Mark Kariya | November 17, 2019
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2019 ISDE Portugal Day 6 Results and News
The U.S. wrapped up the 94th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) in style by winning not only the vaunted FIM World Trophy (WT) for only the second time, but the Women’s World Trophy (WWT) for the second time, as well as the Club team title. In addition, its Junior World Trophy (JWT) team came in second behind a strong Australian trio. Three out of four ain’t bad!
Team USA Wins Second ISDE Championship
Members of the U.S. team gather on the podium to celebrate winning the World Trophy and Women’s World Trophy categories as well as coming second in Junior World Trophy. Photos: Mark Kariya
Steward Baylor, Taylor Robert, Kailub Russell and Ryan Sipes of the U.S. World Trophy team all stayed out of trouble in the final motos at the Kartodromo International do Algarve’s supermoto-style track that was constructed in a matter of days after losing the purpose-built motocross facility originally planned. It was the second time final motos have been supermoto races, the first time being Brazil in 2003.
With the day devoted entirely to the final “motocross” test—run mostly in the dirt with a high-speed sweeper at the finish being the only significant paved section—not much changed in the standings of each category. The Club team riders took to the track first, going by class from slowest in each division to the fastest and from C1 up to C3. An intermission with a freestyle street bike rider and the always entertaining Sheep Skull Enduro Riders provided non-race entertainment before the elite classes lined up, from WWT to E1, E2 and, finally, E3.
USA Women’s Team Takes Home The Gold
After winning the final Women’s World Trophy moto, the American team of Tarah Gieger (left), moto winner Brandy Richards and Becca Sheets celebrate. It marked the first U.S. victory in the category since it was started in 2007.
As has been the norm, several Americans aced their respective Club motos including Kevin DeJongh, Nic Garvin, Dante Oliveira, and Tyler Vore.
Teamwise, Oliveira’s XC Gear teammates Ricky Russell and Austin Walton backed him up superbly, Russell third in their C2 moto with Walton seventh. They ended the week 18 minutes and 3.05 seconds ahead of Team Lozere AMV 4 of France.
GasGas USA (J.T. Baker, Tyler Vore, and Trent Whisenant) held on to eighth in the final reckoning with Mojo Motorsports (Anson Maloney, Josh Knight and Tanner Whipple) moving up a spot to 12th. Elizabeth Scott Community team (Jayson Densley, Paul Krause, and Brian Storrie) also benefited from a good last day to climb one final step and finish 31st.
Dante Oliveira proved to be the fastest Club rider at the end of the week, not only winning his C2 moto in the fastest time among all Club riders but leading his XC Gear team with teammates Ricky Russell and Austin Walton to the top of the Club team standings.
Despite DeJongh’s final moto win, his DNF on day five left the team down in the standings, though they did pick up three spots to finish 47th out of the 124 teams that started. The Eric Cleveland Memorial trio included Nic Garvin and Austin Serpa, both of whom also finished strongly.
The Missouri Mudders (James King and Nathan Rector with Anthony Krivi DNFing on day three) ended up 79th for the week while AMA District 37 finished a final 120th since Nate Ferderer was the team’s only survivor, teammates Blayne Thompson and Jacob Argubright DNFing earlier in the week with terminal bike problems.
When the WWT moto came up, Brandy Richards got a great start into the 180-degree first turn and beat overall WWT individual leader Maria Franke from Germany by 6.72 seconds, Jessica Gardiner—the only one left running of six-time WWT winner Australia’s three.
The other Americans—Tarah Gieger and Becca Sheets—also availed themselves well. Geiger finished eighth in the moto with Sheets coming back from a slight slip-up to 14th.
Collectively, though, the U.S. WWT put a few more seconds on runner-up Germany for the first American triumph since the FIM added the class at the 2007 ISDE in Chile, the inaugural winners being Nicole Bradford, Lucy Jones Laurent, and Amanda Mastin.
“I’m ecstatic! This is like nothing I could’ve ever imagined,” Richards proclaimed. “I’m so happy right now!
“I knew it might take us a couple of years to get used to the whole racing format [at Six Days], but I knew we could do it.
“This year, I was really stoked after walking the tests [here] and I knew we could do it this year.”
Next up, the E1 motos. Spain’s Josep Garcia powered away to win the fast one by just under 14 seconds over Luke Styke from Australia, Ryan Sipes of the U.S. WT team third, 1.02 seconds behind Styke on what he dubbed possibly the sketchiest track he’s ever raced with its combination of high speeds hardpack, big rocks, dust in spots and sections of the track riding blind towards the afternoon sun. U.S. JWT rider Josh Toth was the only other American in the race, placing eighth.
“I’m happy to get through it in one piece and on the bike,” Sipes said before summarizing his week: “Like I said, I know I can ride a little bit better, but I just wanted this team to win That’s my main goal. I missed out on the first team win [in 2016]—not by my choice, just some unfortunate circumstances [with an injury]—but I’m really happy to be here for this one. I’m just super-excited and happy and feeling really blessed to be here, to be picked for the team, to be thought of as one of the best off-road riders in the U.S. That’s pretty special to me. As long as they want me to keep coming back, I’ll keep coming back. I think this even is awesome. It’s one of my favorites. I know it hasn’t happened yet, but I’m already super-happy [that we could win]!”
