GP of France – The Jury’s Out

Torrential rain has turned day one of the Enduro World Championship GP of France into a bit of a lottery. Threatening skies broke and it rained hard. So hard in fact it sent the race into chaos.

Rapidly both the tests and trail became impassable in places. Many riders were stranded and at the end of lap three (Cross Test 4), the race was halted and a result was called.

So far this is what we know…

Antoine Meo has won the Enduro 1 class on his KTM 125 EXC. Like he had hoped to do, he’s proved the little two-stroke is competitive in the right hands. Behind him Eero Remes (TM) and Jermey Joly (Honda) completed the podium.

In the Enduro 2 class, Alex Salvini has been crowned the 2013 world champion. That won’t change. At Cross Test 4 he held a 51-second over Ivan Cervantes and Antoine Basset.

But it gets confusing. On test times David Knight is fastest but a three-minute time penalty drops him back to eighth due to checking into a time control early. This is currently under investigation.

There’s no doubt that Christophe Nambotin has won the Enduro 3 class. He trounced everyone by three minutes. Joakim Ljunggren was second with Fabien Planet third.

In the Enduro Junior class the winner is Danny McCanney. He killed it today and won it well. And Matt Phillips is the new Junior world champion. He finished, provisionally second and secured the title. Completing the top three, Niclo Mori (Beta) grabbed his first podium result of 2013.

But again the jury is still out. Some riders were forced to stop early – others were not. We await their decision on this one too.

In the Women’s class the top three is provisionally Jane Daniels, Laia Sanz and Geraldine Fournel. However, Daniels is the only rider to finish while all others were rerouted or prematurely called it an early day.

If the result stands it leaves Sanz as the championship leader but if Daniels were to be declared the only competitor to finish and score points she’d hold an eight-point lead heading into the final day of the year. Could the outcome of this title be decided in the jury room.

So that – sort of – clears up the results. But now the biggest question is what will they do tomorrow – will the race run? We’re expecting it will but with rain forecast all day tomorrow – plus it’s still raining – and riders confirming that the majority of tests are ruined the stress levels are increasingly high in St Flour.

Pint anyone?