15.11.2019
PORTIMAO, Portugal – The U.S. World Trophy and Women’s World Trophy teams put forth their best collective performance of the week on Friday to establish a clear lead heading into the final day of the 2019 FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) in Portugal. Once again battling the elements, KTM riders Kailub Russell, Taylor Robert and Ryan Sipes raced their way to a big victory on the day, thus extending their lead over Team Australia to more than two minutes. KTM-mounted Brandy Richards once again led the Women’s team to a successful day, where they sit over eight-minutes ahead of Germany with one final moto left to go on Saturday.
WORLD TROPHY (WT) TEAM
Despite a rough start due to overnight rainfall and slick conditions, FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Kailub Russell highlighted the day as the top placing American rider with third overall and first in the E2 class. Admittedly riding conservatively at the beginning, Russell grabbed two seventh-place finishes in the first three special tests before turning it up a notch with 3-3-4 finishes and ultimately claiming the final test-win of the week with an admirable performance despite navigating some potential road blocks late in the day.
Russell: “This morning, I started out pretty fast on the opening test but it was slick and I wasn’t comfortable so I just tried to ride conservatively and not throw anything away for the team. I blew my fork seals out as well – I blew the right one first and it was pretty soft so I stiffened it up and I had a good test and then the very next transfer my left one blew out and there was oil spilling all over my rotor and I had hardly any front brake. So, I held my front brake in and heated it up so it was sticky when I got there and I ended up doing pretty good in the last test. It’s cool to cap it off like that with the first win of the week.”
FMF KTM Factory Racing Team’s Taylor Robert was the next best American, maintaining top-five finishes in all but two of the day’s special tests. Robert succumbed to the slick conditions early on but he quickly picked it up and salvaged the day with three strong test finishes to come away with fourth overall on the day. KTM-mounted Ryan Sipes contributed the third and final score for the U.S. squad, finishing sixth overall for the day. Sipes started off strong with a third-place in the opening special test and he claimed four additional top-10 finishes to also maintain his second-place position in the E2 class.
JUNIOR WORLD TROPHY TEAM (JWT)
While the U.S. Junior World Trophy Team still sits over eight minutes down in the overall rankings, the KTM-mounted trio still had a positive day making up some ground on Team Australia. Thanks in large part to an impressive day by Grant Baylor, who finished the day as the top JWT rider in seventh overall. Baylor put up test finishes similar to his WT teammates, nabbing five top-10s (two of which were inside the top-five), where he continues to sit sixth in the E2 class.
FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Ben Kelley finishes out the day in 12th overall, while his teammate Josh Toth claimed 23rd. Both riders had a solid day in the special tests, which helped propel the team to its first “day victory” of the week as they bested the Aussies by 14 seconds and now sit over 27 minutes over Team Spain back in third.
WOMEN’S WORLD TROPHY (WWT) TEAM
Brandy Richards once again led the U.S. Women’s World Trophy Team to a top-notch day, extending their lead to eight-and-a-half minutes over Team Germany as they head into the final moto with a great chance of taking the overall win. Individually, Richards sits second overall for the week but she topped the Women’s classification for day five with three special test wins and a consistent string of top-three finishes for the day. Her teammate, Tarah Gieger (HON) contributed a score to the team for the first time this week with a great performance, finishing inside the top-10 in each of the day’s special tests.
Racing from the 2019 International Six Days Enduro will resume on Saturday, November 16 with the final moto of the week from Portimao, Portugal. For a list of complete results, please visit http://www.fim-isde-live.info.
World Trophy Classification (After Day 5 of 6)
1. USA, 13:03:28.88
2. Australia, +2:02.52
3. Italy, +11:57.30
4. Spain, +16:29.22
5. Finland, +21:15.45
Junior World Trophy Classification (After Day 5 of 6)
1. Australia, 13:15:53.10
2. USA, +8:39.20
3. Spain, +27:28.97
4. Portugal, +1:14:50.24
5. Belgium, +1:20:40.88
Women’s World Trophy Classification (After Day 5 of 6)
1. USA, 9:58:03.46
2. Germany, +8:35.22
3. Great Britain, +18:18.88
4. Sweden, +35:34.47
5. Spain, +41:04.50