Blasuziak blasts through Hell's Gate

From KTM Racing

KTM Factory rider Taddy Blasuziak of Poland 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.

Blasuziak took the holeshot and led through the entire race. Going into the last lap Britain's Graham Jarvis, riding a trials bike had narrowed the gap to the KTM extreme star to about one minute. Then Blasuziak turned up the gas and crossed the finish line with a very comfortable margin.

"The race was really tough, but not as hard as Red Bull Last Man Standing," Blasuziak said. "The main race went pretty much perfectly for me. I got the holdeshot and led 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."

U.S. MX KTM rider Mike Metzger got a taste of European riding in the morning but failed to qualify for the main event.

Blasuziak adds the Hell's Gate trophy to his collection, which includes 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 David Knight in the just concluded three-race Enduro Indoor World Cup and in "The Tough One" in the UK in January.

Conditions for this year's Hell's Gate were tough. Unlike earlier years, the ground was not frozen and with rivers running low 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