Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1186100
OFF-ROAD 94TH FIM INTERNATIONAL SIX DAYS ENDURO NOVEMBER 11-16, 2019 PORTIMAO, PORTUGAL P48 IIIMY OWN RACE: from preparing for what may be his favorite race of the year. "I think it helped, for sure. I was actually best when the special tests were smooth and no lines; I could kind of flat track around them, and I had some really good test mes in them. I had a bunch of seconds [E1]. When it got real bermed up and everything and super- rough, that's when I struggled a li le bit more. I didn't really want to hold back, but I kind of was, just to be safe and be smart. I figured we had this thing if we could all be smart and not have any big mishaps since I did that last year—I had the big crash that kind of put us out of it, so I didn't want to do that again. For me, it was a stressful week just trying to be fast but consis- tent and not have that big crash. I only had one p-over in one test this week, the first day and it was just a li le p-over so I'm happy with that fact. Definitely had some close calls—the tests were super-sketchy this year." 638 DANTE OLIVEIRA 1ST CLUB TEAM/1ST C2/2ND CLUB RIDER OVERALL Dante Oliveira opened a lot of eyes last year with his performance in his first Six Days, and he backed that up in Portugal by leading XC Gear to the Club team championship and finishing second fastest among all Club riders, enduro legend Antoine Meo the only one to beat him. Oliveira, however, picked up the pace to best Meo's mes over the final three days, though the Frenchman had enough of a cushion before to s ll top the Club rider individ- ual overall by 38.46 seconds. "I didn't really know who we were going up World Trophy Australia got off to the stronger start due primarily to the phenomenal riding by Sanders, leaving the Americans scratch- ing their heads as they tried to figure out how to match his torrid pace. Steward Baylor had a brutally honest opinion: "I don't think any of us are riding as good as we should be or as good as we could be. That's tough for all of us and tough to keep your head in it, and the general attitude has obviously changed since the morning before the race start- ed. It doesn't help that Sanders is making us look like a bunch of monkeys." But none of the other Aussies came close to the times Sanders was regularly turning, so American emphasis shifted to getting all four riders as close as safely possible; packing the top 10 overall would likely be enough to beat the total time of the Australian team, similar to cross-country foot races where the goal is to get as many of a team's runners near the front as possible. In that, they were successful with Robert finishing third overall individually practically every day, ending the week there behind E3 winner Sanders and E1 winner Josep Garcia of Spain, who was a significant 53.23 seconds in arrears of the Though he didn't quite match Robert's consistent speed, Kailub Russell backed up his teammate well, claiming second in E2 and fourth individual overall. (Below) Taylor Robert was the winner of the E2 class and finished third overall, individually.