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| Tough night in Barcelona for BMW |
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BMW Motorrad Motorsport team riders Andreas Lettenbichler and Jean Francois Goblet’s participation in the opening round of the 2007 FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup proved to be an eventful occasion as both riders learned just how difficult, exciting and unpredictable indoor enduro racing can be.
With both taking part in their first ever major indoor enduro event the two BMW Motorrad Motorsport team riders found themselves competing in the same qualification group and up against seasoned indoor enduro competitors.
Disappointingly, despite their best efforts, and after two action-filled qualification races, neither rider made it through into the night’s main events. With only the top three riders from each of the three qualification races and an additional two riders from the ‘last chance’ qualifier race passing through into the finals, Andreas Lettenbichler went on to finish fifth with Jean Francois Goblet 12th in their qualifying group.
With the opening round of the first ever FIM indoor enduro series attracting almost 14,000 spectators to Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi stadium, BMW’s Andreas Lettenbichler showed that despite his near complete lack of experience of international indoor enduro competitions he certainly has what it takes to compete against many of the riders considered to be the world’s best.
Finishing fifth in both of his qualification races Andreas dealt with the track’s many challenging hazards with ease and learned a huge amount about what it takes to excel at indoor enduro racing. Competing in the event’s Night Race (in which the stadium’s nights were turned off and riders forced to use only the lights on their bikes to see where they were going) Andreas placed third behind seasoned WEC campaigners Seb Guillaume and Christophe Nambotin from France.
For Jean Francois Goblet the 2007 edition of the Barcelona Indoor Enduro proved to be a difficult one. As one of BMW’s new signings for the 2008 World Enduro Championship, the Belgian had in reality had little time to familiarise himself with his new race bike after several seasons competing on two-stroke machinery. Unfortunately, several heavy falls spoiled his night.
Both riders will now spend time testing and training ahead of the second round of the FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup, which is being held in Munich, Germany on Sunday 16 December.
Andreas Lettenbichler: “I really enjoyed the Barcelona Indoor Enduro – it was a fantastic event. Obviously I am a little disappointed not to have made it into the final but considering that I was not able to train as much as I wanted before the event due to heavy snow at my home I am really happy. I also learned a lot as this was my first major indoor enduro event. The track was hard, but I like that. I am pretty confident that with a little more experience of this type of racing I will be able to be more competitive. I’m really looking forward to the next round of the series in Munich.”
Wolfgang Fischer: “With the Barcelona event being the first major indoor enduro for both Andreas and Jean we were interested to see how both riders would fair against experienced indoor riders, who were competing on machinery that they were well used to. Although it was disappointing that neither rider qualified for the finals, just seeing them competing against world-class riders as well as testing some new parts on the bikes made for a great night. As some consolation Andreas was pleased with his ability to match several of the top riders for speed across many of the harder obstacles and claimed a well-deserved third place result in the Night Race, ahead of some strong opposition.”
2007 FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup series standings (after one of three events)
1. David Knight (Isle of Man) 4 points (1+2+1)
2. Mika Ahola (Finland) 9 points (2+5+2)
3. Xavi Galindo (Spain) 13 points (4+1+8)
4. Bartosz Oblucki (Poland) 15 points (3+7+5)
5. Taddy Blazusiak (Poland) 17 points (11+3+3)
6. Cristobal Guerrero (Spain) 19 points (5+10+4)
7. Tom Sagar 23 (England) points (8+4+11)
8. Gregory Eyries (France) 23 points (8+4+11)
9. Johnny Aubert (France) 24 points (9+9+6)
10. Simone Albergoni (Italy) 27 points (7+11+9)
11. Alessandro Botturi (Italy) 28 points (10+8+10)
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