Bron: FIM. The world’s most successful Enduro rider Juha Salminen, aged 36, has decided to stop his long career.
Born on 27 September 1976, Juha won his first World Championship in 1999, aged 22. During the 14 years since then, he clinched 13 Individual World Champion titles and 7 Team World Championship titles for Finland in the International Six Days Enduro. Moreover, after his 2004 titles in the FIM Enduro World Championships Juha went to the United States and won two GNCC (Grand National Cross-Country) series, in 2005 and 2006. He was awarded by the AMA (American Motorcyclist Association) the Amateur Athlete of the Year title as a first European. He also raced in national Championships – Spain and Germany – winning them, and also SuperEnduro events, beside taking part in Motocross and Trial events.
“ I really have not had long-lasting plans in my career. I have always done the present moment as good as possible, until the next race. All the time I have moved further on, and I have never have had in my career any major setback or injuries. I have followed the signposts year after year that Kari Tiainen gave me when I started my career. Over the years I have increased significantly the quality of the training, but there is not really any kind of magic in racing and training. My speed has been quite the same in the past five years but the competition has been getting tougher and tougher all the time, and the top has got wider. Especially now good racers are coming from France. I would be ready to race in rally with “full gas”.