{"id":29982,"date":"2015-05-16T21:33:04","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T19:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enduro.nl\/?p=29982"},"modified":"2015-05-16T21:33:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-16T19:33:04","slug":"ewc-portugal-day-1-salvini-phillips-win-in-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/29982\/ewc-portugal-day-1-salvini-phillips-win-in-portugal\/","title":{"rendered":"EWC Portugal day 1: SALVINI & PHILLIPS WIN IN PORTUGAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Alex SALVINI<\/strong> and\u00a0Matt PHILLIPS<\/strong> claim their first win of 2015 in the\u00a0Maxxis FIM Enduro World Championship GP\u00a0Polisport\u00a0of Portugal<\/strong>. Day one at the\u00a0GP\u00a0Polisport\u00a0of Portugal <\/strong>in\u00a0Gouveia<\/strong>marked the first victories of the series for Honda\u2019s Alex SALVINI in Enduro 2 and KTM\u2019s\u00a0Matt PHILLIPS<\/strong> in Enduro 3. TM\u2019s\u00a0Eero REMES <\/strong>secured a hard fought win in Enduro 1.Three incredibly demanding and technical special tests put the competitors of the EWC through their paces in earnest in\u00a0Gouveia<\/strong>. With a long day of racing and no time to rest in the Portuguese heat, the end of day one was a welcome relief for all.<\/p>\n

In the Enduro 3 class, defending champion\u00a0Matt PHILLIPS (Aus) <\/strong>finally got his first win of the season on the board. Close but not quite close enough in Chile and Spain,\u00a0PHILLIPS <\/strong>this time meant business in Portugal. Powering his way forward following a slow start to the morning, the KTM rider caught pace setter\u00a0Mathias BELLINO (F-Husqvarna)<\/strong> on the penultimate test and hung on to win the day. \u201cI\u2019m definitely pleased to get a win under my belt \u2013 it feels like it\u2019s been a long time coming,\u201d<\/em> told\u00a0PHILLIPS<\/strong>. \u201cWe changed a few things on the bike between Spain and here and it made the difference. Hopefully this is the where we get things back on track<\/em>.\u201d After a strong opening lap,\u00a0BELLINO <\/strong>gradually found himself being reeled in by\u00a0PHILLIPS<\/strong>. With no answer to the KTM rider in the closing stages, the Husqvarna rider slipped from first to second. In check with the leading duo, Sherco\u2019s\u00a0Matti SEISTOLA (FIN)<\/strong> placed just nine seconds adrift of\u00a0BELLINO <\/strong>to claim third. Delivering a strong showing on home turf,\u00a0Luis CORREIA (P-Beta)<\/strong> placed fourth with TM\u2019s\u00a0Aigar LEOK (EST<\/strong>) completing the top five.<\/p>\n

Day one marked the second win of the season for TM\u2019s\u00a0Eero REMES (FIN) <\/strong>in Enduro 1. Admittedly slow to get going, Remes trailed early leader Lorenzo SANTOLINO (S-Sherco) <\/strong>at the end of lap one. Finding his groove, the Finn fought his way to the front of the field and secured the top step of the podium.\u00a0\u201cI think I was a little bit asleep on the first lap but after that I sort of woke up and got in the race<\/em>,\u201d admitted\u00a0REMES<\/strong>. \u201cWhen I settled into the tests I was able to push hard. It was a tough day \u2013 the toughest of the year so far. And tomorrow will be even harder!<\/em>\u201d After crashing and hurting his knee on the Friday super test,\u00a0Christophe NAMBOTIN (F-KTM) <\/strong>needed to dig deep to start day one. With a lot of time to claw back, he won the first special test and steadily fought his way back to the front to secure the runner-up result. Fast from the get-go, Sherco\u2019s\u00a0Lorenzo SANTOLINO (S),<\/strong> led the E1 class at the end of lap one. With\u00a0REMES<\/strong> and then\u00a0NAMBOTIN <\/strong>piling on the pressure, he slipped back to third but still managed to claim his first podium result of the year. Finishing just two seconds shy of the top three,\u00a0Simone ALBERGONI (I)<\/strong> brought his Kawasaki home in fourth with Husqvarna\u2019s\u00a0Danny MCCANNEY (GB) <\/strong>rounding out the top five.<\/p>\n

Seeing the closest results of the day, the Enduro 2 category delivered a fierce battle for victory between Honda\u2019s Alex SALVINI (I) <\/strong>and KTM\u2019s\u00a0Antoine MEO (F)<\/strong>. Neck and neck throughout the day the pair fought hard to take the win. Keeping his cool as the temperatures soared,\u00a0SALVINI <\/strong>firmly stood his ground against\u00a0Meo <\/strong>and recorded a much-deserved win. \u201cWow, that was a hell of a battle,<\/em>\u201d commented\u00a0SALVINI<\/strong>. \u201cThe pressure was intense, neither of us wanted to lose. We both gave it everything on the final lap and in the end I managed to get the victory. I\u2019m so happy.<\/em>\u201d With\u00a0MEO <\/strong>pushed back to second, Husqvarna\u2019s\u00a0Pela RENET (F) <\/strong>ended his day in a distant third. Beta\u2019s\u00a0Johnny AUBERT (F) <\/strong>placed a strong fourth while\u00a0Jaume BETRIU (S) <\/strong>put his Husqvarna inside the top five with fifth.<\/p>\n

The Enduro Junior class saw Italy\u2019s\u00a0Giacomo REDONDI<\/strong> put his Beta on the top step of the podium. Wining five of the final six special tests,\u00a0Redondi <\/strong>edged out Husqvarna\u2019s \u00a0Jamie MCCANNEY (GB)<\/strong> by 12 seconds for the victory. Proving that his double podium result last weekend in Spain was no fluke, EWC newcomer\u00a0Steve HOLCOMBE (GB) <\/strong>continues to shine on his Beta and placed third. Honda\u2019s\u00a0Alessandro BATTIG (I) <\/strong>ended his day in fourth with Portugal\u2019s Luis OLIVEIRA (Yamaha) <\/strong>completing the top five. In the Youth Cup there was no touching Husqvarna\u2019s\u00a0Josep GARCIA (S)<\/strong> as he ran away from the field to take a clear win.\u00a0Mikael PERSSON (SWE-Yamaha) <\/strong>finished as the runner-up with\u00a0David ABGRALL (F-Yamaha)<\/strong> third.\u00a0Jean NICOLOT (F-Yamaha) <\/strong>and\u00a0Valerian DEBAUD (F-Yamaha)<\/strong> were fourth and fifth respectively.<\/p>\n

Claiming a two-minute plus margin of victory, KTM\u2019s Laia SANZ (S)<\/strong> comfortably topped the Women\u2019s Cup. Improving her position from the GP of Spain, Husqvarna\u2019s\u00a0Jane DANIELS (GB)<\/strong> was the runner-up with Sherco\u2019s\u00a0Jessica GARDINER (AUS) <\/strong>third.\u00a0Jessica JONSSON (SWE-Kawasaki) <\/strong>and\u00a0Blandine DUFRENE (F-KTM)<\/strong> rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex SALVINI and\u00a0Matt PHILLIPS claim their first win of 2015 in the\u00a0Maxxis FIM Enduro World Championship GP\u00a0Polisport\u00a0of Portugal. Day one at the\u00a0GP\u00a0Polisport\u00a0of Portugal in\u00a0Gouveiamarked the first victories of the series for Honda\u2019s Alex SALVINI in Enduro 2 and KTM\u2019s\u00a0Matt PHILLIPS in Enduro 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ekwk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enduro.nl\/wordpress-enduronlnewsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}