At the end of day five at the International Six Days Enduro in Germany just seconds separated Antoine Meo (KTM) from overall individual race leader Christophe Nambotin (KTM). Both comfortably ahead in their respective Enduro 1 and Enduro 3 classes, whoever recorded the fastest time in their final motocross race would secure the prestigious outright win.

During a press conference at the end of day five Antoine Meo made it perfectly clear that he was going to go for it during his final day motocross race – give his absolute all in the hope of securing his first overall ISDE win. But it wasn’t to be.

If you look closely you'll see Antoine barely made it into shot... © Edmunds / Enduro21.com

The newly crowned Enduro 1 World Champion and now three-time EWC title winner was left standing at the start of his E1 moto, forcing the Frenchman to battle his way through traffic while Mike Brown cleared off into the distance, dominating the moto.

The reason for Meo’s disastrous start? He forgot to put his bike in gear!

“I made a really stupid mistake at the start of my race,” laughed Antoine shortly after the end-of-event podium celebrations. “I was in neutral! I can’t believe I did it, but I did. I saw Mike Brown start on the inside of me, so I knew I needed to start well. I wanted to get a good jump so I selected first gear, or I thought I had. I was last off the line, all the other riders had gone. I managed to recover well in the first corner, but then I crashed. I had a great battle with Nambo’ all the week and really wanted to do try and get the overall win.”

Maybe next year in Sardinia Antoine…