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From - Anita:
Check out the WEBSITE: of Stefan Merriman, the Kiwi born Enduro ace (across the ditch they claim him as an Aussie) for photos (including this event) his profile, events calendar, etc.
Stefan Merriman won the Enduro One class on day one by a whopping margin and the weekend would have been a resounding success, but for day two when he missed taking first place by finishing just an agonising 0.250 behind the eventual winner, P. Silvan.
Stefan reported to Anita that the weather was terrible, they had snow, hail and torrential rain with temperatures ranging from zero to 5 degrees! Today (Monday morning) it is now 20degrees at the race site!!!! (Aint that just Eduros for you?).
The first extreme test where he dropped some time was like a trials section over rocks that he said should have been OK for him, but he lost his front wheel over a rock and had to paddle through the section losing valuable time. In another section there were deep ruts in the mud and he got stuck in some ruts and had to paddle himself out.
The KTM team had Kari Tiainen watching early riders, then pointing out the good lines and even put in markers to assist his team, Stefan had to find his own way through the mud sections. Stefan was penalised one minute in the Portugal World Round where Lexy (his girlfriend) did the same thing - but she was unfortunately seen by an Official. That assistance is not allowed in Enduro World Championships and after the severe penalty in Portugal Stefan is very carefull to abide by the rules - it cost him the 2003 Scratch World Title.
The weekend however was still Stefan\'s as he took the overall podium spot for the round after finishing a huge one minute advantage ahead of the rest of the field on day one.
He is now heading back to Italy for another round of the Italian Championships to be held in Perugia on 22/23rd May. Lets hope it doesn\'t rain!!!!
Then on to Sweden for 5/6th June for the next two World Rounds.
Normally two rounds are staged in Finland but because the Finns have not run fair events over the last few years they have been denied any rounds in 2004.
