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US
Steve Hatch's protege Taylor Roberts on a mission leading the Olympics of off road racing in Spain after 3 days. In fact, Team USAs trophy team of Kailub Russell, Michael Layne (last minute replacement for Ryan Sipes), Taylor Robert and Thad Duvall lead the OA by just 32 seconds after 18 special tests. The Junior world team (riders under 23 years old) of Trevor Bollinger, Steward Baylor and Grant Baylor are on the podium and just 39 seconds out of the lead in their class. Former MX and SX rider Broc Hepler teamed with Jimmy Jarrett and Alex Dorsey (D36 boy) are top Club Team. About time we start to be competitive in this event....Hell Yea!!
Thanks for the update. Sucks what happened to Sipes but they seem to be doing great anyways.
I'd venture that Robert, Sipes and Russel-if all healthy-have the potential to go 1-2-3 in the individual overall...I hope they get that chance next year.
America is finally coming around!
This has been a long time coming and I'm proud as hell to say we've come a long damn ways in this event! A lot of good people have put a lot of work in to making us a legit effort at ISDE. It literally takes an army of people.
I remember when we sent our "dream team" to Brazil in 03 and we still got smoked. Nowadays we have a few combos of guys we can send and still run up front!
We're due, bring it home boys! USA! USA! USA!
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Probably the biggest change we made that helped us, was allowing the Trophy Team to be Chosen and not forcing them to race the qualifiers. We have also made a serious effort at improving the logistics and pit support for our top guys.
Salminen and Knight had to deal with our guys at our "specialty". It's a whole different ball game between going fast for 3 hours at a GNCC and throwing down the flawless sprints that it takes to run up front at 6 days. With that being said, Salminen and Knight were quite a bit better than our guys anyway, the years those guys came over changed the way the GNCC game is played.
When Juha came, that ALL changed. He pushed from the very beginning and in the 2 years he was here he won 17 of the 26 races he contested and was only beat by 3 different guys. Doug Henry, Barry Hawk and Nate Kanney. I remember Barry telling me sometime last year or the year before that when Juha was here, he just kind of had to figure out how to beat him himself. He started training more and learned how to sprint the whole time like Juha did. Definitely not an easy task but that's now the normal thing in GNCC Racing. These guys sprint, almost as hard as they can, for three-hours straight. Incredible!
It's almost like a 3 hour outdoor national...wide open the entire time...but dealing with rocks, trees, roots...
It's insane!
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.
I think he got 2nd OA in the 2009 Portugal ISDE?
It's got a bit bloody stale reading each year that the US riders / team aren't used to the EWC / ISDE system, and how hard it is for you - It's bloody hard for all, especially Teams / Riders that travel huge distances to get to the event. Your Pit setup / Organization is second to none - I've seen it in person a few times. I haven't been to the Six Day since 2013, but I can't imagine that it would not have become even more impressive. That year, during a few days of spectating, I seemed to always get to sections / special tests that Thad Duvall was doing - I became quite a fan of the young bloke.
Looking at the terrain, it certainly would suit Western US based riders (and, a lot of Aussies). So much of it looks like the stuff we ride on
It will / would be good to see the US Team win this year. Though, it will probably bring out a fair amount of crap from those that live a bit too vicariously through the efforts and achievements of other.
I'm not a fan of the reduction in the numbers of riders for the Trophy and Junior Teams, but, it is what it is - it's the same for all.
I have to do a bit of searching to see how the Vintage classes are going - 4 production date classes, and I think just 4 days of competition?
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