Sipes didn’t have to wait long because when the fastest E2 moto went to the line, teammates Taylor Robert and Kailub Russell—1-2 in the class going into the race—could wrap it up with good finishes. U.S. JWT riders Grant Baylor and Ben Kelley were also in the field.
Australia’s Daniel “Chucky” Sanders was on another level this week, not only topping the E3 class but taking top overall individual honors as well—following in the tire tracks of his teammate last year, Daniel Milner. However, defending champion Australia finished second to the U.S. in the World Trophy division.
Robert out-braked the others into turn one to clearly take the lead and was gone, winning by 7.18 seconds over veteran Josh Green, one of the Australians who needed to beat the Americans decisively if his country were to overcome the gap of just over two minutes if they were to defend their title.
But it wasn’t to be, the team down a man after losing Matthew Phillips to a crash the day before, and with Luke Styke fourth in E1, that put the Aussies even farther behind. Just under five seconds behind Green, Jeremy Carpentier of France claimed third in the moto followed by U.S. JWT rider Grant Baylor—a career-best final moto finish for him in his last year of JWT eligibility (riders must be under 24 years old).
Kailub Russell didn’t get the best of starts and ended up ninth in the moto, but that didn’t hurt him in the final E2 standings as he still finished second, a minute and 40.65 seconds behind Robert after six intense days. U.S. JWT’s Ben Kelley got 15th in the moto but ninth in final class standing behind Baylor who was a best-to-date sixth in the final E2 tally.
Robert’s moto victory sealed the deal for the U.S. WT team and several smelly burnouts ensued after the finish.
“I wasn’t as nervous going into this [Six Days],” he insisted, “but it honestly felt a little bit better [than that first win in Spain] and I don’t know if it’s just because it’s fresh.
“But just to back it up [means lots] and the team just rode so good this year! In Spain, we got a little lucky; I know some of the other teams had some issues, but here, none of the other teams had issues—we just straight up rode the best [as a team]. All four of us were really consistent, especially the three scores that counted every day, we were really tight. I think we got three guys in the top seven [overall] every day which is unheard of for us, so that felt really good.”
Thus, the final moto of the day featured the E3 class and while it wouldn’t change the outcome, it helped cement Australia’s Daniel “Chucky” Sanders as the world’s best enduro rider for this year, following in the tire tracks of countryman Daniel Milner who was the top individual last year in Chile.
To no one’s surprise, Sanders checked out and left moto runner-up Rudy Moroni of Italy 18.30 seconds behind, Danny McCanney of the British WT team third. American Steward Baylor finished the moto seventh and ended up third in final E3 class standings behind Sanders and McCanney.
“I did [take on the role of team leader] after the year I’ve had back home in Australia battling with Milner every weekend racing,” Sanders said. “I knew if I could beat him, I could have a good shot at the overall here at the Six Days and also hope to lead the team to victory, but it’s been a tough, tough week for the boys.
“I’ve finished fourth, third and a second [overall previously] now so [winning overall was] the goal. I felt this year I was riding as good as I ever have on this bike, the Husky 501, so it’s been going good. I knew this year was going to be the hardest year to win because everyone [especially the top Europeans] was going to be here.”
Based on that, the 95th ISDE will also be a fierce battle since it’ll be held once again in Europe, this time in Italy.
Day 6 Video Highlights
Final Team Results
World Trophy
- USA (13:44:17.77)
- Australia (13:46:03.11)
- Italy (13:56:55.27)
- Spain (14:01:10.82)
- Finland (14:06:31.78)
Junior World Trophy
- Australia (13:57:03.10)
- USA (14:06:17.04)
- Spain (14:25:52.41)
- Portugal (15:14:38.75)
- Belgium (15:20:12.40)
Women’s World Trophy
- USA (10:17:02.79)
- Germany (10:25:54.00)
- Great Britain (10:35:58.52)
- Sweden (10:54:11.50)
- Spain (10:59:37.55)
Click here for complete final results.
2019 ISDE Portugal Day 5 Results and News
U.S. Women’s World Trophy team rider Tarah Gieger leads Canada’s Shelby Turner in a transfer section. The America women have a comfortable lead over Germany going into the final moto tests. Photos: Mark Kariya
Another good day for the U.S. at the 94th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) sees it poised to reclaim the FIM World Trophy it won for the first—and, so far, only—time in 2016 in Spain at the 91st edition of the FIM’s oldest competition.
Steward Baylor, Taylor Robert, Kailub Russell and Ryan Sipes of the U.S. World Trophy team put forth excellent times in the day’s seven special tests to beat runner-up Australia by 35.06 seconds, thus increasing the margin over the defending champions to two minutes, 2.52 seconds. Italy goes into the final day of competition tomorrow in third place, though it’s a fairly distant third, 11:57.30 behind the U.S. quartet.
Russell, in particular, enjoyed a banner day after a disappointing (to him) first four days as he finally overalled one of the tests en route to placing third overall for the day, 0.76 seconds ahead of fourth-place Robert who continued to lead the E2 class over his teammate.
