After the great results of the GP of Italy, this weekend Honda-Zanardo Team and riders Alessandro Battig and Alex Salvini are ready to face the GP of France, last round of the Enduro World Championship.
The race will take place to Brioude, theatre of the Six Days of 1980, a race in which Italy won the World Trophy. Brioude has more than seven thousand inhabitants and is situated in the Haute-Loire department, in the region of Auvergne, and is famous for Giuliano Saint, one of the most popular in France.
In the past Brioude hosted other French GP: Haute-Loire has a strong offroad racing tradition and a real passion for enduro races, followed by thousand spectators.
On historical enduro tracks of Briuode Alex Salvini will have the opportunity to close in the best way this 2014 season, after the incidents in March and in May, which prevented him from defending the World Title won in 2013. The aim of Salvini will be to confirm the supremacy of Honda CRF 450R, already demonstrated in the Italian GP, and get the E2 vice-champion title, since the French Pierre Renet is mathematically the new champion.
In the last race Alessandro Battig conquered the third position and his first podium in career. To Brioude the goal will be to confirm his performance in EJ class and improve the current tenth place in the world standing.
ALEX SALVINI
“The high competitive level of E2 class and my injuries penalized my season. In Lumezzane I took a great satisfaction, conquering the victory in both the days of competition. Now I’m second in the world standing, eight points in front of the third. To Brioude I will do everything to get the second position in the E2 standing, after the bad luck that prevented me from repeating the conquest of the title. I will also give my best in the last race of the Italian Championship in late September, to reaffirm my leadership both in E2 and in the overall standing. In August I trained a lot: I tested new technical solutions developed by the team on my CRF 450R. Then I organised a fundraising competition and I participated to a “no profit” event in Bergamo”.
ALESSANDRO BATTIG
“Last month I train a lot, taking part to some fundraising races and finishing always among the leaders. Now I aim to close in the best way my first season in the world championship, especially after the third step of the podium got in the Italian Grand Prix. To Brioude I’ll bring out all the determination to improve my results with the experience I got with Tullio Pellegrinelli, technical coordinator of Honda-Zanardo Team. My shoulder is better and I expect to have no physical problems in this race. I take this opportunity to thank the whole team for the excellent work done on my CRF 250R”.
FRANCO MAYR
“The Italian GP confirmed Salvini’s qualities, with two victories that allowed him to recover points in the world standing, where is second. To Brioude the goal will be to confirm the position: there are the chance for a good revenge on his two closest adversaries. Unfortunately this year he has been really unlucky and this penalized his season, but Alex can have great satisfactions in the Italian Championship. Alessandro Battig comes back on track after the podium conquered in the Italian GP, where he confirmed his growth: he only has to learn to better manage the race. We are satisfied with both our riders, even for the excellent work done on CRF 250R and CRF 450R bike developed by the team and RedMoto, Honda offroad Italian distributor”.