A disappointing week for the U.S. entries in both the FIM World Trophy (WT) and Junior World Trophy (JWT) categories ended on an upbeat note as Americans Dante and Mateo Oliveira won their respective motos on the final day of the 99th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE)/6Days FIM Enduro of Nations. And that was after the U.S. went 1-2 in the Motorex Women’s World Trophy (WWT) race, thanks to Brandy Richards and Korie Steede, the American effort—aided by gritty Rachel Gutish—the benchmark all week for a third consecutive championship.
In the men’s teams, though, Italy set the pace from the outset and carried those leads to the conclusion. Its WT team’s four riders (Samuele Bernardini, Morgan Lesiardo, Manolo Morettini, Andrea Verona) combined for the day’s fastest time by 54.13 seconds over the American quartet (Cody Barnes, Johnny Girroir, Dante Oliveira, Josh Toth) in the moto to cap a dominating week. That gave the host nation’s team a final cushion of eight minutes, 53.27 seconds over runner-up Sweden (Max Ahlin, Albin Norrbin, Mikael Persson, Axel Semb) and 11:42.15 ahead of third-placed France (Hugo Blanjoue, Theo Espinasse, Leo Le Quere, Julien Roussaly). The U.S. finished the week fourth, 15:52.12 back.
But the final-moto win didn’t fully compensate for what the Americans was a subpar week. Dante Oliveira put it bluntly: “No, it doesn’t make up [for this week’s performance] at all. It’s pretty disappointing of a week just with my riding and overall consistency and commitment through the week. There’s no way this moto win can even make it an okay week.
“I’ve got a lot of work to do. At least I know what I’ve got to work on. I say every year I’ve got to be better next year [so] I’m going to get to work and figure this out.”
Mateo Oliveira echoed that after repeating his JWT final-moto victory two years ago in Argentina (where Dante also won that WT final moto to lock up the U.S. team’s most recent triumph). In fact, the moto saw him and teammate Grant Davis outclass the field, going 1-2 with less than two seconds separating them at the finish with Australia’s Kyron Bacon third, 9.12 seconds back.
Mateo said, “It’s not that I could care less if I won the moto, but [most of] these other guys are all enduro riders and you want to beat them at what they do so I’m a little frustrated, but it’s always cool to win something.”
Italy’s winning margin over France was slimmer than their WT counterparts owned. Kevin Cristino, Alberto Elgari and Manuel Verzaroli’s combined times were just 1:30.80 faster than the trio (Romain Dagna, Thibault Giraudon, Leo Joyon) from France. Australia (Bacon, Korey McMahon and GNCC regular Gus Riordan) earned the final podium spot 3:22.16 behind with Davis, Oliveira and Cooper Jones fourth, 11:46.76 in arrears. (Dante, Mateo and Davis also went 1-2-3 at the top of the combined time chart for the day.)
The brightest light for Team USA was, of course, its WWT trio and in the final moto, the Richards-Steede 1-2 left Australia’s Danielle McDonald third more than 30 seconds behind the winner. More a hard enduro devotee than a motocrosser, Gutish nonetheless backed up her teammates with the eighth-fastest WWT time of the moto.
Captaining the way to the fifth team title she’s been part of and the fourth time as top woman, Richards reviewed the week, saying, “I think this one’s a little more special [considering] the way I came into it [off injury and little seat time].
Steede added, “It was [an] up-and-down [week] for sure! I fought every day for the overall with Brandy, which was really cool—that was a big goal of mine [since] she’s the GOAT at these. To be fighting with her in the tests and for day wins and overalls is pretty badass!”
“Boring in the best possible way,” was how Gutish described the week. “We all had our little incidents throughout the week—Brandy and Korie struggled in the one enduro test where they got stuck, I dropped a minute in the work area. Things happen, for sure! But when you have such a comfortable margin, you can just kind of relax and ride.
“I was really happy with my own performance. I think fourth is the highest at a Six Days I’ve ever placed as an individual and as a team, what more could you possibly ask for?”
Indeed, the U.S. WWT team finished the week an astounding 37:23.58 ahead of Australia (McDonald, Jess Gardiner, Madison Healey) with France (Maricette Brisebard, Lorna Lafont, Justine Martel) 44:05.32 behind for third. And that gives the Americans not only a three-peat but ties them with Australia for most woman’s team triumphs at six each.
