Cycle News

OFF-ROAD 93RD FIM INTERNATIONAL SIX DAYS ENDURO NOVEMBER 12-17, 2018 VINA DEL MAR, CHILE P54 iii My Own Race: 111 TAYLOR ROBERT 2ND WT, 1ST E2, 2ND O/A "I think this year it comes down to being comfortable with the terrain because you see how myself, [Australia's Daniel] Sand- ers and [fellow Aussie Daniel] Milner are minutes ahead of fourth place [in the individual overall]," Robert observed after the fourth day. "I guess you could consider us the three desert dogs. We're probably the most comfortable with the terrain, but right now Milner's on a pretty high note." 112 STEWARD BAYLOR 2ND WT, 2ND E2, 4TH O/A Steward Baylor enjoyed a better, if only slightly less painful, last half of the week. Following day four he said, "Today was good! I ended up fourth overall on the day; it's my best day yet. My goal was to come here and compete for top five overall. I had a really bad crash the first day (a Brazilian rider came into a turn on the street way too hot and cleaned Baylor out) and I think it just took the wind out of my sails. I was sore all week, my shoulder's still sore. Then [brother] Grant, he's dislocated his shoulder four times and still sending it so I'm like, 'I can't cry about my shoulder if he's still doing it' so it is what it is. My leg, side, shoulder, back—everything's just tight. Today I just went in, tried to nail my lines and not make any mistakes." 114 JOSH TOTH 2ND JWT, 5TH E1 "The first two tests I looked pretty strong—I was pretty close to the top 10 [individual] overall—then the third test in, I slammed my face off my handlebars so I messed up my tongue and rattled my brain a little bit. My jaw's still hurting," Toth said after the third day, "so that set me back and I just wasn't feeling right after that. That really set me back for day two overall; I was [43rd] in the overall so that set me up for the dust real bad so I've just been fighting it [ever since]. So I moved up to 30th and today I got 13th so I'm pretty stoked on that and looking forward to starting earlier [tomorrow] and hopefully avoid some of that dust. It's hard to compete with the guys up front when I'm braking in the straightaways and I can't see anything." 255 BRANDY RICHARDS 2ND WWT, 2ND WOMAN O/A After day four, Richards said, "Before we got here, I was expect- ing some more sand which would've been better and more in my favor. [Instead], it's been all hard-packed and slick and really silty so I've been adjusting more to it. As the days go on, I get better and better every day. I've been working on more consistency because at the beginning of the week I was really struggling with that so every day I've been improving. Yesterday I struggled in just one test and today, I came into it a little bit better—I didn't have any crazy incidents; I was pretty consistent today." 757 KENDALL NORMAN 82ND CLUB, 12TH C2 "This has been a pretty awesome experience just being part of Team USA and having our Club team that we're part of—just all the riders; it's been awesome!" multi-time SCORE Baja champ Norman declared. "It's been a transition getting used to this. It's been very humbling, to be honest, because I felt really uncomfortable and rode really tight. The fast guys' times are surprising; they're really fast!" He added, "Everything's on time. You can't really get comfortable like relaxing or what- ever. You come into the time checks where we have service [available and] it's like go, go, go! You've got to be on time and you've got to take care of your bike, you've got to take care of yourself and at the end of the day you've got to service everything [in a limited amount of time]. Trying to keep it up on two wheels at all times so you don't cause some damage [is important]. Anything that happens by accident that you do out there on the trail or in a special to your bike ends up costing your body because you're in the pits working on the bike [after the incident] and you don't get a chance to refuel and rehy- drate the same way as if you just had to put gas and just check some minor things."

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