worried and tried to push harder on the Enduro test which was now timed. I was too eager to make a good time and ended up making couple of little mistakes and loosing as many seconds to Belo and Simo again! I was really getting worried now! I pushed hard on the short MX test and made the best time now 4:06:38 but Simo was only about 1s slower and Belo 3s. Seb Guillaume seemed to have taken it easy after his crash on the first lap and was over 6s slower. After second lap I was still 9s behind Belo and 3s behind Simo. No good!

Third lap started and the heat was rising. On the long MX test I was doing a perfect run until I arrived long in one braking on the field and the outside corner was full of slippery roosted off grass and down I went again! I got quickly up and going but I couldn’t believe my time 8:24:73 which was better than the lap before! I was also nearly 5s faster than Belo and 2s faster than Simo! Guillaume was waking up again being only less than 0,5s slower. Over the mountain where it was at least little bit cooler and once descended down to the service thermometer was showing 40C! I had had great difficulties to find good feeling on the bike all day and I tried to think why. I felt that the handlebar was a little bit too much forward so I turned it down a little and it helped to give me more security in the corners. On the Enduro test I pushed like hell but had couple of close calls. The first one was from high speed when some stone kicked my bike completely sideways and sent me off balance off track where I somehow miraculously avoided hitting a pine at full speed!! I almost swallowed my heart that jumped up to my throat and I had heart rate doubled for a while but kept riding as hard as I could. In the end my time was 4:29:25 which was almost 2s faster than Simo and 6,5s faster than Belo. Seb was only 0,6s slower. The heat after this hard ridden special test was almost unbearable and the MX right after was physically very hard. I did 4:07:05 while Simo was almost 3s slower, Belo almost 2,5s slower and Seb 2s slower.

The last lap started and I was now leading but Seb was only less than 2s behind, Simo 3,5s and Belo a little over 4s behind! On the last MX test up on the mountain I made no mistakes but suddenly my time was not so good 8:26:29 while Seb kicked my ass by almost 3s! Also Simone beat me by almost 2s but Belo was over 4s slower. On the last Enduro I pushed hard but avoiding risks and it showed in my time 4:34:78 which was 5,5s slower than Guillaume’s time! But I was happy that Simone was 0,2s slower than me and Belo was already about 7,5s slower. The last MX test and I tried my best 4:07:62 while others did 4:09:something so that was it. Seb Guillaume won the overall, I was second at +4s and Albergoni third +8s and Belometti fourth. I was happy for the result after such a bad start. To finish in front of Simone Albergoni and Alessandro Belometti was my goal and that’s what I did so nevermind that Seb won!

On Sunday morning I felt good and completely revitalized from the previous days riding. I felt better also on the bike and scored the best time 8:23:23 on the first Enduro test beating second fastest Balletti by almost 5s! My riding was better but there was still something bothering me. I felt the bike understeering in some situations and I had to force it to make it turn like I wanted. At the service I told mechanics to measure the sag of the shock. It was 37mm which was a bit too much so I told them to tighten the spring and even if the measurements showed only 3mm change I felt much better in the corners! Also my overall feeling on the bike improved so I got faster and more relaxed. On the first lap’s short MX test I improved my best time from Saturday by about 2s doing 4:04:85 but another Finnish rider Matti Seistola on 250 4T Husky was only less than a second slower with his 4:05:77. That was the closest anyone got me on Sunday. My riding improved so much that I won all the special tests with gaps up to 5,7s!! We did only three laps but it was enough with increased heat. On the last lap coming down from the mountain in the valley the air was so hot that riding 5^th gear on the road had no cooling effect at all. Instead it had a heating effect of a hair dryer! Even my hair which I kept soaking in the cold water in every service dried fast inside the helmet in this heat! Despite the heat I felt surprisingly good all day and better than on Saturday physically and had also a little fun on the trail between the special tests. There was really nice panoramic view from the mountain so I spoke with Tullio Pellegrinelli (Enduro World Champ 1992) who was in the race with his Honda HM CRE450F one minute in front of me. I brought a camera in my bumbag up there where Tullio waited for me to take some pictures. We took turns posing before this magnificent backdrop of Tolmezzo valley. We had always about 8mins at the next time check so we could afford to spend some minutes taking photos. Also those long steep downhill trails were fun to ride on Sunday. Some of them were shaped like bobsleigh tracks but with few stones and instead of braking I went down them with a little bit speed. It was like slalom down the hill! Good fun. When the last special test was over I was a happy man. I had won the race overall by 54 seconds over Balletti and 55s over Belometti. Albergoni was fourth 1min 22s behind. This meant I became already the overall champion one race in advance!! Mathematically I have 34 points lead over Albergoni and the last race is only one day race. Winner gets 25 points so I don’t have to participate... but I will... maybe in a different category.. I’ll tell you more about it later.

For 12 years that I have been in the Italian championship I have had many good races and won many races but somehow the overall title has always dodged me. My first race usually sucks because we are always testing something with the first GP in mind and the bike never seems to be ready early enough. It’s the Italian championship but the Italians haven’t been the problem! Early years Stefan Merriman won the titles from me and then came Aubert and Meo. I tell you it was not easy for me to achieve this title. In fact it was harder than achieving 3 World titles!