The Club team motos in the morning also provided evidence of American speed. A stacked heat for the fastest Club riders saw Giacomo Redondi (who’s been spending most of the past few years racing in the biggest off-road series in the western U.S.) get the holeshot and win, though Thorn Devlin of U.S. Club Team Rabaconda hounded him the entire was, ultimately finishing 1.29 seconds behind. Layton Smail (Team GTBN) took seventh, about 12 seconds ahead of teammate Lane Lorenzo’s 14th.
Collier Martinez (Hough Legacy Racing) finished runner-up in his earlier moto in a time that earned 16th fastest Club rider.
In final Club team standings, MC Italia A (Luca Colorio [the week’s C1 class winner], Valentino Corsi, Davide Mei) held onto first, a comfortable 5:41.78 ahead of Rabaconda (Devlin, Joseph Cunningham, Cole Whitmer).
Devlin wasn’t too disappointed, though, as he earned the week’s C2 win—and was second-fastest Club rider overall—with Whitmer fourth in class.
“It was a stellar week,” Devlin declared. “It was a little slow start for me [as] I had some mistakes on day one. That just put me away from getting that [overall individual] win at the end of the week; looking back on it, honestly, that’s where it bit me later on in the week, starting slow.
“But, man, no complaints! It was a lot easier doing this one than the first one in Argentina in ’23. Being able to relax in the transfers and know that I had time [at the next check], knowing how the checks work and just being able to ride a little more relaxed and take those breaks when I could, then when it was time to put it down [in the tests], I could put it down.”
GTBN (Lorenzo, Smail, Jaden Dahners) kept its solid fourth in the final standings ahead of Missouri Mudders (Chase Landers, Will Sievenpiper, Lane Whitmer), Mojo/SxS (Anson Maloney, Ryder Thomaselli, Zane Roberts) and seventh-place XC Gear (Brody Johnson, Collier Martinez, Colton Shields). Maloney crashed early in the moto, got up and rode one-handed to the finish then went to the hospital with a number of injuries that will likely see him stay in Italy longer than originally planned.
The final motos had no effect on Hough Legacy Racing (Max Gerston, Eric Stevenson, Tanner Whipple) which finished the week 15th.
Randy Mastin Memorial (Ashlee Gage, Ava Silvestri, Ellie Winland) stormed closer to claiming the inaugural Motorex Women’s Club team race. Silvestri’s score for the day would’ve put her 10th in WWT.
Incredibly, the predicted storms skipped the nice Pista Covo MX park, the overnight rains providing deep loam that rutted up nicely all day. Conditions were actually about as good as it gets. And in a first, all 31 Americans who started on Sunday got to the finish on Friday—some more battered than others but counted as finishers nonetheless.
The 100th ISDE will take place on the Alentejo coast of southern Portugal from October 12-17, 2026.
Day 5
Though the predicted heavy rain held off until the end of the day, the Team USA’s FIM World Trophy (WT) team appeared to thrive in the muddy conditions to move up a spot to fourth with one day left in the 99th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE)/6Days FIM Enduro of Nations.
Italy, however, remained basically unchallenged to lead both WT and Junior World Trophy (JWT), meaning it would take a DNF in one of the final motos tomorrow to unseat the host country in either category.
But that’s not unheard of. One only has to look back at Argentina in 2023—Sweden dominated JWT that year and appeared to be locked in for the crown. Unfortunately for them, Albin Norrbin’s bike quit in their final moto and the nearly 22-minute lead the team started the final day with vanished as all three Swedish Juniors helped push the stricken bike to the finish. The crushing development dropped them to third place.
Due to the weather, organizers made some course changes, modifying several tests and eliminating two altogether. The only test basically unaffected by the weather run up and back a rocky, dry creek bed.
SIX DAYS DAILY – DAY 5 SHOW
While the day’s battle for top individual honors was exclusively the province of Spain’s Josep Garcia and Italian hope Andrea Verona (with Garcia once again coming out on top despite a lacerated finger from the day before), Americans seemed to relish the sloppy tests. Johnny Girroir posted top 10 times in three of the four tests with Cody Barnes twice in the top 14. Dante Oliveira’s times hovered around the high 20s while Josh Toth had two tests in the low 30s.
