Team KTM Report

Taddy Blasuziak opens Hell's Gate and blasts his way through

KTM Factory rider Taddy Blasuziak of Poland (pictured right) put in a superb start-to-finish race on Saturday to take victory in the Hell's Gate Extreme Enduro event in Il Ciocco, in Italy's northern Tuscany.
Taddy, who has been making a huge impression on the international extreme Enduro calendar in the winter months in his first season as a fully-fledged KTM factory rider took the holeshot and led through the entire race. Going into the last lap, Britain's Graham Jarvis, riding a trial bike had narrowed the gap to the KTM extreme star to about one minute. Then Taddy turned up the gas and crossed the finish line with a very comfortable margin.

Taddy Blazusiak: "The race was really tough, but not as hard as Red Bull Last Man Standing. The main race went pretty much perfectly for me. I got the holeshot and lead from start to finish. There were some tricky sections on the course but I didn't have any major problems. I think I had about a four minute lead at the end of the first lap, which was good. I took it fairly steadily on the second lap. At the end of the third lap I was told that I was less than two minutes ahead, so I went full gas all the way around the fourth and final lap. It's great to win."

Tom Sagar fourth
KTM factory rider Tom Sagar finished fourth after a tough battle with third placed Paul Bolton. Cyril Despres, KTM Red Bull rally rider used Hell's Gate to keep his hand in after the disappointment of the cancellation of the Dakar Rally and finished in seventh place. U.S. MX KTM rider Mike Metzger got a taste of European riding in the morning but failed to qualify for the main event, which started at 3.00 p.m. and concluded about 30 minutes after nightfall.
 
Another trophy for Taddy's collection
Taddy now adds the Hell's Gate trophy to his collection, which includes the victory in the Hare Scramble at the 2007 Erzberg Rodeo, a result that saw him elevated to factory rider status for KTM, the coveted Last Man Standing in Texas, victory in the final round of the AMA Endurocross series in Las Vegas and at the RodeoX Endurocross in Linz, Austria. The Polish rider also finished second overall behind the mighty Knighter (KTM's David Knight) in the just concluded 3-race series Enduro Indoor World Cup and in "The Tough One" in the UK in January.
 
Taddy, who has been away from Poland since December will now take a break from competition. He admitted that he was looking forward to resting his wrists, which he said had become sore during recent competition. Conditions for this year's Hell's Gate were tough. Unlike earlier years, the ground was not frozen and with rivers running low it the track surface was also dry and very hard.

Results
1. Tadeusz Blasuziak, KTM
2. Graham Jarvis, Trial Sherco
3. Paul Bolton, Honda
4. Tom Sagar, KTM
5. Simone Albergoni, Yamaha
7. Cyril Despres, KTM

Tom Sagar gets down to business in Italy.



No stone unturned for Cyril Despres

TEAM OPTOMA MORTGAGES D3-RACING KTM
Tom Sagar and Greg Evans travelled to the  region  of Tuscany to compete in the fourth running of Fabio Fasola’s “Hells Gate” extreme enduro, this would be their first appearance at this event. This one day enduro is held on a private estate of the Il Ciocco Hotel resort using a small wooded mountain and makes use of two circuits of about 50 minutes in length. Both Tom and Greg started in confident mood, prior to the race they had been training this week in Italy with Taddy Blazusiak.

The first part of the race is of a traditional Enduro format, four laps and three special tests, the top 30 riders would be seeded through to the afternoon’s Hells Gate Race. This first half is quite fast but mixed with a few technical sections, tight time controls, a long 10 minute+ cross country test and icy conditions which claimed both Tom and Greg. But both riders qualified well despite taking it easy after their falls, Tom finished third overall and first E3 rider and Greg took second position in E2 behind Blazusiak.

The main event is the Hells Gate extreme race which starts at 3.00pm on a tarmac grid with the bikes being lined up Road Race fashion in order of the morning’s results, the result is decided on the first rider to compete the four laps and climb the final Hells Gate hill. Tom made a great start and held third position for most of the first lap behind Taddy and Antoine Meo but crashed over the bars in one stream, he damaged the bike and lost several places as he repaired some damage. After remounting he worked back up to fourth but just couldn’t quite catch third, although he finished only seconds behind Paul Bolton at the finish.

Greg was also having a good ride, despite a bad start he worked his way through the field into the top 10, there are several check points each lap and if you are more than 30 minutes behind the leader then you are disqualified, Greg started the final lap just 23 minutes behind leader, but Blazusiak was feeling some pressure from trials bike-mounted Graham Jarvis and increased his pace considerably, this effectively meant that at the final checkpoint only 5km from the finish Greg arrived outside the 30 minute cut off and was eliminated, much to his disappointment as all the hard work had been done and he was on his way to a ninth place finish.

Tom Sagar