Team USA Rolls On
Day five saw Kailub Russell finally find his groove; not only did he finish third individual overall, but he beat teammate Taylor Robert for that honor as well, albeit by just 0.76 seconds. That helped the U.S. World Trophy team increase its lead over Australia to 2:02.52 going into the final moto tests tomorrow.
Sipes wasn’t that far back, finishing the day sixth overall, and maintaining second in E2 to Josep Garcia of Spain who became the first rider to dethrone Australia’s Daniel “Chucky” Sanders this week. The Aussie continued to lead the E3 class as well as the overall individual standings.
Crashes held Baylor back to 16th, but he’s still third in E3 behind Sanders.
U.S. Team Manager Antti Kallonen observed, “It’s a good lead so the guys don’t have to push super-hard [in the final motos tomorrow], but really, the final motos could be mayhem, especially now [that] it’s on a [go-kart] track and anything can happen—you lay your bike down on the asphalt and that could be it. We’ll probably try to play it safe and try to stay out of trouble tomorrow with the Trophy team and bring it home.”
Like their senior counterparts, the U.S. Junior World Trophy team of Grant Baylor, Ben Kelley, and Josh Toth also won the day, beating Australia by about 14 seconds. However, the Aussies had a large cushion to begin with and still maintain a gap of 8:39.20 over the U.S. with Spain sitting third, a distant 27:28.97 behind Australia.
Baylor had the best day of the three American and finished seventh overall individual and third in E2 behind only Robert and Russell, for an impressive American 1-2-3.
“We’ve all been fast—just had a lot of issues [like] crashing and things, but yeah, still pretty solid for the team,” Kelley noted. “I think I had the speed and everything to [finish in the top 10 overall for the week], but I just made too many mistakes and had some issues. It’s just a long race, six days.”
Kallonen said of the U.S. Juniors, “Juniors, they were riding well today; they’re picking up the pace. [Beating the Australians today] is always a nice little confidence boost, but they had such a big lead already so they might be already playing a little defense there—don’t take too many chances—but it’s always nice to get ahead of our competition, even in one day. It’s a good boost for the guys and brings the spirits up for tomorrow.
Josep Garcia of Spain became the first rider this week to topple Australia’s Daniel Sanders from the top overall individual spot.
“In the Junior team, all scores count so it’s really not over. I mean, I’ve seen it so many times—something happens in the final moto when the score has to count and it can be over in a second so we don’t give up our hope and we’ll see what tomorrow brings us.”
On the Women’s World Trophy side, Brandy Richards enjoyed the drier if colder conditions today—at least it was drier for the second lap. She turned the tables on Germany’s Maria Franke for the day’s best time in class, but overall, Richards trails the German star by 1:16.67. Teammates Tarah Gieger and Becca Sheets backed Richards up well, finishing fifth and seventh overall on the day, respectively.
Team-wise, the U.S. now leads Germany by 8:35.22 with Great Britain maintaining third, nearly 10 minutes farther back. That puts the Americans on the fast track to win for the first time since Chile in 2007, the category’s debut.
“We’re in a good position tomorrow,” Kallonen remarked. “That cushion we have now, we should just bring it home and we have all three riders going strong and [just] two scores count so we feel pretty confident going into tomorrow with the women.”
XC Gear’s Dante Oliveira, Ricky Russell and Austin Walton had its best day yet in the Club competition, each riding perhaps their best yet to beat Team Lozere AMV 4 of France by about two and a half minutes, the lead now standing at 13:20.49.
Oliveira won the division for the second day in a row, this time by a more comfortable margin of 8.39 seconds over Team Lozere AMV 4’s Antoine Meo. Not to be outdone, Russell finished third for the day and Walton fifth, a superb showing for all three.
Being on a team named Missouri Mudders, Nathan Rector had to aim for the biggest puddle in this mud hole at the “hotel” test. The team is 74th with Rector and James King still going; Anthony Krivi had to abandon the race two days ago with a medical issue.
Gas Gas USA (J.T. Baker, Tyler Vore, and Trent Whisenant) moved up one step to eighth with Mojo Motorsports (Anson Maloney, Josh Knight and Tanner Whipple) also advancing a spot to 13th. Elizabeth Scott Community team (Jayson Densley, Paul Krause, and Brian Storrie) improved as well, finishing the day 32nd.
Eric Cleveland Memorial lost Kevin DeJongh with a mysterious electrical issue, though Nic Garvin and Austin Serpa are still doing well, the DNF adds three hours a day, dropping the team to 50th.
Missouri Mudders (James King and Nathan Rector with Anthony Krivi DNFing on day three) remained 74th and AMA District 37 is now 119th, Nate Ferderer its only rider still going. His teammates Blayne Thompson and Jacob Argubright DNFed a few days ago due to bike failures.
Day six tomorrow will be a short ride across the street to the facility’s go-kart track for the final motos in all classes. The hastily built final moto course is reported to feature more dirt than asphalt and harkens back memories to Brazil in 2003, the site of the first-ever supermoto-style final tests.
