Though the 92nd International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France, started on a sour note for the U.S. Team, it ended comparatively gloriously with a class win and several podium placings.
While France collected most of the ISDE hardware (winning both FIM World Trophy and Junior World Trophy plus taking a distant third in Women’s World Trophy), American results were nothing to sneeze at.
The U.S. World Trophy team was eliminated from ISDE contention immediately, of course, after losing Thad Duvall to injury in the week’s first test. That left Taylor Robert, Kailub Russell and Ryan Sipes free to pursue their own targets.
Robert came closest; though he didn’t match last year’s top ISDE overall individual status, he won E3 and was third overall individually to E2 and overall winner Loic Larrieu of France and E1/second overall Josep Garcia of Spain. Not far behind overall came Sipes, who claimed second in E1 and fifth overall.
That bodes well for the future, according to Robert.
“That was a big improvement because I don’t think we’ve ever had two Americans in the top five,” Robert said. “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.
“It was a good event,” Robert continued. “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.”
Looking at the U.S. Juniors who finished third, the trio weren’t quite as fast as France and runner-up Italy, but they weren’t far off. Layne Michael seemed to handle it best. After being on the winning U.S. World Trophy team last year, he treated his stint on the Junior squad just as seriously and took 10th in E1 for 27th overall. Grant Baylor’s had better weeks, but still finished 13th in E2 and 31st overall. After his one-minute penalty a couple days ago for going into a check early, first-time Junior World rider Josh Toth finished 14th E1 and 41st overall.
But as good as the American Junior potential looks, the American Women’s World Trophy squad looks even better. Though the threesome of Kacy Martinez-Coy, Brandy Richards and Becca Sheets were a solid second behind Australia’s now five-time champs, as a team, their times were faster on the last two days.
In addition, Richards won the Women’s final motocross test, catching and passing class winner Laia Sanz of Spain to do so. Sheets finished the moto fifth with Martinez-Coy eighth after getting thrown in the mud.
For U.S. Club team SRT Off-road, nothing changed on the final day, and it remained third behind Italy and MCC Wales/Welsh MCC. Ben Kelley ended the week the best of the American Club riders, his score the second fastest of the huge field. First-time ISDE rider Ty Tremaine did well also; second in his C2 final moto, he claimed ninth overall Club rider. Cody Webb also performed admirably in his first Six Days, fourth for the week in C3 and sixth in his final moto.
2017 International Six Days Enduro
Brive, France
Results: September 2, 2017 (Day 6 of 6)
World Trophy: 1. France (12:59:38.23); 2. Australia (13L05:52.26); 3. Finland (13:08:50.34); 4. Portugal (13:25:22.83); 5. Great Britain (13:18:51.91)… USA (27:43:30.51).
Junior World Trophy: 1. France (9:55:04.10); 2. Italy (9:55:19.63); 3. USA (9:57:07.00); 4. Great Britain (10:02:39.92); 5. Spain (10:05:55.30).
Women’s World Trophy: 1. Australia (7:08:04.01); 2. USA (7:14:50.63); 3. France (7:34:40.74); 4. Sweden (7:42:54.57); 5. Italy (7:54:54.13).
Club Team Award: 1. Italy (10:00:16.79); 2. MCC Wales/Welsh MCC (10:08:30.52); 3. SRT Off-Road-(USA)-(10:09:59.96); 4. Languedoc Roussillon (10:23:30.35); 5. Team West Sweden (10:24:16.92).
Individual: 1. Loic Larrieu, France-Yamaha (3:11:45.68); 2. Josep Garcia, Spain-KTM (3:12:23.99); 3. Taylor Robert, USA-KTM (3:13:05.64); 4. Daniel Milner, Australia-KTM (3:13:17.54); 5. Ryan Sipes, USA-Hus (3:13:27.64).