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OFF-ROAD 93RD FIM INTERNATIONAL SIX DAYS ENDURO NOVEMBER 12-17, 2018 VINA DEL MAR, CHILE P56 seconds behind Verona, and day five saw him less than a second behind, though two WT riders fin- ished ahead of them that day. In the final motocross test of day six, Toth put in a spirited ride to the fourth-best time of the class, leaving him on gold medal status with the fifth-best class time of the week behind fourth-fastest Sipes. Chile held the first running of what became the Women's World Trophy when it hosted the ISDE in 2007 in La Serena, about four hours north of Vina del Mar. In the ensuing 11 years, the French became the strongest, but even they were supplanted at the top by Australia which won in Vina del Mar for a record-extending sixth-consecutive time! Australia led from the outset with the U.S. WWT team a strong sec- ond but unable to match them as a team until day five when Brandy Richards won five of the first six tests and bested perennial class leader Tayla Jones (and was sec- ond by less than 0.3 of a second in the last one to Jones). Not only that, in the final motocross test of day six, the American women showed enough motocross skills on the sandy beachside track to collectively top the Aussies for the day, 39:55.93 to 40:15.04. But Australia had enough of a lead going in that it didn't need to win the day, its overall time 9:03.10 better than the Americans. Spain upset the French by claiming third, almost 12 minutes behind the U.S., France and Sweden rounding out the top five. CN fourth with Australia rounding out the top five. Grant Baylor enjoyed a strong first half of the week before dislocating his shoulder four times. Prior to that, he'd been in the running for top JWT rider overall but the annoyance—and discomfort—of the shoulder popping out dropped him off the pace to fourth Junior overall and eighth in E2 (where he was the first Junior). Ben Kelley started the week 19th in E2 but moved up to 10th (just behind Baylor) by midweek. Seventh on day four, he ended up 11th in the class and was second Junior after Baylor. For Josh Toth, the week got off to a slightly rocky start, but didn't let it get him down. Three sub- par tests saw him 10th E1 (125cc two-stroke/250cc four-stroke) at the end of the first day while day three saw him second-fastest in class, trailing only Italian JWT rider Andrea Verona (and ahead of Sipes who was fourth-fastest that day). He repeated that the next day but was less than eight finisher Italy, the American squad beating them by almost four min- utes while being seven minutes, 9.98 seconds behind Australia. Defending champion France settled for fourth with Spain fifth. The same held true for the U.S. JWT and WWT teams, though in the case of the Ameri- can Juniors, a strong Italian team led from the outset to eventually take its first JWT victory since 2008 in Greece. Starting out third behind Italy and France after the first day, a better second day moved them past the French and into the runner-up spot they oc- cupied for the rest of the week. Though the three young Italians (JWT riders must be under 23 years old) proved to be a step quicker than the Americans, the top two teams were a level above third-place France; while Aus- tralia beat the U.S. by 3:57.50, the U.S. put a gap of nearly 15 minutes on the French. Led by 2018 Junior-division Enduro World Champion Ruy Barbosa, home team Chile was a close The U.S. ISDE team makes sure to have spaghetti and other carb-rich foods available to riders at the end of the day, Tarah Gieger taking Gordon White up on his pasta.