Day 5 Video Highlights
2019 ISDE Portugal Day 4 Results and News
A cold, windy storm made day four of the 94th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) uncomfortable for many, but the U.S. World Trophy (Steward Baylor, Taylor Robert, Kailub Russell and Ryan Sipes) and Women’s World Trophy (Tarah Gieger, Brancy Richards and Becca Sheets) teams excelled to stretch their respective leads. The U.S. Junior World Trophy team (Grant Baylor, Ben Kelley and Josh Toth) remained second behind Australia but lost ground despite a good performance from Grant Baylor.
Good Day For Team USA
Taylor Robert was the third quickest individual on day four. Photos: Mark Kariya
After claiming third-fastest individual honors for the day, E2 class leader Taylor Robert said, “All in all, I think it was a good day. Stew really picked it up today; he went from—I don’t even know what he was yesterday, 20-something—and today he was [fifth] overall, I think, so he really picked it up. That was awesome.
“Kailub and Ryan made some mistakes. I know Kailub crashed a couple times, and I don’t know if Ryan crashed, but he was a little off compared to yesterday.
“All in all, though, it was a good day. As long as we’re putting time on instead of losing time, we’re happy.
“We’re going to push and try to get through tomorrow, hopefully maintain the lead tomorrow and go into the final moto with a little bit of a cushion.”
Robert was on the only U.S. team to win the World Trophy and would dearly like to repeat that, as would his teammates. As Sipes (runner-up to Spain’s Josep Garcia in E1 after four days) put it, “I missed out on the 2016 championship team, the winner [in Spain], so I want to be on one. That’s the goal, is to stay solid and have some good test times tomorrow and keep her up top.”
Team USA Pads Points Lead
After damaging the rear sprocket, Kailub Russell was lucky to reach the next checkpoint. He didn’t have enough time to change it at the next checkpoint so after clocking through there, he stopped in a small plaza, put the bike on a low wall and replaced the damaged unit with a new one he picked up at the pit next to the checkpoint. No time lost and he kept on rolling.
The U.S. Junior World Trophy team of Grant Baylor, Ben Kelley and Josh Toth saw Australia draw farther away, though Baylor had a good day individually, even with a big crash in one test. He shook that off and railed to finish the day 19th individual overall. However, the gap to Australia now stands at 8:52.50.
Among the day’s most unexpected news was GNCC champ Tayla Jones crashing out and leaving Australia with just Jessica Gardiner. That makes it impossible to realize their goal of a seventh-straight Women’s World Trophy title.
Instead, the U.S. trio of Tarah Gieger, Brandy Richards, and Becca Sheets pulled farther ahead of Germany, which has yo-yoed up and down the standings this week—leading day one, dropping to second behind the U.S. on day two the plummeting to fifth yesterday. Much of the credit goes to German team captain Maria Franke who dominated, winning five of the seven tests and finishing second and third in the other two.
Jane Daniels of Great Britain also did well with the day’s second-best time behind Franke. The British now find themselves third.
And third is where Richards finished, the Arizona native clearly not as comfortable in the mud as her European counterparts. “I really struggled on the first test and the fourth test,” she admitted. “It was so muddy! I was mostly just trying to stay off the ground. Even with trying to do that, it set me back a little bit.
“You couldn’t even put your feet down [in one test] because your feet would just slide out from underneath you!”
Still, with Sheets and Gieger sixth and eighth overall, respectively, the American team simply had too much depth for any other country to mount a serious challenge and it leads by 5:14.00 over Germany while Great Britain is almost eight minutes behind Germany.
The Enduro Vintage Trophy competition started today. Among the enthusiastic albeit older entrants is former world champ Giovanni Sala. He and teammates Mario Rinaldi and Stefano Passeri also placed within the top four overall.
The Club team ranks saw XC Gear with Dante Oliveira, Ricky Russell and Austin Walton best Team Lozere AMV 4 of France by about two and a half minutes, the lead now growing to 13:20.49. After playing second fiddle for three days, Oliveira finally got the day win over former Enduro World Champion Antoine Men of France, though it wasn’t by much at 0.94 seconds!
Russell was a further 36.87 back for third on the day and Walton wasn’t all that far behind, sitting ninth for the day.
Despite enjoying the conditions, GNCC regular Russell didn’t have the best of days, saying, “I kind of struggled today, just made too many mistakes. I think I was over-riding and went down four of the seven tests—just little mistakes, nothing huge, just tip-overs and whatever so I’m still okay and everything, but yeah, stupid mistakes kind of cost me time and you can’t do it in a special test! It really kills you. Everyone’s so close.
“But learning, learning and getting better, I think. The rain kind of changed the whole course today, but I like the rain!”
Gas Gas USA (J.T. Baker, Tyler Vore and Trent Whisenant) maintained ninth with Mojo Motorsports (Anson Maloney, Josh Knight and Tanner Whipple) dropping from 13th to 14th. Eric Cleveland Memorial (Kevin DeJongh, Nic Garvin and Austin Serpa) also lost a spot and is now 17th with Elizabeth Scott Community team (Jayson Densley, Paul Krause and Brian Storrie) losing three to 34th.
