As the third day of the 84th Maxxis FIM International Six Days Enduro in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, ended, Team USA managed to maintain position despite a couple of minor setbacks. France remained at the top of the World Trophy team standings where the U.S. is sixth; Spain stretched its lead over third-place Team USA in Junior World Trophy and it was France again at the top of the Women’s Cup division where the Americans hold fourth.

Photo right: World Trophy rider Rodrig Thain is a big key to the French team's current dominance. He is first in the E2 class after three days.

The third day brought with it a new course north of the city, one that featured fewer sand tests but possibly compensated for that with a couple of ultra-long sand straights that turned into muscle-searing torture tests. Want to feel the burn? Ride mile upon mile of chest-high whoops. More than one competitor reported seeing a few racers pulled off to the side of the course trying to recuperate from the effort — one that will only be repeated on Day Four.

An official’s sloppy penmanship is thought to be responsible for Cory Buttrick dropping a minute at the end of a day where he felt he’d turned in very respectable test times. But it’s unlikely the Spanish leaders or the French in second can be overtaken without a marked improvement in speed by their American counterparts. The two European squads feature at least three riders each who put down times that bested American Junior leader Russell Bobbitt, so the gap between Spain and Team USA grew today to 2:33.38 after Buttrick’s one-minute discrepancy.

Photo left: U.S. Junior rider Cory Buttrick is climbing back up through the ranks after botching a tire change at the end of the first day.

Then there was Lacy Jones of the U.S. Women’s Cup trio who rode the last half of the day without a front brake. Jones sheared off her brake caliper when she got out of shape in one of the dreaded whooped-out sand straights and collided with a concrete road marker.

But at least she kept going and recorded a finish for the day, unlike Juha Salminen of Finland’s World Trophy team. When he hit the start button on his bike this morning, it belched a lot of critical fluids out of new openings, marking his third-consecutive premature end to a Six Days effort.

The U.S. World Trophy team slowly made its way back up the standings after a rough first two days, Destry Abbott recovering enough from yesterday’s huge get-off to finish the day 10th in E2. As team leader Kurt Caselli observed, “I think the whole team had a good day today. I know Destry said he felt good; Timmy [Weigand] had some good test times.

“Everybody’s having fun. No major issues with anything so it was a boring day, but boring days are good.”