Only 4 weeks after Joakim finished the IEWC in 3rd place overall the 2010 outdoor racing season has already started for him with the first round of the Swedish Enduro Championship in Östersund today. Changing back from his FE 390 indoor racing bike to the FE 450 didn't seem to be a challenge to Joakim as weren't the completely different conditions compared to the Indoors.

Compared to the beginning of the week when the temperature got as far down as - 30° celsius it was quite mild on race day at only - 5°. The ground was covered by 30 - 40 cenitmeters of powdery snow, so the lines didn't get too deep. As Joakim was the first to start he encountered some difficulties finding grip with his studded tires in the first lap riding on the fresh snow that fell during the night before. Nevertheless Joakim took over the lead after the second test and scored the best time in every single test to come except for the final Extreme test in the final lap because of a crash in a log section just meters from the finish.

After 4 laps and a total riding time of almost 6 hours Joakim topped the SM2 class by over 7 minutes and the overall results by over 4:30 minutes. "I had some problems on the first lap because I had to ride first in the tests and there were some centimeters of fresh snow I had to clean out for the following riders, but still my pace was ok. From lap 2 the coniditions were the same for everybody and I was able to establish a comfortable lead. I really felt good on the bike today and everything went according to plan, except for my crash in the final Extreme test, but I didn't lose a lot of time, so it was no big problem." Joakim commented after the race.

As much as Joakim is used to riding in the snow, Italian Iron Team Husaberg rider Edoardo D'Ambrosio fur sure isn't. Still he travelled all the way to the middle of Sweden to take on this challenge and showed some real talent. After only 2 hours of training on Saturday the 19 year old Italian took on the best Swedish Junior riders and finished the day in a very respectable 11th position in the JSM2 class. Winner of this class was Husaberg rider Martin Sundin.

As this was the only Swedish championshp race on the snow Joakim will be heading to Spain on Wednesday to join his Husaberg Factory teammates for a training camp in preparation for the 2010 Enduro World Championship which will be starting off on April 20th in Valverde del Camino, Spain.

Swedish Enduro Championship, Round 1 SM2   1. Joakim Ljunggren (Husaberg) 2:10:53 2. Björne Carlsson (Kawasaki) 2:18:25 3. Johan Gustafsson (KTM) 2:18:41     JSM2 1. Martin Sundin (Husaberg) 2:20:15 2. Pontus Högberg (KTM) 2:21:26 3. Henrik Lindholm (KTM) 2:21:28 11. Edoardo D'Ambrosio (Husaberg) 2:32:25

Pics: T. Blume