Missouri Mudders (James King and Nathan Rector) is 74th (up from 75th after losing Anthony Krivi on day three) and AMA District 37 is 83rd, Nate Ferderer the only one still running after losing both Blayne Thompson and Jacob Argubright and consecutive days with mechanicals. Ferderer is currently the 31st Club rider overall after four days.
Tomorrow will see the riders face a day of 178 miles with six tests scheduled.
Day 4 Video Highlights
2019 ISDE Portugal Day 3 Results and News
Day three at the 94th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) may be remembered as pivotal. After losing ground to Australia on day two, the U.S. World Trophy team rallied to pass the Aussies and lead for the first time this week. Instead of trailing Australia by 50.43 seconds as was the case after day two, the U.S. now owns a lead of one minute, 12.41 seconds, much of it due to Ryan Sipes who shook off his second-day blahs and finished day three as the sixth-fastest individual behind teammates Taylor Robert (third-fastest) and Kailub Russell (fourth-fastest). Steward Baylor posted the 26th-best time for the day individually. Italy continued to hold third place but slipped another two minutes behind the two leaders on a day that saw riders traverse new trails and tests over the two laps for a 165-mile day.
Besides introducing new trails and tests, day three brought with it much more varied conditions, with cold, windy rain in the mountains and dry, dusty areas below. That apparently suited the U.S. team well, especially Taylor Robert and the rest of the World Trophy team since they beat Australia by a significant margin to supplant the Aussies at the top for the first time this week. Photo: Mark Kariya
In the Junior World Trophy category, the American team of Grant Baylor, Ben Kelley and Josh Toth maintained second lost a little ground on leader Australia which now leads by 4:20.92. Toth improved markedly and despite several crashes on the second lap, Baylor also saw quick times as he finished 18th overall individual, less than two seconds ahead of teammate Kelley for the first time this week.
After two days of disappointing results, Josh Toth found the conditions on day three to be perfectly suited to his style and his improved performance resulted in being much closer to U.S. Junior World Trophy teammates Grant Baylor and Ben Kelley. However, the team lost a minute to leader Australia. Photo: Mark Kariya
While Germany’s Maria Franke beat American Brandy Richards, the U.S. Women’s World Trophy (WWT) team remained atop the ranking with Australia now moving to second, 1:07.21 behind. Despite Franke’s outstanding ride, her teammates couldn’t back her up and Germany fell to fifth behind the U.S., Australia, Great Britain and Spain.
U.S. Team Manager Antti Kallonen noted, “New terrain and new tests obviously helped us. Although we thought we were going to be good in the sand [tests] on days one and two, we weren’t quite as good as the Australians there so they pulled a gap on us there, and now we’re on more of a clay [surface] and no sand any more so we were able to close on them and actually pulled away a little bit.
Day three saw Germany’s Maria Franke edge American Brandy Richards for top woman, but the other two German women didn’t have similar results, dropping the team to fifth while the U.S. continues to lead with Australia now second. Photo Mark Kariya
“It’s something that our guys are getting the extra motivation now and extra boost on day three so now we have two more full days and then the final motocross so I think this came at the right time, this turn of events. They all rode well. I was telling the guys at dinner last night we had three guys in the top five. Any other years they’d be leading, but now it’s like Sanders was so far ahead pulling the weight of the Australian team, but now we’re closer to Sanders so that shows we can keep them behind, hopefully, the rest of the week.”
Robert, the E2 class leader, added, “I did feel better on the bike today, but more than anything it was just there was a little bit of everything out there today. The first test of the day was straight up in a cloud. It was almost zero visibility and it was so nasty, slippery. Sanders was still going fast, but he made a mistake and I was able to make some time on him there.” He added, “We did exactly what I was saying yesterday, what we needed to do: Kailub and I just keep doing our thing and get Ryan back up with us. That’s exactly what happened. I was [third] on the day [to Australia’s Daniel Sanders], Kailub was [fourth] on the day [15.90 seconds behind me] and then Ryan was sixth on the day. To have all three of us there in the top six is great, and we closed that gap to [E3 class leader] Sanders. He was kind of carrying the Australian team there for a little bit. He beat me by over a minute the first two days, but he only got me by [11.84] seconds today. I really closed that gap up so he wasn’t pulling the team along. “If we do that for two more days, we should be in good shape!”
Baylor the U.S. Junior team member explained, “I had some really good test runs in the beginning of the day and then the second lap around, I just wrecked a few too many times and lost a bunch of time laying on the ground. I was in the top 10 overall before that and at the end of the day, I ended up [18th] so not too bad, but everybody’s healthy and we’re still going.
“As a team we did well. The trails and all the special tests were definitely a little bit more suitable for me today compared to the first two days.
“[Despite the crashes] it was still a good day. Tomorrow, I’ll just try to minimize those mistakes.”
Though Richards took a back seat to Franke for the day, the young American remains the WWT class leader over Franke by 17.58 seconds. More important for the team, both Becca Sheets and Tarah Gieger finished a strong seventh and eighth for the day, respectively, their times helping keep the team at the fore over Australia who lost Mackenzie Tricker at the beginning of the day. Therefore, team leader Tayla Jones and Jessica Gardiner don’t have the luxury of depending on a throwaway score each day; both of their scores will count and they’ll need to turn it up a bit if they want a record-stretching seventh consecutive WWT victory.
