After the first day of racing at the 2008 ISDE, Victorian Blake Hore currently sits in an impressive 35th position outright.

Competing in the E2 class and as part of the Australian Junior Trophy Team, Blake recorded a time of 28:15.65 to sit in 17th place in the E2 class.

Blake and the other members of the Junior Trophy Team (Jarrod Bewley, Geoff Braico and Andrew Lloyd) finished Day 1 in second place, 58 seconds behind the Italians and over one minute ahead of the French in third place.

Speaking after Day 1 (full video can be seen below), Blake was pleased with his efforts in the trying conditions.

"It wasn't too bad...I think I got a couple of good times.

"Fourth test of the day, I had a crash, fell over and lost about four seconds or something like that," he said.

In other results for Australia, four-time World Champion Stefan Merriman finished the day in Outright fourth position. Everywhere he has turned in Greece fans have been lurking to shake his hand or take his photograph, and his performance on Day 1 showed why he is so revered.

Flag bearer for Australia at the Opening Ceremony, Australian Off-Road and A4DE Champion Chris Hollis came in 22nd position outright and ninth in the E2 class. A blistering time in the final stage (13th fastest time overall) rocketed him up the outright standings and has him in contention at the early stage of the competition.

US based Australian Glenn Kearney sits just behind Hollis in the outright standings, currently sitting in 25th position after Day 1. His brother Ben is 43rd outright.

Blake's Junior Trophy team mate Jarrod Bewley sits ahead of him in the outright standings, 34th overall and just one minute ahead of Blake.

AJ Roberts fought of a bought of flu to finish in 46th outright, whilst Kirk Hutton, Andrew Lloyd and Geoff Braico finished 56th, 82nd and 214th outright respectively..

For special audio, video, diaries, results and photos from the 2008 ISDE simply visit www.ma.org.au/2008ISDE.