ISDE: Finland Finishes It Off; USA Third

Mark Kariya | August 13, 2011

Team USA (right) joins winners Team Finland and Team Spain on the World Trophy podium.

Host nation Finland put its stamp of domination of the 86th International Six Days Enduro with another standout performance by Eero Remes, the E1 class winner, who won his final motocross test at the Kotka motocross track by a wide margin. Though the Finns weren’t really in danger of losing the FIM World Trophy to runner-up Spain, they took no chances, with all six men posting superb times.

Team USA ended up third, with captain Kurt Caselli topping the E2 moto to seal his class win. All six Americans also put in excellent rides and, as a team, were actually faster on the day than Spain. But it wasn’t enough to push them past the Spaniards and they gladly accepted third place.

“Actually, I’m real happy with the results,” Caselli said. “We came here with a goal of just getting on the podium, which is usually always the first goal – to do as good as you can, but if you can be on the podium, that’s good. I think all of us are real happy with how it turned out. It’s somewhat rewarding after a long six days.”

Like several of the Americans, teammate Jimmy Jarrett added, “I’ve said this a couple times: I didn’t do anything spectacular, but I didn’t do anything stupid either.”

France held onto its lead in the Junior World Trophy division followed by Sweden and Great Britain. The U.S. Juniors finished a solid fourth with Ian Blythe leading his E1 moto until the pain of his dislocated shoulder (suffered early in the week) slowed him, though he still posted the best time on the team.

France also won the Women’s World Trophy over Finland and Australia.

In the Club team category, Husaberg-Czech from the Czech Republic won. The best American team turned out to be GoFasters.com with Max Gerston the fastest on the day of that trio, which finished 16th.