Words: Merzouga Rally
The Baja Merzouga, last round of the FIM Baja World Cup crowned thee champions: the Monegasque Adrian Mare, the new Baja World Champion in the Bike category, the French Alexandre Giroud, the 2015 Baja World Championship in the Quad category and Luca Tavernari, winner of the Junior class.
Merzouga took place yesterday in the Merzouga desert and saw the Baja competitors join the final day of the Merzouga Rally. They took a start motocross style for 3 laps of the GP of the Dunes in the famous Erg Chebbi, covering 113 km of special stage plus 87 km of liaison. Mare won the SS1 in front of Luca Tavernari and Brice Barbier, followed by Giraud, Rajczyk and Ott-Eulberg.
Today Mare, who was leading the overall standing in the bike classification, was the first to take the start of the 200 km on the typical African desert (fast sandy paths, small dunes and herbe à chameau). Mare was once again the fastest rider, winning the Baja Merzouga and securing the world title. Luca Tavernari finished second, claiming also the Junior title, with Brice Barbier completing the podium. Adrien Mare: “I had a very good season and I arrived at the Merzouga Baja leading the overall classification. I had an advantage of 13 points but I knew from the experience of last year that in racing everything can happen. Last year in fact I lost the title at the very last race. This time everything was perfect. I really enjoyed the “motocross style” start in the big dunes of Merzouga. It was a lot of fun and a superb landscape. Today there were a lot of horse piste, fast tracks as well as sandy terrain. I’m really satisfied with this result. Regarding next year, I’m thinking about switching to the Rally raid category. I would like to do some rallies and return here for the Merzouga Rally”.
Luca Tavernari: “This is a new championship for me but race after race the results were very good and I arrived at the Merzouga Baja, first with the same points of the second. I’m happy because this time made it and I’m really satisfied. Next year I would like to continue the Baja championship plus to do some Rallies”.
Alexandre Giroud: “My direct competitor for the first step of the podium was Damian Rajczyk, but he couldn’t finish so I claimed the Baja world title in quad. I’m really happy although I feel sorry for Damian because we are good friend. We also have a project to race the Dakar 2017 together”.
