Monday’s Morning Glory is enduro21’s salute to a rider that delivered the goods over the weekend. This morning Juha Salminen is our guy...

Juha Salminen is a natural born fighter. When armed with a motorcycle his only focus is to win. For Juha nothing else matters.

On day one at the GP in Argentina Salminen looked set to replicate his day one victory from the GP of Chile, just one week earlier. Entering the third cross test of the day, Juha had stretched out an eight-second lead over his nearest challenger Spain’s Ivan Cervantes. Looking impeccably fast and completely at ease on the loose, gravely motocross test, Juha was also looking unbeatable.

However, in an instant, while on the remotest part of the test, the Finnish rider’s day ended prematurely. In one of the deep powdery ruts, the soft dirt compacted around his front sprocket, jamming up his chain and putting a stop to his day.

For a rider of Juha’s calibre, anyone would have forgiven the now eight-time Enduro World Champion for venting his frustration at such a costly error. But the Finn never let his emotions get the better of him. While most riders would have been gutted at the realisation that the day was lost, Juha, in his typically Finnish demeanour, shrugged it off. “That’s racing,” he replied when questioned about his loss at the start of day two. “Today is another day. We start afresh.”

With thoughts of the previous 24 hours pushed firmly to the back of his mind, the defending Enduro 1 World Champion carried on where he left off – winning. Immediately opening an early lead on the aforementioned cross test, Salminen diligently controlled proceedings from the front of the field to claim victory.

How the rest of his season pans out in his quest for a ninth world title remains to be seen. But if anyone ever questioned Juha’s desire to win, on day two in Argentina he answered that call.