Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

. .ND R 69th International Six Days Enduro E U P:· E (Above) Karl Tlalnen (402) and Fabio Farioll had a battle royale In the Heavyweight Four-Stroke final moto. TIalnen won the class all six days . (Right) Lisa Gibson was one of just three women to enter the grueling event, and one of two to make It to the finish• .BriefIv· ~ree) ~ '(Day .Ty Davis continued to hold doWn third place : in the ullra-compeliiive HIW class, while Rod- ' n ey Sm ith stayed ctose in fourth : Only . Stephane Peterhansel and Giovanni Sala . were 'ahead of DaVis, while Tullio Pellegrlnelll contin ued to, separate Davis and Smith in fourth. Davis was twice second- and '. As promlsed vs peetators' were 'denled tWice ninth-fastest in the special tests. sata access to the 'special tests. "This' is pretty was fastest in two tests; and Peterhansel and . sad; said one 'spectator from Arkansas, who Frenchman Erl,c Bernard .were the quickest had just arrived with three of his friends, only , in the other two. ' . '. ' . be told that they couldn't watch the ' special tests and that there was no large-screen TV. In the l-NI class,' Paul 'Edmondson put his ' "They took our monevet the gate, gave us ' 125cc Gas Gas to the front of the heap, rale- . this piece of "paper.saying we couldn't go any" where, then gave us another piece Of paper gating Italian Maurlzfo Carmlnat l to second. to fill out and mail back ,if we wanted our Sc o tt Su mme rs co nt in ued to click off . money back. 'In that orderl Go figure; We'll respe ctabtetirnes inthe HIW' Four-Str oke probably just turn around and go home. " . , div ision, and was 'sti ll hold ing 'down thir d . Later .on, three TV Screens were hooked up place 'after Day Three, just 40 points n ehlnd" showing video tape of the event. 'It wasn't ' Itali an Fabi o Farlo ll and 70 points behind' quite "live; but close. class leader -Karl Tlal nen. The next -best Amer ican was H onda rider Oan Harte in Many of the late-numbered Club riders had to 11th: J eff Fr ed ette, ri din g a, Ka wasak i, ".change tires and perform bike maintenance KLX250. led the, U.S. charge in the l-NI Four- In the ,dark at the end of each day. The only lights in the wei'!< area were those provided, Stroke class, holding down ninth place. ' via portable generators, by the teams them: .With three' days under his belt, Guy Cooper .selves, Smaller·budgetedteams used flash- ' was satisfi ed with his performa nce so far. lights to,ilhi mimite their machines. Even the , "Three days and no falls," said it cheerful " early-numbered Trophy riders had problems Cooper as he scarfed down a ham sandwich seeing in the darkness, while Working on their ' at the end ot the day. "I, tipped over twice, ,bikes during the i 0-minute moinin'g work today, but .no falls.. I'm really happy with how period. . 'everything is going: Cooper'atsosald that he wasn't surprised that his special test .times : "The toughest thing about this Six Days is the were slower than many of the Europeans. "1 . lOng days; . said Australian Geoff Ballard. "' knew,they were Iast,so l'in not surprised at have a fairly'late 'number,'so when I get in (at all. There are a ton of rocks ' out there and . the end of the day), I don't have a lot of time ,they're not afraid of them: eoOper sspecial ' getting ready for the next day: By the time I.' test times were slightly off the pace on Thurs- get to bed it's 'about 11 o'clock, and I still , day. He was .15th-: 2Oth-, 16th, and 20th- . have to get out here (pare ferme) early in the fastest in the four special tests, and slipped to ' moming: .. 