Yesterday after 3 special stages, racers in the Andes Pacifico finally arrived at the Pacific ocean, after 4 days of intense racing!
The first Special stage,” Ojeda ” was well known to the Chileans who had raced the previous years Montenbaik Enduro 2013 in Puchuncavi. The stage featured many switchbacks and a surprising amount of big rocks, proving a real challenge. Another welcome surprise was the cloudy sky that helped to lower the temperature and keep the riders cool on the transitions. Again Jerome Clementz won with a time of 8:24, with his closest rival François Bailly- Maitre arriving just a second back. In the women, Anka Martin continued her supremacy with a time of 10:13.
The second Special Stage was something new for everyone. Travelling fast through eucalyptus forests with many rock ruts that launched riders into the air as they plummeted to reach the sea. Clementz Here again showed his supremacy taking home the special stage followed by Pedro Ferreira who was finally starting to show the pace he wanted.
With the first place all but decided, the battle was on to see who would take second place? Nico or François ? The final stage that would decide the riders fate flowed through native forests, engaging and fun riding that left every racer with a huge smile. It was very entertaining and fast! Again Clementz continued his “total stage domination” and took the stage with a time of 7:35. Meanwhile Nico Prudencio had his best performance of the day and finished second, 9 seconds behind Clementz, François finished three seconds behind Prudencio which assured the Chilean second place in the final standings.
In the end, it was the Frenchman Jerome Clementz, Enduro World Champion, who won the first version of “Montenbaik Enduro – Andes Pacifico by Santa Cruz “, 4 days of racing from La Parva to Maitencillo, and the true definition of gnarly.
The French rider led the race from start to finish, confirming his supremacy! He was victorious in thirteen special stages, and finished 3 minutes and 59 seconds ahead of a strong field, including the current king of Chilean enduro, Nicolas Prudencio, who lashed out on the last stage, putting just six seconds into French Francois Bailly- Maitre and relegating him to the third step.
Meanwhile, the womans category was won by the New Zealander Anka Martin , followed by the Pauline Dieffenthaler from France, with Julia Hobson from the UK in third.
Finally, in the Masters series, the honors went to the Frenchman Francois Dola, who was joined on the podium by the prominent Chilean specialists Claus Plaut and Felipe Vásquez.
Pictures by: Gary Perkin and Sven Martin, Dave Trumpore and Claudio Olguin.
Results in : http://montenbaik.com/Resultados/
Words: Eduardo de Solminihac, Director, MontenBaik.com
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