Thus, they managed to wrest fourth place from Spain. A podium finish is unlikely with third-place France more than five minutes ahead and second-place Sweden almost two minutes in front of the French squad.
In JWT, Grant Davis once again proved the fastest of the U.S. Juniors. Third behind Verona and Garcia in the rocky creek bed test, he was seventh-fastest overall in the final test of the day.
Italy leads France by less than a minute with Australia almost three and a half minutes behind the leader. The U.S. trio trails the Aussies by a little more than nine minutes, Spain in fifth nearly two and a half minutes behind the Americans.
As they’ve done all week, the three racers representing the U.S. in the Motorex Women’s World Trophy team competition padded the team’s lead once again and it stands at more than 35 minutes ahead of Australia with France holding third, 40-plus minutes behind.
The fight for day honors was fiercely contested between America’s Brandy Richards and Korie Steede, Richards coming from behind in the final test to best Steede by a minuscule 0.46 seconds! Australia’s Danielle McDonald was third-fastest WWT rider, 19.19 seconds behind Richards, while third American Rachel Gutish was eighth-best for the day.
The Club team category, Thorn Devlin once again gave American fans something to cheer about, going 4-2-1-3 in the day’s tests and setting fastest overall Club rider time of the day ahead of a slew of Italians for the second day in a row.
His Team Rabaconda teammate Joseph Cunningham had a best test result of seventh while Cole Whitmer closed out the day with a pair of 12th-best times. That kept Rabaconda solidly in second behind MC Italia A.
GTBN (Jaden Dahners, Lane Lorenzo, Layton Smail) remained fourth and ceded a little more time to third-place BBM—Racing Time of Italy.
Missouri Mudders (Chase Landers, Will Sievenpiper, Lane Whitmer) is just over 37 seconds farther back in fifth place with almost four minutes to sixth-place Mojo/SxS (Anson Maloney, Ryder Thomaselli, Zane Roberts).
XC Gear (Brody Johnson, Collier Martinez, Colton Shields) still holds seventh with Johnson becoming the second American Club rider of the week to win a test.
Hough Legacy Racing (Max Gerston, Eric Stevenson, Tanner Whipple) slipped from 14th to 15th today.
Randy Mastin Memorial (Ashlee Gage, Ava Silvestri, Ellie Winland) stormed closer to claiming the inaugural Motorex Women’s Club team race. Silvestri’s score for the day would’ve put her 10th in WWT.
Tomorrow’s final motocross test will take place at the Pista Covo MX facility about 30 minutes from parc ferme. Nearly two inches fell today in Bergamo and another two are predicted for tomorrow so the motos are guaranteed to be mudders and those are always unpredictable.
DAY 5 HIGHLIGHTS
Day 4
Some things changed, but some things remained the same on day four of the 99th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE)/6Days FIM Enduro of Nations.
Italy’s Andrea Verona finally got his long-awaited overall individual day win over the heretofore dominant Josep Garcia of Spain, Garcia no doubt hampered by a lacerated finger after hitting a post in the second test of the day. The Italian quartet holds firmly to the top spot in the FIM World Trophy (WT) category.
But a strong day by Sweden saw them supplant France for second, the Swedes a minute and 49.80 seconds shy of the leaders for the day and about a minute ahead of France. That gives Italy a cushion of 6:30.75 over Sweden after four days, with France in third place, 6:54.01 behind.
SIX DAYS DAILY – DAY 4 VIDEO
Spain sits fourth with a deficit of 11:20.38; the U.S. team is still fifth and now 12:20.50 down.
U.S. Trophy Team Manager Antti Kallonen broke it down to the simple fact that the riders from other countries have gotten faster compared to last year.
“I also compared last night a little bit of times,” he explained. “Last year, France won [while we were second]. At this stage, we’re about the same distance from France now [compared to] where we were last year, but France is not winning.
“So that just means that we’re in Italy; the Italians race this area with the Italian championship, and being able to practice [in this area] over the years. They’re just more comfortable on home soil. We knew this coming in. They were also pretty dominant in [2021, the last time Italy hosted Six Days].
“What’s really surprising is how tight it is between [the] top six countries. We dropped to sixth [at one point today], now we’re back to fifth and fourth isn’t out of reach.”
