By Mark Kariya for AMA
As impressive as the Club Team title was, Team USA enjoyed a near sweep as three U.S. ISDE teams took top honors in their respective classes at the 94th FIM International Six Days Enduro. After heading the field going into the final day, American teams successfully defended their leads in the World Trophy, Women’s World Trophy and Club team divisions. The U.S. Junior World Trophy team finished second place in class.
Leading Australia by just over two minutes, the four American World Trophy riders (Steward Baylor, Taylor Robert, Kailub Russell and Ryan Sipes) simply had to ride conservatively in Day 6’s motocross-style competition. The Aussies tried their best and actually beat the American team for the day by 17.18 seconds. But Robert winning the last E2 moto gave the U.S. squad a final advantage of 1:45.34 seconds over Australia in the World Trophy standings.
“All four of us were really consistent, especially the three scores that counted every day, we were really tight,” said Robert after the win. “I think we got three guys in the top seven overall every day which is unheard of for us. So, that felt really good.”
The United States won its first World Trophy crown in 2016, and all three of its Trophy teams finished runner-up in 2018. The oldest competition on the FIM’s extensive calendar had been the exclusive property of teams from Europe until the United States got its first World Trophy title four years ago in Spain. Robert and Russell also were members of the World Trophy-winning 2016 team.
See Mark Kariya’s full coverage of the 2019 ISDE at the AMA site:
https://americanmotorcyclist.com/american-teams-win-three-titles-at-2019-isde/
