Mark Kariya | November 13, 2007
Though the World Trophy and Junior World Trophy teams get most of the headlines, the 82nd Maxxis FIM International Six Days Enduro in La Serena, Chile, is the first Six Days to feature a women’s class–one that is a World Cup event, which signifies its importance.
And in this inaugural competition featuring three-woman teams from five nations, Team USA’s trio of Nicole Bradford, Lacy Jones and Amanda Mastin absolutely dominated the first day and likely extended the lead on Day Two.
The women are competing strictly against each other for the World Cup, though women who are part of Club teams are still scored against their male counterparts.
The U.S. is the only country with all three women still running, though only a team’s best two scores are counted. But when those two best are added, the Americans clearly proved to be the team with the most depth and, perhaps, a bit of luck. While France’s Ludivine Puy (a Dakar veteran) is the fastest woman overall, only one of her teammates is still going–way behind–so France is third going into Day Two. Runner-up Sweden has two still running, but as with the French, one is doing well while the other is way back on bronze medal status already.
By contrast, Bradford and Mastin were 3-4 behind Puy and Germany’s Heike Petrick. Jones lost time on Day One but completed Day Two in better shape.
“I know we did really good today,” Mastin said. “The real fast French girl, she dropped some trail points so we should be able to [add some] cushion to our score a little bit more.
“Nicole’s doing good. I don’t think she lost any route points yesterday; she didn’t today either so she’s doing good. She keeps crashing in tests, but I told her that by the end of the week she’ll get them figured out and she won’t crash any more,” she laughed.
“We told Lacy, ‘Anything could happen to me or Nicole,’ so we still need her score.”
Looking at it realistically, Mastin concluded, “We can’t get too excited. It’s only Day Two, but it’s looking like we could bring the Cup home, take something back to the U.S.”
America’s Kurt Caselli had another good day, but Finland’s Juha Salminen found a little more speed and unofficially surpassed Caselli for fastest individual overall.
Official results of Day One have France leading Finland for the World Trophy by just under 14 seconds, Italy one minute and 23.80 seconds back in third. The U.S. team finished ninth despite Caselli leading the day. In the Junior World Trophy category, Spain holds a substantial lead of 1:29.28 over France with Italy in third; the American Juniors lie in eighth. Some 70 competitors retired from the race on Day One, and three were reported injured on Day Two. Official Day Two results will be available tomorrow.
Though the World Trophy and Junior World Trophy teams get most of the headlines, the 82nd Maxxis FIM International Six Days Enduro in La Serena, Chile, is the first Six Days to feature a women’s class–one that is a World Cup event, which signifies its importance.
And in this inaugural competition featuring three-woman teams from five nations, Team USA’s trio of Nicole Bradford, Lacy Jones and Amanda Mastin absolutely dominated the first day and likely extended the lead on Day Two.
The women are competing strictly against each other for the World Cup, though women who are part of Club teams are still scored against their male counterparts.
The U.S. is the only country with all three women still running, though only a team’s best two scores are counted. But when those two best are added, the Americans clearly proved to be the team with the most depth and, perhaps, a bit of luck. While France’s Ludivine Puy (a Dakar veteran) is the fastest woman overall, only one of her teammates is still going–way behind–so France is third going into Day Two. Runner-up Sweden has two still running, but as with the French, one is doing well while the other is way back on bronze medal status already.
By contrast, Bradford and Mastin were 3-4 behind Puy and Germany’s Heike Petrick. Jones lost time on Day One but completed Day Two in better shape.
“I know we did really good today,” Mastin said. “The real fast French girl, she dropped some trail points so we should be able to [add some] cushion to our score a little bit more.
“Nicole’s doing good. I don’t think she lost any route points yesterday; she didn’t today either so she’s doing good. She keeps crashing in tests, but I told her that by the end of the week she’ll get them figured out and she won’t crash any more,” she laughed.
“We told Lacy, ‘Anything could happen to me or Nicole,’ so we still need her score.”
Looking at it realistically, Mastin concluded, “We can’t get too excited. It’s only Day Two, but it’s looking like we could bring the Cup home, take something back to the U.S.”
America’s Kurt Caselli had another good day, but Finland’s Juha Salminen found a little more speed and unofficially surpassed Caselli for fastest individual overall.
Official results of Day One have France leading Finland for the World Trophy by just under 14 seconds, Italy one minute and 23.80 seconds back in third. The U.S. team finished ninth despite Caselli leading the day. In the Junior World Trophy category, Spain holds a substantial lead of 1:29.28 over France with Italy in third; the American Juniors lie in eighth. Some 70 competitors retired from the race on Day One, and three were reported injured on Day Two. Official Day Two results will be available tomorrow.
