Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

augured in. You never get a chance to see Peterhansel almost eat it very often. " Steve Hatch rode with his "hero" all day. Swedish rider Joachim Hedendahl. "We rode together in Australia in '92." said Hatch. "and i guess he's aiways been my hero. It's neat riding with these guys - Hedendahl. Rodney (Smith). Ty (Davis). it really bumps you up to a new level. Now I'm beating him (HedendahD: he lets me. go ahead. That's pretty neat. ". More speeding tickets were handed out today. and one of the recipients was U"S. Junior World team rider Brian Storrie. "There was a sign saying radar ahead. but it's really hard to determine how fast you're going." said Storrie. "I was riding with a Finnish rider and the police pointed to the two of us to pull over. but a course marshal pointed to the Finnish guy and the police let him go but gave me a ticket. That really made me angry. At impound. they had my number and I had to wait in line for about 45 minutes to get my ticket. There were at least 15 guys in line! They asked me how much money I make to determine the fine - I lied big time. I tali! them about a hundred .dollars a ,!,onth." italian Trophy team rider Giovanni Sala reportedly got a ticket. too. but told them his income was· zero. "I make no money." he said. U.S. club rider Tommy Ady completed the day despite his sore foot. "No. it's not broken but it hurts a littie." he said. Ady narrowly missed out on getting a speeding ticket. "The other two guys on my minute got tickets." Ady said. "I got to the finish. a cop pulled me aside. had my number on a sheet but my number wasn't Circled, everyone else's was." Perhaps the rider having the most fun of all up to this point was U.S. Junior World team rider Mike Lafferty. "This is my first Six Days it's cool. I like it a lot." said the KTM rider who hails from New Jersey. "It's all riding. riding. riding. then the special test when you got to go. I'm enjoying it. Yesterday. at the first test. I felt a little nervous. I was riding like a sqUid. I've never ridden a motocross course before. never. ever. But this is really cool: I wish a lot more people (from the United States) could come out to travel and see something like this. Real fun." Jim Conner. of the Trail Rider MC team. had a stressfui day. "All the spokes loosened up in a reai short time period." said Yamaha VZ125mounted Conner. "It caught me off guard so I had to tighten what spokes I could at one check. go to the next check and they came loose again. So. finally I took a few minutes lost some points - to tighten the whole wheel up." D ay three would be, mileage-wise, the longest of the week at approximately 240 miles, which included plenty of pavement sections. The riders would also see two new tests - the railroad and Southwick tests. Davis got his day off to a great start by setting the fastest 175cc time in the first special test (ski resort) of the day. He edged out Sala by two seconds; Laaksonen by three seconds, and Edmondson by seven seconds. However, in the next test, Davis wouldn't have it as good. "1 got smoked," Davis said. "It was a grass track and I knew 1 would (get smoked). 1 have a hard time with those grass tracks'. 1 tried as hard as 1 could and almost ate it a couple of times - slippery." , Davis would finish fourth on the day behind Sala, Laaksonen and Edmonson. Finishing right behind Davis was Peterhansel, followed by Italian Junior World rider Matteo Rubin, Watts and Rodney Smith. Chris Smith had a good day, finishing 13th in class. . "Better, getting there," said Smith. "Getting more comfortable with the tests today. Made a couple of Inistakes but no spectacular crashes." Up to this point, Smith had been bothered by sore wrists. "When 1 get Mike Lafferty changed a rear tire but ran out of time to finish the front; here he rides into impound on the ..... ::; ./;f front rim. • . . :: .....- mto tight traIls, :.~;';i~;.! ;.~;=:;-;~~..••~'!;,!~"".r.. ' ....... -,,'J'.:.,-.>, .. start hammering those rocks,' .' ....:. ':!<~/:::'~"";..~~ ... :.,~> f)'-'1 they start to hurt a lot," said Smith. "I've been icing them every night and today they were all right, but still painful." Hatch had a tough day. "In the very first special test, there's a long straight and they put in two jumps you could probably double," he said. "I didn't double those, I just jumped them, then 1 had total brain fade. 1 was excited to get over those without any problems and 1 forgot totally about the next two jumps. I was in fourth gear, wide open, when 1 finally saw it (the jumps). I hit the brakes, knew 1 was going case it, so then 1 pinned it, jumped right into the face of the second jump and got kicked sideways and it threw me way up in the air. I just jumped off. The bike shot up and got stuck in a tree. Things got better after that." In the 12Scc class, Cooper enjoyed his best day, finishing fifth overall for the day, while Hawkins labored with mediocre test times. "It's like those pro golfers:' explained Hawkins. ~They can smoke it for days then, one day... Just couldn't get it together today. I had no real problems but just didn't do anything good." Hawkins ended up 11th for the day. Eriksson continued his blitz on the 400cc Four-Stroke class, while Italians Rinaldi and Nicoli ended up 2-3 on the day. Knapp was the top American class finisher in ninth. Jansson beat out Tiainen by six seconds for the day's top honors in the 500cc Four-Stroke class. The Swede went 1-2-2-1-2-2, with Tiainen going 9-41-2-5-1. Slovakian rider Jaroslav Katrinak edged out Summers for third. "Today went okay:' Summers said. ''I'm closer to Tiainen than I was yesterday. 1 feel like I'm going just as fast as 1 . am comfortable. 1 have a lot to lose personally, because if I hurt myself 1 could jeopardize my cross country title back in the States. I have that in the back of my mind all the time I'm out there. I'm not quite going to use that last 10 percent for safety reasons." Overall (combined classes) on the day, Sala again won out over Laaksonen, Edmonson, Davis, Silvan and Peterhansel. Rodney Smith was way back in 15th, just one spot ahead of Cooper. "DusLis a problem in the tests," said Smith. "1 keep catching up to the slower guys and getting dusted out. Sala, Edmonson, Davis and those guys are all riding together, so in the tests they don't catch each other and have it much clearer.I've got slow guys all around me." Finland again topped all the teams in the Trophy division, increasing their overall lead on Italy, but better special test scores put Sweden just ahead of the U.s. team for third. France was clinging i: <':' " ' : '." \~':'" .