The Six Days of the Enduro began well for Stefan Merriman (the official Aprilia Off Road rider) in Serres, Greece, as he competed in the oldest motorcycling competition reserved to national teams. At the end of the first day of racing (composed of two laps covering 235km across two straight stretches and a line session), Stefan and his RXV 550 finished 4th overall, just 21.53 seconds from the top riders.
It was an even more positive result when you consider that Merriman took off in the middle of the group and was forced to race in a dust storm conjured up by the competition ahead of him. On today's program for the Aprilia captain is the second day of racing as he leads the Australian team. They will take off in the order they finished yesterday, thus fourth for Merriman. Without the visibility problems, he should be able to compete with the best teams.
The fastest overall rider of the first day was American Kurt Caselli (Ktm), followed by the Spaniard Cristobal Guerrero (Yamaha) who was 15 seconds back. Frenchman Sebastien Guillaume (Yamaha) proceeded Stefan Merriman (Aprilia RXV 550) by just 11 milliseconds.
At the end of the race, Merriman was very satisfied with the behavior of his RXV 550 (the first twin to cross the finish line) that had been well prepared by the two official Aprilia Off Road technicians who followed the Australian champion to this national team competition.