In the Club team standings, XC Gear with Dante Oliveira, Ricky Russell and Austin Walton lost some five seconds to France’s Team Lozere AMV 4, but with a gap of 9:50.84, that’s insignificant. Russell reveled in the wet, slick conditions in the morning run in the mountains and finished second Club rider overall to Hugo Blanjoue of Team Lozere AMV 4, Oliveira fourth behind Blanjoue’s teammate Antoine Meo.
Gas Gas USA (J.T. Baker, Tyler Vore and Trent Whisenant) is still ninth, Mojo Motorsports (Anson Maloney, Josh Knight and Tanner Whipple) slipped a spot to 13th and Eric Cleveland Memorial (Kevin DeJongh, Nic Garvin and Austin Serpa) remained 16th despite Garvin having some bike issues.
Elizabeth Scott Community (Jayson Densley, Paul Krause and Brian Storrie) moved up two positions to 31st.
Anthony Krivi had to abandon the race due to a suspected tendon injury, leaving the Missouri Mudders with just James King and Nathan Rector. The three hours added to the team score dropped it to 75th. And after losing Blayne Thompson yesterday, AMA District 37 got hit again with Jacob Argubright exiting due to a mysterious oil problem in his bike; that leaves Nate Ferderer the only man on the team still running.
After a great start to the week, AMA District 37 lost two riders to mechanical woes in the past two days. Today it was Jacob Argubright (second from left, dark shorts). Teammate Nate Ferderer (right) is the only one still running, though he was one of several picked for a post-race sound test. Photo Mark Kariya
A number of Club riders got caught in a huge bottleneck at one point and it was so bad that organizers had no choice but to cancel the final two tests of the day.
Day 3 Video Highlights
2019 ISDE Portugal Day 2 Results and News
For the U.S. team, news was mostly good after the second day concluded at the 94th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE). While Australia led both the FIM World Trophy and Junior World Trophy divisions, the American squads maintained second in both, though each lost a bit of time.
Though Taylor Robert moved up to third in the overall individual standings (followed closely by teammate Kailub Russell in fourth), the U.S. World Trophy team lost a little time to Australia, though it maintains a fairly comfortable gap on Italy. Photos by Mark Kariya
However, the U.S. Women’s World Trophy team erased yesterday’s 5.45-second deficit to Germany and now heads the category by one minute and 8.65 seconds with Australia third.
In addition, XC Gear of the U.S. continued to lead and even put a gap on France’s Team Lozere AMV 4 in the Club team competition, second-year racer Dante Oliveira continuing to perform well and hold second overall among all Club riders.
After finishing second to Australia by 19.53 seconds yesterday, the U.S. World Trophy team had planned to cut into that deficit today. Instead, the squad of Steward Baylor, Taylor Robert, Kailub Russell and Ryan Sipes slipped a bit and ended day two 50.43 seconds behind the Aussies, due mainly to another superb performance by Daniel “Chucky” Sanders.
The man of the race proved once again to be Daniel “Chucky” Sanders, who almost single-handedly keeps the Australian team at the top of the World Trophy standings after two days.
“I felt like I rode a little bit better today [but] the tracks were super-rough today!” Robert declared. “It’s crazy how much rougher they got. But in one sense it was a little bit better for me. I think I was top three in a bunch of tests today. Yesterday, I don’t think I was top three in anything. So that was good for me, but it didn’t really change me too much in the overall. Yesterday, I was in fourth overall, just behind Ryan by a few 10ths.
“Kailub and I are still right there. Ryan had a little bit of an off day; he lost like a minute and a half or so to me. If Kailub and I can keep on doing our thing and get Ryan back up there with us, we’ll be in a much better position the rest of the week.”
Baylor admitted, “I think right now, everyone’s ready to see some new tests. I don’t think any of us are riding as good as we should be or as good as we could be. That’s tough for all of us and tough to keep your head in it and the general attitude has obviously changed since the morning before the race started. It doesn’t help that Sanders is making us look like a bunch of monkeys.”
Sanders continued to lead the overall individual standings by a minute and 10.56 seconds over Josep Garcia of Spain, Robert third at 2:26.14 behind Sanders and Russell fourth at 2:47.47 behind the impressive Aussie.
In the Junior World Trophy division, Australia stretched its lead further to 3:26.90 over the U.S. trio of Grant Baylor, Ben Kelley and Josh Toth. Behind them, Italy supplanted France for third, a significant 5:24.12 behind Australia which counts two of its riders among the top 10 individuals with Kelley the best of the American Juniors at 13th overall, up from 14th yesterday. Grant Baylor moved up even more, jumping from 26th to 21st with Toth having an off day and dropping to 40th.
Though teammate Brandy Richards’ position atop the individual overall women’s leaderboard didn’t change, Becca Sheets (shown) moved from eighth to sixth while Tarah Geiger climbed from 13th to 10th, the Americans taking the Women’s World Trophy team lead from Germany.