Johnny Girroir once again laid claim to putting in the fastest overall score for the day among the Americans, good for eighth overall individually. Teammates Cody Barnes (16th), Josh Toth (36th) and Dante Oliveira (38th) all knew they had room to improve, but with just one full day plus the motocross final test remaining, it’ll be quite the ask to turn the ship around.
In the Junior World Trophy (JWT), France squeaked by Italy by a scant 2.05 seconds for the day’s win. However, that wasn’t enough to erase its entire deficit; after four days, Italy’s JWT team now leads new second-place France by 59.79 seconds, Australia slipping to third, 1:53.16 back. The U.S. JWT trio is a distant fourth, 11:03.45 behind Italy.
Here, too, Kallonen analyzed the situation for both JWT and WT teams: “Everyone has had some good times, but they’re so inconsistent. Grant [Davis] has been super-fast, then he [falls] quite a bit.
“We need to eliminate those [mistakes], but I think it’s a little bit in the riders’ heads now is, ‘Oh, we’ve got to push so hard trying to push the limit’ and we’re finding the limits the hard way.”
Davis was the second-fastest American for the day at 15th; his four-day total places him 19th overall individually, behind Girroir and Dante Oliveira.
However, his teammates found themselves unable to keep pace with him, as Cooper Jones is now 49th overall individually, with Mateo Oliveira in 58th.
The U.S. Motorex Women’s World Trophy (WWT) team provided the brightest light for Americans. All three young women managed to shake off yesterday’s issues and greet the new day and new loop with renewed vigor.
As Korie Steede pointed out, “After yesterday, I went to bed early last night and I said, ‘We’re going to have a fresh start tomorrow—big reset!’ ”
The good night’s rest apparently did the trick, too: “Man, today was MUCH better! I think I had a couple test wins [and] I think I ended up second overall for the day.” (She actually went 3-2-3-2-2-2-3 in the day’s half-dozen tests so still laudable.)
Indeed, Steede was just 10.18 seconds behind teammate Brandy Richards on the day, with Rachel Gutish fourth. After four days, though, Richards leads by 1:45.67 over Australia’s Danielle McDonald, Steede third (2:32.57 behind Richards) and Gutish fourth (trailing by 3:53.80).
Team USA now leads Australia by 31:
In the Club team ranks, Thorn Devlin of Team Rabaconda enjoyed a stellar day with two test wins that propelled him to the top of the day’s rankings among all Club riders. But it wasn’t by much as Italy’s Mateo Pavoni was second overall individually, 1.71 seconds behind.
“I’m happy, I’m healthy, and I think that’s paying dividends here,” Six Days sophomore (his first was in Argentina two years ago) Devlin said. “I’m enjoying pushing the limits, for sure. I feel really confident, and I don’t feel like I’m out of sorts when I’m pushing, so that’s always a good thing.”
That boosted Devlin to second overall individually behind Pavoni after four days, 1:26.87 behind. The team’s deficit, however, is a little larger at 4:32.60 despite the best efforts of Joseph Cunningham and Cole Whitmer.
GTBN (Jaden Dahners, Lane Lorenzo, Layton Smail) had a good enough day to inch closer to the podium, the team now in fourth place, almost five minutes behind third-place BBM—Racing Time of Italy.
Missouri Mudders (Chase Landers, Will Sievenpiper, Lane Whitmer) dropped a spot to fifth after four days.
Mojo/SxS (Anson Maloney, Ryder Thomaselli, Zane Roberts) remains sixth after today, with XC Gear (Brody Johnson, Collier Martinez, Colton Shields) still seventh. Hough Legacy Racing (Max Gerston, Eric Stevenson, Tanner Whipple) solidified its hold on 14th.
And finally, it was just another day at the Italian office for Randy Mastin Memorial (Ashlee Gage, Ava Silvestri, Ellie Winland) that should easily nab the inaugural Motorex Women’s Club team race. Two riders would have to DNF for them to lose.
But with a large storm predicted to roll in, conditions will deteriorate markedly tomorrow and potentially impact some teams and riders adversely, while others will revel in it.
DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS
Day 3
The 99th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE)/6Days FIM Enduro of Nations hit the halfway mark with host country Italy continuing its hold atop the standings of both the FIM World Trophy (WT) and Junior World Trophy (JWT) standings. U.S. fortunes were less kind as its two squads continued to cling to fifth and fourth places, respectively.
However, the American women remained firmly entrenched atop the Motorex Women’s World Trophy (WWT) team despite category leader Brandy Richards and second overall individual Korie Steede getting stuck on one tricky hill in a test. Then there was Rachel Gutish who incurred a minute time penalty when she was four seconds late to one check due to dealing with a technical issue.
Despite that, the team actually stretched its lead over France from over 16 minutes to 21 minutes, 8.37 seconds! Australia is third, a further three-plus minutes back.
Richards commented on the conundrum: “We’re winning, but we’re kind of struggling in some areas.
SIX DAYS DAILY – DAY 3 VIDEO
“When you look at that, yeah, we’re doing great, but at the same time we’re kind of disappointed with the little mistakes that we’ve made and the time that we gave up. We gained time, but we also gave up a lot of time so it’s going good, we’ll keep at it and minimize those mistakes the rest of the week, I think.”
On the men’s side, Spanish standout Josep Garcia once again set the pace, though home country hero Andrea Verona handed him a couple of test defeats to keep Italy on top in WT. Overall for the day, Verona was a slim 7.79 seconds behind Garcia with Swedish vet Mikael Persson third overall individually, 52.15 seconds back.
Team-wise, the deep and consistent quartet from Italy leads France by 4:03.68 while Sweden in third at 4:40.95 isn’t far off.
Garcia’s results helped keep Spain fourth, 8:00.63 behind, not far ahead of the 8:12.07 deficit Team USA finds itself with.
Tenth on the day individually and up to eighth overall after three days, Dante Oliveira continued to head the U.S. effort. While somewhat satisfied he’d improved after a disappointing first day, he admitted being disappointed his results weren’t matching pre-race expectations—a feeling shared across the board.
“Yesterday was a little step in the right direction, but not nearly good enough for what I want or what I expect of myself,” he said.
“Every time you get to Six Days, you realize you need more and more preparation for it and you find out more and more weaknesses. You’ve just got to be better overall, everywhere: attacking the track, setting up turns and just commitment.”
Asked about the amount of roads used and relative dearth of trails, he pointed out, “We had some [transfer trails] through the mountains today so that wasn’t too bad. Honestly, I don’t mind riding the roads—it makes it a short and easy day!”
DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS
Teammate Johnny Girroir added, “The tracks got rougher [yesterday] and it hurt my broken hand pretty good—it was painful—but no excuses. I had a poor second day and today I did decent, nothing to be super-stoked about—16th [on the day] against the best in the world with a broken hand. It is what it is.” (After three days, he’s 13th overall individually.)
Their U.S. WT teammates Cody Barnes and Josh Toth are, respectively, 26th and 38th overall individually after three days with Toth somewhat recovered from the illness that slowed him yesterday.
While Italy leads Australia and France in JWT, Team USA’s Grant Davis put himself in the front-running mix for the second day in a row and finds himself 27th overall individually, the seventh Junior overall and 10th E2.
His teammates Cooper Jones and Mateo Oliveira are now 48th and 50th overall individually, with the younger Oliveira admitting, “A lot of poor results and poor riding. I expected myself—based on my results from back home, how I do riding during the week with my brother I know where I can be so it’s frustrating to not [match that here] and being way off the pace. I don’t expect myself to be winning the race by any means, but being a second or two off my brother in all conditions is where I’d like to be and I’m definitely not even close to that.
“A couple more days and hoping to turn this ship around!”
MC Italia A only put about four seconds on Team Rabaconda (Joseph Cunningham, Thorn Devlin, Cole Whitmer) as it continues to lead the Club team standings. Devlin’s results showed him going 8-1-2-2-4-3 in the day’s six tests, the best by an American again. The team is now 3:46.05 behind the Italian powerhouse.
Missouri Mudders (Chase Landers, Will Sievenpiper, Lane Whitmer) remained fourth after three days, 7:31.67 behind the Italians, with GTBN (Jaden Dahners, Lane Lorenzo, Layton Smail) in fifth, a further 15-plus seconds back.
