US Team Excited for ISDE to Start

Team USA has been in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, for almost a week getting ready for the 84th Maxxis FIM International Six Days Enduro, but the wait to actually go racing here is almost over.

Photo right: U.S. World Trophy team fill-in Tim Weigand runs his bike through his first-ever ISDE technical inspection on Saturday.

Held for only the second time in this country on the Atlantic coast, this edition of the “Olympics of off-road motorcycle racing” promises to be very different from 1999 when the Portuguese first hosted it. For one thing, it’s being held in a city on the coast, about halfway between Porto in the north and Lisbon in the south. Ten years ago, the grand old city of Coimbra played host, and most of the race took place in the mountains. This year, much of the race will be run within a few miles of the coastline, similar to Chile two years ago, and many of the tests will be sandy while a good portion of the trail promises to be fairly rocky and technical.

Also unlike ’99, the U.S. is being viewed as a legitimate contender for another podium showing, following the third place for its World Trophy team last year in Greece where Ricky Dietrich anchored the squad with his second place in the E1 (125cc two-stroke/250cc four-stroke) class behind only overall individual top placer Ivan Cervantes of Spain (who is not taking part this year).

“We have a strong team and we feel good going in,” Destry Abbott insisted. A member of last year’s line-up, he tempered that somewhat, lest he jinx American efforts, by adding, “Anything can happen. We’re not going here expecting to win, that’s for sure, but we definitely want to be back on the podium. If everything went well, hopefully we’d be on top of it.

“We have a good [team] setup for sand riders—Ricky [Dietrich], even [Nathan] Kanney and of course Kurt [Caselli’s] going to be fast. We have a strong team so it’s just going out and riding smart. Our only thing is we have two rookies, but both of them are extremely fast. It’s just for them to go out there and be able to take off right off the bat, but we’re starting up front and we’re going everything like we want, so that’s the good part.

“It’s going to be fun. It’s a great Six Days. It’s awesome where we’re at. There’s going to be more roads than we would’ve figured and not as much trail sections, but I think it’s going to be a good Six Days.”