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NEWS
Phillips nails Wildwood extreme enduro
The Tasmanian teenager is now $10,000 richer after a superb, composed performance in the three-hour gut-busting enduroMatthew Phillips (Yamaha) has won the 2012 Wildwood Extreme enduro in dominant fashion, grinding down his Spanish opponent Alfredo Gomez-Cantero (Husaberg) to eventually claim the honours by nearly three minutes – and a whopping $10,000 cheque to take home to Tasmania with him.
The 18-year-old, who recently finished fourth outright in the 2012 Australian Four-Day Enduro, took over the lead on lap five of nine, battling across all sorts of man-made and natural obstacles on the spectacular Wildwood property.
After finishing third in 2011, it is Phillips’ first win in the Wildwood enduro, while Gomez-Cantero, in his first appearance down under, was a worthy opponent, and gave Phillips more than a few anxious moments as he led the way for the first four laps.
Phillips and Gomez-Cantero, the 23-year-old former junior trials world champion, had already left the field in their wake by the end of lap one, and were the only riders to complete nine laps in the three-hour event, while third-placed Dylan Rees pushed out eight laps. Jake Gartlan and Chris Cash were fourth and fifth – and it was a cliff-hanger finish, with only 5.668 seconds separating the duo.
“I'm very happy to be here in Australia for the first time,” Gómez said. “In the prologue this morning I had a little mistake in the water when I crashed, but I picked the bike up to finish second behind (Mitch) Harper.
“In the race, I was able to ride fast, but (Matthew) Phillips rode faster in the fast section of the circuit – he was too fast for me. I made little mistakes, he followed me every time, but then he took the lead and won the race. Thank you to Husaberg Australia for the support at this event.”
Extreme enduros aren’t kind on bodies and bikes, and so it was again today with only 18 of the 43 starters finishing the event, with notable DNFs including top guns Trevor Campbell and 2010 winner Mitcham Harper. Both failed to finish one lap.
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Written byBikesales Staff
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