Wednesday, 14 August, VLADIVOSTOK (Russia): Jean-Bruno Pastorello produced a near perfect performance to take heat 1 honours on a somewhat dramatic opening day of Russky Offshore 2013 that saw many of the riders struggling to navigate the course due to dense fog on the south and south east section of the circuit around Russky Island.

The Frenchman dominated to come in first on each of the four tours of the Island to win by just over four minutes and put his success in overcoming the severe conditions down to experience. “The sea conditions were easy but on the far side of the island the visibility was very bad because of the fog. You see nothing,” he said. “If you don’t or can’t ride and read your GPS at the same time it is impossible. I think experience played a big part today. The bike ran very well but after two circuits I backed off to save the engine and all day my team was fantastic.”

On a day of poor visibility and draining humid conditions that should have favoured the multiple rider teams, it was the solo riders who proved the strongest.

Of the 19 teams that started, just five completed all four laps with nine scoring points and the remainder falling foul of the conditions and failing to finish. Four Russian Teams followed Pastorello home with Spanish outfit Team Maremoto Jets completing the top six.

The pick of the Russian entries was duo Alexander Shishov and Igor Chernikh who improved from fourth place at the end of the second lap to move up to bring the bike home in second spot. Denis Belikov took third ahead of Eugeniy Kalyachkin with Aleksei Chernukha in fifth.

After a tricky day, race director Peter de Smet was relieved all the teams came home safely. “It was certainly not what we expected,” he said. “We delayed the start but the fog stayed, however due to the very good virtual timing system used by Aquabike Promotion we could see the riders getting it wrong and going all over the place. So from that point of view it was difficult. But at the end they all came in and we had very few breakdowns. And hopefully the conditions will be better tomorrow.”

HEAT 1 results

1     8   Team France               FR   4   02:26:03.14    00:00.00          25  

 2    58   Team Russia 58        RU   4   02:30:28.02   00:04:24.88   20  

 3    27   Team Russia 27        RU   4   02:33:59.68   00:07:56.54   16  

 4    21   Team Russia 21        RU   4   02:45:27.98   00:19:24.84   13  

 5    37   Team Russia 37        RU   4   02:57:30.65   00:31:27.51   11  

 6    55   Maremoto Jets            ES   3   02:25:23.00        +L1   10  

 7    25   Team Russia 25        RU   3   02:27:50.81        +L1    8  

 8    14   Team Russia 14        RU   3   03:06:33.92        +L1    7  

 9   777   Team Russia 777    RU   3   03:18:51.07        +L1    6  

32   Team Russia 32        RU   2   01:48:13.95             DNF      

39   Team Portugal            PT   2   01:58:01.42              DNF       

4   Foks Moto Woman       RU   3   01:58:47.68        DNF      

50   Team Russia 50        RU   2   02:09:49.73         DNF      

78   Team Russia 78        RU   2   02:21:00.20         DNF      

971   VICK Team                GP   1   00:44:35.99         DNF      

77   Team Turkey               TR   1   00:53:00.28          DNF      

5   Team Russia 5             RU   0                                  DNF

12   Samuka Racing         PT   0                                    DNF

88   Team Finland           FI   0                                       DNF

Race Time Limit 03:17:47