Manuel Fumic on his way to eighth place on Day 2, and seventh overall

Day 2: Digne-Les-Bains -> Villars-Colmars

Following this morning’s racing at Mavic® Trans-Provence 2013 six riders received penalties for deliberately cutting corners for time advantage on Special Stage 5 (the first Special Stage of Day 2).

The riders were Afonso Ferreira, Alex Stock, François Dola, Mikko Kupiainen, Todd Seplavy and Vadim Savelyev.

Ash Smith (Mavic® Trans-Provence 2013 organiser and race director) explains: “Six riders were each given a 35 second penalty for cutting corners. The incidents were seen by myself personally. They were not reported by another competitor or any second party.

“We cannot be at every corner to check that riders are obeying the rules. I believe that the ‘random testing’ approach that we take – monitoring parts of Special Stages where there’s a very clear choice to be made between riding the line or cutting corners – combined with the knowledge that riders will and have been caught and duly penalised will encourage riders to conduct themselves within the spirit of the event (namely, with a sense of sportsmanship, not to mention our joint obligation to protect the trails so that others may enjoy them for generations to come.)”

“I hope this clarifies the situation. We’re pleased there’s so much interest in the event and rules, so thanks for all of the comments across the ‘net. Enduro as a sport is in now in the limelight. It’s my belief that by having simple rules now about expected behaviour will only help the sport grow.”

Tough to take part in, lovely to look at…

Stage results, day 2

Overall standings after day 2