11th in the overall HIW class standings. . . Riders'used a variety of tricks to bring 'their . "Today was a lot easier 'o~ my wrists; said bikes down to,an acceptable decibel level for ' ROdney Smith . "The ground was a lot softer: '. th e .ISDE: Plastic or ribbed aluminum I've put splints on my wrists at night and while silencers were' commonplace, and one rider .. . was seen with alurniriurn foil wrapped around , I sleep. It has h!llped lot so far: . ..' . ..' . his expansion chamber. Scott Summers had The Salt Fork Dirt .RlderS we're now outot . a twin exhaust system mounted on his Honda the hunt with the,' departure of Fred Andrews. ' XR600, complete with' two ' silencers. A left · This made the Tulsa Trail Riders - Kelby sidepanel.from an,XR650L was used to pro- : Pepper, Jeff Fredette and David Rhodes,- the .vide clearance for me left silencer., . top-running ,U.S: Club.tearn.. in' sixth place. . The U.S. SUZUki and Kawasaki iearnswere. ' A scoring error had Ra'ridy Hawklns 'in BOth still battli ng it .out over fourth place in the , place in the UWclass 'at :the end of Day , Manufaciurers team class."The Suzuki team 'Three, which' also effected the team's plac.still led the Kawasak;'teamby.57.53 points. . ing. The error was caught after the ,results ' The leading.team was the,KTM Fljrioli Italy . were made official, but the mistake was cor. rectedin the next day'S' results; After Day trio. . , '; . Three ; the ' U:S: Trophy -team should have . There were varied opinions about the tough- '. been: listed in 'around fifth place, instead of, 'ness of the' event. "If they're going to run us : eighth. '.' . . . . ".; a oo::t< 0\ 0\ rl u) I-< (l) .g .... U o 10 .. . into the ground, 'then they shoo'ld oo it; said Kevin Hlnilli; "They're giving us too much time at the checks. They should keep grinding us right to i he· end." IIalian Tullio Pellegrlnelll disagreed.·"ln myopinion,-the days . are too long; .said the former Wcirld Cham~ on. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to start when it is dark. Today we. rode for four and a '. half hours before the first special test: . . third-place ride for the day, maintaining second in the class stan din gs. The da y was fairly uneventful for the American Trophy teams. No U.S. Trophy riders were lost, though the top Ll.S, Club team was put out of the running. Andrews' D ay Two exhaustion co mpounded in to a fever overnight, and the Yamaha rider was unable to start D ay Three. There were no major changes in the Trophy and Junior Trophy team results, except for A ustral ia dropping back two places to fifth after getting passed by the Czech Republic and the German teams. The top three positions in the Junior World d i v i si on remained u nchanged: italy, Sweden and Australia. Day Three Results TRO PHY: 1. Italy (199.6); 2. Sweden (677.81); 3. Czech Republic (1914.50); 4, Ger many (2230.08); 5. Australia (2353.36); 6. Finland (3237.74); 7. Po rt uga l (5070.90);8. USA (5951.05); 9. South Africa (lllOO686.IO); 10. Chile (140921.16). JR" 1. Italy (710.42); 2. Swede n (830.55); 3. Austra lia (119 2.65) ; 4. Net he r land s (1809 .06 ); 5. Ge rma ny (4352.32); 6. Me xico (5278.76); 7. Spa in (8311.12); 8. France (lS981.99); 9. Canada (17810 .33 ); 10. Czech Republic (3t906 .42); 11. U5A (46275.8t) . DAY FOUR Friday b ro u ght a r oller-eoaster r ide for the American Trophy team, and n ot just on the ISO-mile trail, which was identical to Day One's co urse. Things looked up for the r ed , w hite and blue when Pellegrinelli crashed and separated his shoulder, but after taking some pain killers and taping an ice pack to his shoulder, Pellegrinelli heroically p ushed on . St ill, the pain had him turning i n specia l test times slightly off his normally blazing pace. The day was going m u ch b ett er for th e U .S., however, with D av is finishing third on th e,day and Coop er turning in his best score yet - a seventh place. Just a couple m iles from the fi nish, h o w ev er , th ing s to ok a very d i st inct down turn when Summ ers crash ed, breaking two bon es in his righ t hand and bruising his ribs. In one fell swoop, Summ ers' rid e wa s over, al ong w ith the chances of a U'S , win or even a top finish. " The trail was all black, and 1 reall y couldn't see the black r ocks that blended in with the dirt," sai d Summers. " I h it something 1 d idn' t see and cr ash ed . 1 dodged like a m illion rocks today, and at the end 1 hit one . 1 probably didn't ha ve m y m i nd ri ght. I had just finished the special test and was thinking about working on m y bike and all the things 1 had to do at the finish." Peterhansel w as on fire, w inning three special tests and fi nishing second

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