German Cross Country Championship, Rd. 1, Tollwitz results 1. Simo Kirssi (FIN), BMW Motorrad Motorsport, 22 laps, 02:05:54 2. Kornel Nemeth (HUN), KTM, 22, 02:06:58 3. Dennis Schröter (GER), KTM, 22, 02:07:55 4. Bartosz Oblucki (POL), Husqvarna, 22, 02:10:56 5. Andi Boller (GER) KTM, 21,02:08:50 6. Mickael Musquin (FRA) BMW, 21, 02:09:22 7. Dominique Thury, (GER), Kawasaki, 21, 02:09:28 8. Nicolas Deparrois (FRA), GasGas, 21, 02:11:00 21 9. Bert Meyer (GER), Honda, 20, 01:56:38 10. Christian Weiß (GER), MotoTm, 20, 02:06:31 A good result for BMW and HSQ, and a little blurp from the accompanied press release: Kirssi keeps BMW in the winners’ circle The 2009 German Cross Country Championship (GCC) season started with a familiar name on the top of the podium. BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s Simo Kirssi is ‘Mr Cross Country’ and this was proved again during the opening round of the 2009 GCC series, as the reigning German and European champion simply dominated the competition at the ‘Tollwitzer Sandkessel’. Three thousand spectators were at the first round of the continent's biggest off-road series and weather conditions were almost perfect – 17° C and slightly overcast – when the gate dropped for the gruelling two-hour moto of the XCPro class. The ‘Flying Finn’ was blocked a little by another rider at the start, but soon found his way from tenth to fifth place. He then watched his rivals a bit to see how they were coping with the conditions before really getting on the gas at around the 40-minute mark. By then, the track had taken its toll from a full weekend's race activities and was covered with whoops. As the race progressed, Kirssi left motocross expert Kornel Nemeth – a regular top three finisher in the German Motocross Masters – and sand specialist Dennis Schröter behind. Furthermore, the ultra-quick Polish pairing of Taddy Blazusiak and Bartosz Oblucki couldn’t keep Kirssi in their sights, and the same went for a quartet of top French riders and Germany's very own cross-country star, Bert Meyer. When the chequered flag came out after two hours, five minutes and 54 seconds, Kirssi had stolen over one minute from his fiercest competitors. In addition, he didn't even use special cross country settings on his factory BMW G 450 X, choosing instead to use the very same bike that recently carried him to top ten finishes in the World Enduro Championship. Simo Kirssi: "My start wasn't that good. I wasn't quite on top of it and found myself a little blocked to the right, so I had some extra work cut out for myself. I then studied the track before I went for it, which was about at one-third race distance. I didn't mind the sand and the whoops – they were certainly energy sapping, but I had a lot of fun out there. My G 450 X worked perfectly – in fact, there's not a single blister on my hands."