Mojo/SxS (Anson Maloney, Ryder Thomaselli, Zane Roberts) is sixth after today, 10:10.93 behind MC Italia A with XC Gear (Brody Johnson, Collier Martinez, Colton Shields) still seventh, 12:45.55 back. Hough Legacy Racing (Max Gerston, Eric Stevenson, Tanner Whipple) took another couple steps forward to hold 14th now, 27:15.96 behind.
With no real competition, Randy Mastin Memorial (Ashlee Gage, Ava Silvestri, Ellie Winland) continued to own the inaugural Motorex Women’s Club team race, its margin over the two-rider FIM Latin American Women squad more than seven hours.
Tomorrow is another day of new trails and some new tests, though rain is forecast to return at some point and continue for the next week, which will obviously affect the race.
ISDE FACTORY BIKE SETUP
Day 2
Italy continued to capitalize on its home field advantage on the second day of the 99th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE), a.k.a. 6Days FIM Enduro of Nations.
A much drier day saw Italy atop both the FIM World Trophy (WT) and Junior World Trophy (JWT) team standings, the U.S. remaining fifth and fourth, respectively.
However, the American team in the Motorex Women’s World Trophy (WWT) category more than doubled its lead to 16 minutes, 17.91 seconds over the new second-place team, France, Australia slipping to third.
Brandy Richards was the fastest woman of the day again, her lead over teammate Korie Steede now 51.06 seconds. Australian Danielle McDonald moved past Rachel Gutish for third individually, with Gutish now fourth following a very rough day. A couple of crashes in an early test led to a failed sound test at the end of the day, though that’s just half the story. While trying to change her front tire at the end of the day, it just didn’t happen despite multiple attempts.
The culprit turned out to be a broken rim lock, and the time lost forces her to complete that task in the Tuesday morning pre-race work period.
SIX DAYS DAILY – DAY 2 VIDEO
Back to the sound test. Riders are allowed 30 minutes at the end of the day to bring their bike back into compliance, even if it means replacing the muffler, though the rider must inform officials of that.
Gutish procured a replacement silencer for her Rieju 300, but after several attempts to bolt it on, it turned out to be the wrong one. With time ticking away and no phone service for U.S.-based phones, U.S. Trophy Team Manager Antti Kallonen and chase rider Johnny Gallagher ran across the paddock area to Rieju, got the correct part and had it back to Gutish in time. Nerve-wracking? Definitely!
But back to the men.
Josep Garcia of Spain continued to dominate as the fastest individual as well as the E1 leader for the second day in a row, with Italy’s Andrea Verona now second-fastest individual and the E2 leader.
Dante Oliveira felt more at home in the drier conditions and led the American contingent at 10th overall individual and third in E2, teammate Johnny Girroir 12th overall and fourth E2.
Cody Barnes and Josh Toth were both disappointed with their days, which saw them slip in the overall classification to 26th and 37th, respectively. Toth was both hurting after yesterday’s crashes and sick, so he was less than 100 percent both physically and mentally.
“I think the rest of the team is doing much better than myself,” he said. “I’m just having a tough week. I banged up my leg yesterday and I’m kind of milking that, then today I just couldn’t keep food down in me all day—no appetite.
“Coming into the pre-finish, I drank some water, and riding from the pre-finish right to the [U.S. pit for the 15-minute work period], I threw up six times. I’m pretty empty right now.”
Italy leads France by 1:47.33, Sweden is still third, 2:26.11 behind. Australia sits fourth, 4:22.29 behind with the U.S. 4:33.91 in back.
Grant Davis turned things around on day two and ended up second-fastest Junior for the day behind Australia’s Kyron Bacon. That puts him fourth after two days, 43.22 seconds behind Bacon’s aggregate time.
Mateo Oliveira also saw improvement and was eighth-fastest Junior on the day to sit 10th overall Junior, followed by Cooper Jones, 15th after two days in his ISDE debut. He said, “Yesterday was kind of a rough start with the rain—we kind of struggled, all three of us. Today, we put in a solid result: Grant was second Junior so that helped us out a lot. Mateo rode really good, and I rode a lot better today so we’re putting ourselves in a better position for a podium fight.”
While Italy leads over Australia and France, the U.S. Juniors are just over a minute behind the French trio with four days left.