Conversely, the American women enjoyed an even better day, taking the lead from Germany on the strength of another winning day by Brandy Richards, backed up ably by Becca Sheets who’s now sixth woman overall with Tarah Gieger 10th. Richards leads Germany’s Maria Franke by 22.31 seconds now and explained, “It’s pretty awesome; I’m pretty stoked, especially because I usually get better throughout the week so I think we’ll do really, really well this year.”
She continued, “In the past, I’d kind of throw it away in the first couple days so I was focusing on just staying consistent the first couple days and getting through them without falling and making mistakes. I mean, I’ve fallen a couple times, but for the most part I’ve done really well.”
Sheets added, “It seems like all three of us are staying pretty consistent, which is good. None of us has had any major issues. I know for myself, sand is not my forte so just to be able to make it through the first two days [and] get through the sand [tests] without any crashes or anything is really good for me. I think we’ve set a good pace and I’m excited to ride some new stuff tomorrow!”
Dante Oliveira, Ricky Russell and Austin Walton continued to keep XC Gear not only the top American Club team but the top Club team overall, Oliveira finishing second Club rider overall again to Antoine Meo of France while Russell also had a solid day, finishing third for the day and moving up to fourth overall with Walton sixth after two days.
“We started off [yesterday and today] with two sand tests and I love the sand so there’s no better way to start and I was pumped off that,” Oliveira stated. “I don’t know—I’ve just been having fun here.
Austin Walton puts his front wheel back on at the end of the day. He and teammates Dante Oliveira and Ricky Russell of the XC Gear team put a few minutes on second place in the Club standings.
“Today went all right. There were a couple tests I struggled in, but I was able to get back to the sand and just hold it on and finished it off pretty well. I didn’t hit the floor yet so that’s good.”
Team Lozere AMV 4 of France continued to hold second but saw the margin to XC Gear grow to 9:55.45.
AMA District 37’s Jacob Argubright, Nate Ferderer and Blayne Thompson took a hit today when Thompson’s bike expired; the DNF adds three hours to the team’s time each day, of course, and drops it from third yesterday to 86th of the 124 teams after today.
But there’s still one other American team in the top 10 clubs with Gas Gas USA (J.T. Baker, Tyler Vore and Trent Whisenant) moving up from 11th to ninth.
Other U.S. Club teams include Mojo Motorsports (Anson Maloney, Josh Knight and Tanner Whipple) climbing from 14th to 12th, Eric Cleveland Memorial (Kevin DeJongh, Nic Garvin and Austin Serpa) maintaining 16th, Missouri Mudders (James King, Anthony Krivi and Nathan Rector) advancing from 23rd to 20th, Elizabeth Scott Community team (Jayson Densley, Paul Krause and Brian Storrie) jumping from 39th to 33rd and AMA District 37 at 86th.
Day 2 Video Highlights
Class Structure
Enduro 1 (E1): Up to 250cc 2-stroke and 4-stroke
Enduro 2 (E2): 250+ cc 4-stroke up to 450cc 4-stroke
Enduro 3 (E3): 250+ cc 2-stroke and 450+ cc 4-stroke
2019 ISDE Portugal Results
World Trophy Day 1:
1. Australia (4:42:56.19)
2. United States (+50.43)
3. Italy (+5:10.41)
4. Great Britain (+5:51.29)
5. Finland (+7:22.80)
Junior Trophy Day 1:
1. Australia (4:48:05.95)
2. United States (+3:26.90)
3. Italy (+5:24.12)
4. France (+5:51.95)
5. Great Britain (+9:11.99)
Women’s Trophy Day 1:
1. United States (3:36:30.71)
2. Germany (+1:08.65)
3. Australia (+1:14.37)
4. Great Britain (+6:25.72)
5. Spain (+9:11.99)
2019 ISDE Portugal Day 1 Results and News
It seemed a bit like a continuation of last year as the 94th International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) got underway this morning. Defending champ Australia led the FIM World Trophy category with the U.S. second at the 2019 ISDE Portugal. In addition, the USA’s teams occupied second in both Junior World Trophy and Women’s World Trophy.
Leading the way for the U.S. World Trophy team that finished second on the day to Australia, Ryan Sipes leaves the start this morning in cool, misty conditions that didn’t change much, helping to keep the dust down. PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK KARIYA
But among the 124 Club teams vying for that championship, an American trio—XC Gear comprised of Dante Oliveira, Ricky Russell and Austin Walton—sat at the top followed by Team Lozere AMV 4 from France and AMA District 37 with riders Jacob Argubright, Nate Ferderer and Blayne Thompson.
In World Trophy, Australia’s Daniel “Chucky” Sanders proved untouchable, winning five of the day’s tests and finishing second in the other two. He posted a time 34.03 second faster than the next-fastest rider—Josep Garcia of Spain—while American Ryan Sipes was another 38.17 seconds back in third. Ably backing Sipes up were teammates Taylor Robert and Kailub Russell who were fourth and fifth fastest on the day, 0.32 and 6.15 seconds farther back, respectively. Fourth team member Steward Baylor struggled with setup issues to finish 17th for the day, one minute, 59.42 seconds behind Sanders.
Collectively, though, the American quartet is just 19.53 seconds behind Australia with Italy third, 2:03.59 behind the reigning champs at the 2019 ISDE Portugal.