~ ..;.-~.,.,:';,:, ,,\ .. _ to ftfth .. ,.., ..:-.. .:.• ':-"".,.,:•• _.'!'y ", . on the ever-closlng .... -.-,\. "'(-:'/;""':'<:<"'!i< .,. "', Czech Repubhc team. ..- <:'<." ;",7.:";C.:"h._".._. . DespIte losm? to S:weden on the day, it was more ' .. ,.":'.' Fmland mamtamed .'t~ :upper hand m of a survival run than being the JunIOr World dIVISIOn, With l:aly the fastest." said team manager Di;lve . . thIrd, France fourth and the UnIted Bertram. States fifth. So to what did Randy Hawkins attribute his "!!'J~'m~I"t~~~, somewhat lackluster performance on day C three? "I think it was the blue today." said' Hawkins referring to his blue·colored riding gear. "I wore blue today for the first time: I'm Speeding tickets were again the topiC of going back to red and yellow tomorrow. No the day Wednesday. Up to this point. 115 tick· more blue." ets (mostly for speeding) had already been handed out to the competitors. "It's ridicu· Doing anything to get the upper edge on the lous." said U.S. Junior World team rider Brian competition. Ty Davis had an IV Tuesday Storne. "To maintain the speed average you night. "I tried it." said Davis. "but I ain't doing have to go over the speed limit. I guess it boils down to what's more important. 60 points or it again. It's supposed to help rejuvenate you and keep you from getting dehydrated. I don't $60. I'll take the $60." The problem was taken know. but I do know that my arm is sore from ~p at the daily jUry meetings. and the organizthe needle. " ers basically said there is nothing they can do about it. "A local guy told me that he does ralClub rider John Nielsen had one of those lies. and the last rally they had was here." said days. "I rode good. but had' a terrible day - if Rodney Smith who was also written up. "He said they had a big problem between the club. that make any sense." Nielsen said. "My day started going into Pare Ferme - I was all excit-' the federation and the police. And I guess it ed to change my Moose (foam inner tube) was a big fight between all of them. and so they (the club) went to them (the police) you see. I'm not very good at (changing) them - in the 1Q·minute work period. when I was before this race and tried to get in with them. and I guess they were jerks. They (the police) pulled aside and was given a breath analyzer, so that takes a minute or two, then I get stung said, 'We'lI show you who has the power.' And the guy says that now we're the ones who are by a bee three times. got a speeding ticket. and I think I lost my' box of tools, That was paying for it." According to some of the riders pretty much how my day went. Luckily. I didn't who got tickets. they were told by the police that they are concemed about safety. because lose any pOints. and had good tests. That part was fun." the local schools started up Tuesday. Most of the riders have been getting pulled over in Senior team rider Tom Ebersole, at 49 the town in radar traps, but some were caught speeding out in' the country. To make matters oldest rider on the U.S. team and the oldest rider in the entire event. was happy to have worse. riders" were warned Wednesday night reached the halfway point. "i've got a bad that the police were planning to add 14 addicold: things are coming around," he said. "I tional radar..equipped speed traps along the got a ticket today. I didn't know my bike. a course Thursday. CRE 250 with the MX transmission, could go that fast· 100 Ks (about 60 mph). Overall. I'm For the first time, the U.S. Trophy and Junior having fun. it's kind of like Tulsa (1994 ISDEJ World riders were treated to real meals in the but more fun. They've got some r.eally good U.S. pits immediately after impounding their trails here. " bikes. at the end of the day. A deal was made with the hotel that most of the American conTravis Bamford of the Cycle News Riders tingent was staying at. where the kitchen was another rider happy to see the halfway would whip up a batch of spaghetti. Unfortupoint. "I was beginning to have my doubts this nately. alter the hotel promised the United morning." he said. "I thought. 'Jeez Louise. States a good price for the spaghetti. the team what did I get myself intoT But we're haVing was given a bill qf nearly $600 . for two days worth. That equals out to about $60 per plate. fun. I'm just trying to be consistent and go as Needless to say. the United States ended that fast as I can without crashing too badly. " Up to this point. Bamford had not lost any route deal and bought a bucket of spaghetti from a points. local Italian restaurant for Wednesday. which was "Not that much cheaper." said support Struggling with a sore wrist was Fred member Kathy Bertram. The team would buy Hoess. "It's been bothering me since Mon· and cook its own spaghetti Thursday. and day: it's tendinitis or something." Hoess said. Drew Smith donated his own spaghetti Friday. "Today it really hurts and is swollen. I've never "I brought my own spaghetti to cook." said had problems with it before. but I guess it's all Smith. "So Ijust donated it to the team." the pounding here." He also escaped injury when he crashed hard in a special test. "In the With the prospects of a top-three finish for the first test. I hit a stump and the seat came up U.S. Trophy team looming on the horizon. the question was raised as to what is the best and hit me in the back. I heard some noise. like a bone cracking. and thought. 'Holy crowl I'm U.S. Trophy team finish in ISDE history? In still all right. doesn't really hurt - that's odd - it 1982 the U,S. squad. made up of Ed Lojak. should be hurting.' I got back up and thought. Terry Cunningham. Mike Melton. Scot ·Humm. guess I'll keep going.' I figured if you Harden, Wally Wilson and Mark Hyde. really hurt your back you'd know it." finished second in Czechoslovakia. "That year .....!!. 37

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