In the Club team standings, MC Italia A remained atop the charts, but Team Rabaconda (Joseph Cunningham, Thorn Devlin, Cole Whitmer) has now moved into second, 3:42.10 behind.
Missouri Mudders (Chase Landers, Will Sievenpiper, Lane Whitmer) hold fourth place down after two days, but GTBN (Jaden Dahners, Lane Lorenzo, Layton Smail) slides into fifth over Mojo/SxS (Anson Maloney, Ryder Thomaselli, Zane Roberts).
XC Gear (Brody Johnson, Collier Martinez, Colton Shields) also improved and now occupies seventh, Hough Legacy Racing (Max Gerston, Eric Stevenson, Tanner Whipple) also moved up to now sit in 16th.
Randy Mastin Memorial (Ashlee Gage, Ava Silvestri, Ellie Winland) leads the Motorex Women’s Club team by almost five hours since the FIM Latin American Women have just two riders.
After two days of essentially the same loop and tests, day three sees a new loop with favorable weather in the forecast.
DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS
Day 1
The first day of racing at the 99th International Six Days Enduro (ISDE), or 6Days FIM Enduro of Nations, wasn’t the kind of start that the U.S. team had hoped—at least on the men’s side.
Defending champion France seized the FIM World Trophy (WT) team lead after the day’s six special tests were added up and enjoys a 34.10-second advantage over the host nation’s quartet. Sweden holds a solid third place, a minute and 45.79 seconds behind, with a team comprised of a Six Days veteran plus the three riders who won the Junior World Trophy (JWT) last year.
Spain ended the day fourth, 2:08.43 behind France, mostly due to Josep Garcia, who seeks to become the fastest overall individual for a record-extending fifth-straight time.
SIX DAYS DAILY – DAY 1 VIDEO
Team USA—last year’s WT runner-up—found itself fifth, 2:21.83 in arrears, after Cody Barnes, Johnny Giroir, Dante Oliveira and Josh Toth simply couldn’t adapt as well as their competitors to the half-dozen tests that were markedly changed after an intense rain storm in the early morning hours. Girroir was the fastest of the Americans on the day, sitting seventh overall individually, second in E2. Oliveira was 16th overall, seventh E2; Barnes 22nd overall, 11th E2; and Toth 36th overall, 13th E1.
“[The first day’s] been good,” Barnes said. “Those other countries are ripping! I felt like I rode well in some [tests], and in some tests I missed the mark. Overall, I stayed off the ground, I’m healthy and I think we can improve tomorrow in some stuff and know what to expect, a little bit more.”
Things were marginally better for the Americans in the Junior World Trophy (JWT) category, sitting fourth at the end of the day behind Italy, France and Australia. Despite a big crash in one test, Grant Davis picked himself up and kept going to claim the best score of the U.S. threesome trailed by Mateo Oliveira and Cooper Jones.
Asked what surprised him the most about the day, Davis replied, “How slick the second and third tests were! I was thinking we’d have ruts in them, but they were completely no grass left, just like riding on ice skates! I lost a bunch of time there to the World [Trophy] guys, but I wasn’t very happy from then on. The second test I went down hard and was stuck underneath my bike, but I made up some time near the end there and started to reel the guys back in for Junior [World Trophy standings].
“I know one thing! I was ripping today, and all those other boys were ripping, too. I need to get better with staying off the ground a little bit more and stay consistent.”
If there was a bright spot for Team USA, it was undeniably its trio in the Motorex Women’s World Trophy (WWT) competition as they look for a three-peat. Despite still getting back to her usual race pace following a season mostly spent recovering from serious injury, Brandy Richards topped all challengers to lead the women at the end of the day with three test wins.
More importantly for the team standings, Korie Steede backed her up by placing second overall woman, with Rachel Gutish third. You simply can’t do better, and it gave them a monstrous 6:54.32 lead over Australia, with France third, 7:06.65 behind.
“I think the struggle I wasn’t prepared for was my mental side,” Richards said. “I don’t know if it’s coming back from the injury or the concussion, I struggled with my mental sharpness—I felt a little laggy, which I felt a lot this morning so it just took me a little bit to get going and get that—I guess you could say—that kill mode in me. I don’t have that aggression that I did before, but I think as the days go on, I’ll get more comfortable, and I think mentally I’ll feel better.”
