Day four of the 95th FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) came to a close on Thursday in Lombardy-Piedmont, Italy and the U.S. World Trophy Teams are seeing mixed results heading into the final two days of racing. The U.S. Women’s Trophy Team, equipped with Husqvarna Motorcycles’ Rachel Gutish and Britney Gallegos, have further extended their generous lead in the division, while the Junior World Trophy Team saw a drop from second to fourth after a big crash from Austin Walton halfway through the day.
Putting forth a strong title defense following their 2019 victory in Portugal, the U.S. Women’s Trophy Team carries a lead of more than 11 and a half minutes ahead of Great Britain at the end of day four. Husqvarna Motorcycles-mounted rider Rachel Gutish has been a catalyst, alongside teammate Brandy Richards (KTM), for the team’s success as she sits fourth outright in the Women’s division with consistently fast performances aboard her Husqvarna FX 350.
“Day four was a pretty good day for us, we extended our lead again so I can’t complain about that,” Gutish said. “I was fourth again, so I’m happy with that. I rode to the best of my ability and didn’t really make any major mistakes or have any problems. The new logging road test was absolutely sick, I definitely liked the longer amount of time and the fact that you’re up in the mountains! We’ll go back out again tomorrow knowing where the loop goes, which is always nice. I think as long as we hold it together, we’ll be good.”
Teammate Britney Gallegos continues to improve her times as she eases her way into the ISDE format for the first time ever. Gallegos, racing aboard the Husqvarna FX 250, had her best finish of the week on day four and she looks to put herself consistently inside the top-10 in the final day of enduro tests tomorrow.
“For me, day four was probably the best day that I’ve had on the bike yet. I feel like I’m finally getting used to this type of racing,” Gallegos commented. “Things are finally starting to click and I’m honestly kind of wishing we had more days. As an endurance rider, I feel like I’m getting the hang of it and while everybody is kind of getting tired, I feel like I’m hitting my strongest points. I’m looking forward to day five and hopefully get into the top-10 – I want to keep pushing and continue to get better at this type of racing and there’s one day left to do it.”
Sitting second behind Italy at the end of day three, the U.S. Junior World Trophy Team lost quite a bit of momentum on Thursday as Austin Walton experienced a big crash in test three. Up to that point, the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing Team rider had consistently maintained top-15 finishes in the JWT category, contributing solid team scores aboard the Husqvarna FX 450. Despite digging deep to finish out the day’s racing, the team officially confirmed that Walton will sit out the rest of the week due to injuries sustained in the crash.
“It was one of those hard days out there today,” Walton said. “I ended up having a crash in the morning, just a small one, and lost a little bit of time so I was trying to pick up my pace for the next stages and ended up having another crash on stage three, and this one was really bad. I hit a tree and pretty much went dead-stop and ended up breaking my scapula. After that, I was hurting a lot but I made it through that stage and finished out the day, I think we had 100 km to go, and we just got it done. It was gnarly but we did it and unfortunately that was the end of my week here in Italy.”
Day five of the 2021 International Six Days Enduro will resume on Friday, September 3 in Lombardy-Piedmont, Italy. For a list of complete results, please visit https://fim-isde.com/2021-results/. Women’s World Trophy Classification (After Day 4 of 6)1. USA, 7:25:34.17
2. Great Britain, +11:34.65
3. Spain, +13:31.21
4. Portugal, +25:45.96
5. France, +27:30.01
Junior World Trophy Classification (After Day 4 of 6)
1. Italy, 10:00:51.00
2. France, +6:26.31
3. Sweden, +8:33.04
4. USA, +15:26.27
5. Chile, +38:48.49
World Trophy Classification (After Day 4 of 6)
1. Italy, 9:50:38.35
2. Spain, +5:01.43
3. USA, +7:01.60
4. Sweden, +9:30.49
5. France, +10:15.75 |