Mark Kariya | September 3, 2017
2017 ISDE France Day Six Final Results– The International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) closed out its 92nd edition in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France, with two of the important team wins for the host country, but the U.S. team also had reason to smile after sealing a second and two thirds in team competition as well as a significant class victory.
2017 ISDE France Day Six Final Results
Taylor Robert (right) wishes Jaume Betriu good luck before the E3 final moto which saw the Spaniard take the win with Robert second. However, it wasn’t enough to unseat Robert as the class winner for the week, and it gave him third overall individual. Photo: Mark Kariya
Reserved entirely for the final day’s final motocross heats in a flat field adjacent to the parc ferme, the schedule saw Club riders take to the track first followed by Vintage Trophy classes, Women’s World Trophy, and then E1, E2 and, finally, E3 heats.
Though attacked by those closest in the standings, France had enough in reserve to take both the FIM World Trophy and Junior World Trophy while settling for a rather distant third in Women’s World Trophy.
The American World Trophy effort, of course, fell apart on the first day when Thad Duvall got hurt, leaving the rest of the team (Taylor Robert, Kailub Russell and Ryan Sipes) with nothing but individual glory to chase.
Of the three, Robert did best, winning E3 and claiming third overall individual after spending almost 39 hours riding his KTM 500 EXC-F more than 760 miles in the countryside around Brive.
Teammate Sipes moved down to E1 where he finished second aboard a Husqvarna FE 250 unlike two years ago in Slovakia when he was top overall individual on an FE 350.
Still, Robert took that as a positive: “That was a big improvement because I don’t think we’ve ever had two Americans in the top five. That’s huge. It’s just something to build on for next year. We’ve got two guys that can definitely compete for wins, and Kailub’s won days before so Kailub can get back up there when he’s riding like himself. We just need that fourth guy to be up there every day as well like the French team was a couple days this year.
2017 ISDE France Day Six Final Results
Layne Michael had a good week, finishing 10th in E1 while he and his teammates claimed third in Junior World Trophy. Photo: Mark Kariya
“It was a good event. I wasn’t as close to the overall as I would’ve hoped⏤I lost a little bit of time the last couple days⏤but all in all, I felt like I rode really well, especially with the bike that I was on. There were like 30 guys in the E3 class and I think I was the only guy on a four-stroke! Grass tracks really aren’t my forte as well.
“I felt like we did good [all things considered], and next year’s in Chile in the sand, and I think we’re all looking forward to that.”
In the Junior World Trophy chase, a determined Italian trio was actually faster overall as a team, but France had too big a lead and earned the trophy by 15.53 seconds. The U.S. placed third with Layne Michael leading the way, 10th in E1 and 27th overall. Grant Baylor didn’t have his best week but got 13th E2 and 31st overall. After his one-minute penalty a couple days ago for going into a check early, Josh Toth had to settle for 14th E1 and 41st overall.
Despite a trio of rookies, the U.S. Women’s World Trophy team came home second to Australia, though collectively, the Americans beat the Aussies on both of the final two days. It was, however, too little, too late to unseat Australia, which triumphed for the fifth consecutive time.
2017 ISDE France Day Six Final Results
Why are these ladies smiling? As a team, they collectively beat eventual Women’s World Trophy champion Australia for the second day in a row, though it was too little, too late, and they settled for second to end the week. Not bad for a bunch of rookies. Photo: Mark Kariya
Of the Americans, Brandy Richards made the biggest impression in the record books on the final day as she got a good start, then caught and passed Spanish star Laia Sanz for a rare U.S. moto victory. That helped her to finish the week third behind Sanz and Australia’s Tayla Jones.
Of the two other Americans, Kacy Martinez-Coy did slightly better, finishing fifth while Becca Sheets had to re-impound after a bike problem on the first day. In the moto, Sheets did better, though, finishing fifth while Martinez-Coy got punted early and had to fight back to eighth at the checkered flag.
SRT Off-road maintained its third place behind Italy and MCC Wales/Welsh MCC with SRT’s Ty Tremaine enjoying the best day after placing second in his C2 moto by 1.27 seconds. Ben Kelley didn’t have the moto he wanted, finishing seventh overall C1, but final standings for the week saw him place second. Trial des Nations veteran Cody Webb was sixth-fastest in C3, making him fourth in class cumulatively.
2017 ISDE France Day Six Final Results