A huge number of Club teams are entered, most being from the host country, of course. And while two Italian teams lead the standings, Team Rabaconda (Joseph Cunningham, Thorn Devlin —who is fourth fastest Club rider behind three Italians—and Cole Whitmer) from the U.S. sits third, 2:16.64 behind.
Missouri Mudders (Chase Landers, Will Sievenpiper, Lane Whitmer) is next followed by Mojo/SxS (Anson Maloney, Ryder Thomaselli, Zane Roberts) and GTBN (Jaden Dahners, Lane Lorenzo, Layton Smail).
XC Gear (Brody Johnson, Collier Martinez, Colton Shields) is ninth, making for five American teams in the top nine of a hotly contested division.
Hough Legacy Racing (Max Gerston, Eric Stevenson, Tanner Whipple) is 19th.
The new Women’s Club team category only attracted two entries, with Randy Mastin Memorial (Ashlee Gage, Ava Silvestri, Ellie Winland) of the U.S., the class of the admittedly sparse field.
“I didn’t really have expectations coming into [Six Days] because I just wanted to go out there and see how it was,” Winland said. “I think it was a good day overall, a good day to learn and figure out how it works because it’s kind of hard. You read everything and you see everything [going on here], but it’s hard to comprehend everything that happens in the day!
“But I think we’ve got it figured out now and day two’s going to be a lot better.”
DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS
Mark Kariya
OPENING CEREMONIES
The largest field of competitors in recent memory is hours away from getting started at the 99th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE), now also referred to as the 6Days FIM Enduro of Nations.
Among the 660 riders, 31 represent the United States of America. Four (Cody Barnes, Johnny Giroir, Dante Oliveira, Josh Toth) are on the most prestigious FIM World Trophy (WT) team; three (Grant Davis, Cooper Jones, Mateo Oliveira) comprise the Junior World Trophy (JWT) team for riders under 24 years of age and three (Rachel Gutish, Brandy Richards, Korie Steede) are the defending Motorex Women’s World Trophy (WWT).
In addition to the elite Trophy teams, there are seven AMA Club teams—also comprised of three riders—most of whom may not be full-time professional racers but are fully committed to testing themselves in the world’s oldest off-road competition.
They include the following: Team GTBN (Jaden Dahners, Lane Lorenzo, Layton Smail) that took second place among all Club teams last year in Spain; Team XC Gear (Brody Johnson, Collier Martinez, Colton Shields); Team Mojo/SxS (Anson Maloney, Zane Roberts, Ryder Thomaselli); Team Missouri Mudders (Chase Landers, Will Wievenpiper, Lane Whitmer); Team Hough Legazy Racing (Max Gerston, Eric Stevenson, Tanner Whipple), Team Randy Mastin Memorial (Ashlee Gage, Ava Silvestri, Ellie Winland) and Team Rabaconda (Joseph Cunningham, Thorn Devlin, Cole Whitmer).
A veteran looking at his ninth Six Days, Toth was fastest of the Americans last year and led the squad to runner-up behind powerhouse France. He noted, “Getting back to the Trophy team, I put in a good ride last year. That’s where I belong, and personally, I think I can ride a little bit better than I did last year [in Spain]. Every year, I just try to do my personal best and keep the team in good spirits, and hopefully they all have good rides, too, so we can stand on that podium together!”
While he might not have as much experience, Dahners anticipates a week of fairly straightforward special tests and long sections of road, which worries him the most.
“With so much road, it’s kind of scary with cars [here],” he confided. “You’ve seen how they drive here! They drive fast, and it’s really easy to blink going into a roundabout, and all of a sudden you’re on the hood of a Peugeot or something!
“Back home [in Washington] we ride on the roads a lot dual-sporting, but it’s different here. At home, we know the traffic laws! We know where we need to be [to coexist with other vehicular traffic]. Here, it’s like a free-for-all—you see a stop sign and you see five cars fly right through it.”
Indeed, a few riders in previous Italian Six Days have ended up in accidents, but Dahners and all others look forward to an incident-free week of seeing some spectacular Italian scenery, eating great food and riding their best, hopefully to end up on top.
SIX DAYS DAILY VIDEO
Mark Kariya