Daniel “Chucky” Sanders tossed his big Husky around effortlessly en route to dominating the day and helping Australia to lead the World Trophy standings.
Sipes said, “The first time through all the tests, I had really good times, even with a crash in the third test, but the tests were the same as when we walked [them] so all my lines still worked.
“The second time through, none of my lines worked because the sand test is super whooped out—I can’t take my lines any more! The rocky test on the side of the hill is big powder berms so I’ve got to get better at just riding that main line and staying in the berm. I was still trying to halfway use my lines and, I think, losing time because I wasn’t just railing the main line.
“But it was good. I had the one tipover—I think Kailub crashed a couple times—but we had a pretty uneventful day and I think that’s good. We’re down a little bit as a team, but Sanders can’t keep that up all week, there’s no way! He’s going WAY too fast! I mean, maybe he can, but I’m happy that we’re all riding good but also being smart because we have to—as a team—to do good.
“I just want to keep doing that, and maybe we can get a little faster but still be smart.”
In only his second Six Days, Dante Oliveira showed impressive speed, posting the second-fastest time among the Club riders, second only to former world champ Antoine Meo of France. But Oliveira and teammates Ricky Russell and Austin Walton comprise the XC Gear team that’s leading the 124-team-strong Club standings.
The situation in Junior World Trophy is similar with Australia leading the U.S. trio of Grant Baylor, Ben Kelley and Josh Toth, though the margin is larger at 1:14.10. France is third, 2:04.48 behind Australia, which has two of its riders in the top 10 overall while Kelley is the best of the American Juniors at 14th overall, Grant Baylor the next best at 26th.
Toth, who fought setup issues, was 36th and said, “The 250, I haven’t been riding it that much [this year] and coming here, they were really strict on the sound test so we have a huge spark arrestor [we threw in at the last minute]; it’s all plugged up and really took away a bunch of power so I’m kind of struggling with that and adjusting the suspension, too, to soften it up. So I’m making a lot of changes throughout the day and have been improving, but it was a real struggle in the beginning.”
But he was confident of turning that around in the 2019 ISDE Portugal, noting, “We’re going to go get something to eat now then probably go walk a couple tests near the hotel and just see what’s the good lines.”
Brandy Richards set the day’s fastest time among the women by 15.01 seconds over Germany’s Maria Franke, though Germany leads the U.S. in Women’s World Trophy by 5.45 seconds, six-time and defending champ Australia third.
Six-time and reigning Women’s World Trophy winner Australia could only manage third today behind surprising leader Germany with the U.S. threesome of Tarah Gieger, Brandy Richards and Becca Sheets second. Again.
But it could change tomorrow as the gap to Germany is a scant 5.45 seconds while Australia is 1:02.66 behind the German squad.
That’s because the Richards is the overall leader among the women by 15.01 seconds over Germany’s Maria Franke, Australian Tayla Jones another 1:19.78 behind in third. Sheets finished the day eighth with Gieger 13th.
U.S. Team Manager Antti Kallonen observed, “I think our position is good. It could be a little bit better, but we started kind of steady and we’re in good position still, not too far from the leads in all categories.
“It’s day one. We’ve been in this position before, we’ve been leading before [at this point] and really the outcome on day six has always been different so I think just to get a solid start with all three teams is important.
“We’re in good spirits.”
The U.S. has plenty of reason to be in good spirits, as well, in the Club team competition thanks to the XC Gear and AMA District 37 results. In fact, Oliveira set the second-fastest time among all Club riders, trailing only former Enduro World Champion Antoine Meo of France. But XC Gear held an advantage of 2:03.67 over Meo’s second-place team with AMA District 37 a solid third, 3:42.48 behind XC Gear.
Other American teams included GasGas USA (J.T. Baker, Tyler Vore and Trent Whisenant) at 11th, Mojo Motorsports (Anson Maloney, Josh Knight and Tanner Whipple) in 14th, Eric Cleveland Memorial (Kevin DeJongh, Nic Garvin and Austin Serpa) 16th, Missouri Mudders (James King, Anthony Krivi and Nathan Rector) 23rd and the all-Senior Elizabeth Scott Community team (Jayson Densley, Paul Krause and Brian Storrie) 39th.
Day 1 Video Highlights
Class Structure
Enduro 1 (E1): Up to 250cc 2-stroke and 4-stroke
Enduro 2 (E2): 250+ cc 4-stroke up to 450cc 4-stroke
Enduro 3 (E3): 250+ cc 2-stroke and 450+ cc 4-stroke
2019 ISDE Portugal Results
World Trophy Day 1:
1. Australia (2:20:03.19)
2. United States (+19.53)
3. Italy (+2:03.59)
4. Great Britain (+2:23.91)
5. Finland (+2:38.75)
Junior Trophy Day 1:
1. Australia (2:22:17.73)
2. United States (+1:14.10)
3. France (+2:04.48)
4. Italy (+2:08.91)
5. Great Britain (+3:15.87)
Women’s Trophy Day 1:
1. Germany (1:45:38.59)
2. United States (+5.45)
3. Australia (+1:02.66)
4. Great Britain (+2:57.14)
5. Spain (+4:46.01)
