Kit Palmer | October 13, 2016
ISDE Spain Day 3 Thursday Update: The U.S. World Trophy team added nearly 30 seconds to its cushion as it continues to lead at the 91st International Six Days Enduro in Navarra, Spain.
But that wasn’t the only highlight for Team USA on the third day of competition.
ISDE Spain Day 3 Thursday Update
Taylor Robert works a hillside turn in the cross test en route to posting the day’s fastest time individually. He remains the overall individual leader on the U.S. World Trophy team that added just over a minute to its lead over Italy with Spain another 8.89 seconds back in third. Photography by Mark Kariya
Besides the World Trophy team quartet of Thad Duvall, Layne Michael, Taylor Robert and Kailub Russell now leading Italy by one minute, 35.88 seconds, the Junior World Trophy team from America (Grant Baylor, Steward Baylor and Trevor Bollinger) moved up a spot to second, 1:55.60 behind Sweden. In addition, the U.S. Women’s World Trophy team (Nicole Bradford, Tarah Geiger and Rachel Gutish) pulled back a position to reclaim fourth, with defending champions Australia continuing to lead comfortably.
And the Club team standings, the Trail Jesters trio of Ben Kelley, Jason Klammer and Josh Toth maintain second behind Italy. Eric Cleveland Memorial (Alex Dorsey, Broc Hepler and Jimmy Jarrett) moved up to third, with the Missouri Mudders (JT Baker, Nate Ferderer and Ryan Powell) climbing back up to sixth after holding seventh after the second day. Tony Agonis Memorial (Kale Elworthy, Joey Fiasconaro and AJ Lehr) moved up to 10th; Michigan Offroad Events (Mike Pillar, Luke Ross and Talon Soenksen) dropped from 20th to 22nd, and the Elizabeth Scott Community trio of Senior-class riders (Dan Capparelli, Jayson Densley and Brian Storrie) found themselves vaulting from 26th to 24th.
ISDE Spain Day 3 Thursday Update
After two fairly disappointing days, Grant Baylor enjoyed a great time in the mud and mist as the Spanish Six Days hit its midway point. He posted the best score of the U.S. Junior World Trophy squad, the team now second behind Sweden, moving up one spot a day. Photography by Kit Palmer
Having a light rain overnight that continued as a heavy mist through much of the day produced a completely different feel to the first two days, which saw extremely dust make life rather miserable for many. As Rachel Gutish of the U.S. Women’s World Trophy team put it, “The last two days, it felt like I was riding Baja—we’ve been blasting in fifth gear down these gravel roads, dust clouds, couldn’t see for anything, changing an air filter twice a day. And then today the skies just opened up and it was like being back in Slovakia.
“I felt like I’ve been at two different Six Days! I must say I like today a lot better than the other two, that’s for sure.”
Despite being more comfortable in the dry, Arizona resident Robert dealt with the new conditions well and carried the momentum he’d built over the first two days to enjoy a better-than-expected day in the mud, taking the overall individual honors by 7.73 seconds over Portugal’s Luis Correia. Russell backed that up with another solid fifth individually for the day.
“My day was really good,” Robert said. “I stayed off the ground all day, which was nice, especially since it was muddy conditions [today], which isn’t my forte. Luckily, I did all the [Enduro] World Championship races this year and it rained at six of the eight races so I got a little bit of practice in!
ISDE Spain Day 3 Thursday Update
Tarah Geiger waits to get the go signal at the cross test. She’s been posting the fastest times of the American women who moved back into fourth place in Women’s World Trophy.
“Everybody [on the team] is still going, which we’ve got to keep that going; some guys have some bumps and bruises here [so] we’ve just got to keep things going smooth.
“We’ve been slowly getting a bigger gap every day so if we just keep doing that, things should go good.”
Grant Baylor supplanted his brother as the fastest American Junior of the day, his time the third-fastest among all Junior World Trophy riders. Steward Baylor and Bollinger found themselves farther down the field in 34th and 58, respectively, but with Spain losing a rider, the Americans now trail only Sweden while Italy is another 1:34.91 behind.
Tomorrow’s course will be a repeat of today, though it’s expected to remain dry overnight and through the rest of the week.
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