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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128075
Enduro (Left) Mike Monroe cheers on Randy Hawkins on a section of dayfive trail. Monroe went out on the first day when a s pring broke in his sh ifting mechanis m. (Right) U.S. , J unior World rider Brian Brown ea rned a silver medal. !4 !ilii iii !II I· 1l o U o 20 Siget y also had an adventure fro m there, leaving his bike and accepting a ride dow n to a village, where he used a $20 bill to buy drinks for all of the guys who helped him out. According to the story, his pit crew finall y found him late tha t night in a caf e, in a better mood than they might have expec ted . Mika Ahola was still setting fastest times for the event, while America's best rider was Ty Davis, about 56 second s off th e Finn' s pace. Finl and, Sweden a nd Italy, in tha t order, were still leading the Trophy co m pe tition, while consistent riding he lped the U.S. team mov e up from 10th to eighth. The third da y w a s a ch a ng e of course, but not of terra in . In st ead of going high up into the mountains, the course stayed low er , and continu ed dusty and dangerous. Two new enduro tests were ad ded to the course, bot h littie more tha n bull d ozed tracks through young tree plantations. One course was so obvious ly d a n ge ro u s du e to the dusty conditions and fast, fast downhills that it w as removed from th e ti m ing schedule befo re an y rid ers even tried it. "Good thin g, too," said Drew Smith . "O ne d ownhill wa s so bad, some body would have got ten seriously hurt trying to race on it." Day three took some time away from our Trophy Team rid ers, as Pat Garra han exp lained. "Brian (Pat' s brother ) had a bad day. He threw a cha in on a specia l test and he lost a bunch of tim e. He had to ge t a chain from his cha se rid er, go back, and break th e one off his bike. He lost 15 m inutes right there. [ had an all right dust. If you have a problem , you could make the time up in this terrain, but it' s just so d usty you can't pass anyone. It also see ms to be the most un or ganized Six Days I've been to in a long time, but hey, we 're all riding it. May be the Portu gu e se r iders we re fi gurin g th ey w er en ' t going to do all that w ell anyhow, so they'd jus t make it miserabl e for everybody. , "Hey, it's ta king it's toll on everybody," Haw ki ns a d ded . " I just saw Gianmarco Ro ss i (a n It a lian Trophy Team rider) alongs ide the trail, stopped; I'saw one of the Swede rid ers pushing in toda y. I mean th e attrition is getting everybody. My carb is still full of crud. I'm going to have to do ,a carb swap in the morning." Finland, Sweden and Italy still sat at the top of the Trophy competition, with the Czech Republic and then Australia nipping at the heels. The Americans still d a y; the on ly p roblem I had w as m y plu g fouled on the line and I lost 20 seconds there. That's not the way you want to start your day." Brian' s troubles jacked hi s p oints score way up, but since only five riders' s cores a re counted o n the T roph y Teams, the Ll.S, team was still all right. Davis was vi s ibl y upset at the end of d ay three a n d n ot in an y m ood to b e quoted , though he did say a few words. "I ha ve a couple of squids near my minute, a n d it see ms lik e o n e- tim e "A mer ica n" rider w a s th e they're alwa y s in th e senior member of the Aus tra lia n Trowa y. With this dust it's phy Team. Geoff Ballard rod e on the impossible to get away American Trophy Tea m in 1984, after a long from them, and it's terseason o f ridin g the Americ an Qualifier rible . I'm in dust all day series and being selected for the team under lon g, and havin g to go hea vy protest from enthusiasts concerned way too fast just to stay that the U.s. team shoul d stay "all-Ameriwhere I am ." can." His bike then was a Can-Am 250, and Randy Hawkins had he narrowl y missed being top Am erican that more to a d d . When year, instea d fin is h in g just a few p oints asked .if there was anybelow Jeff Fredette. thing he wanted to tell "It was th e grea tes t th ree yea rs of m y his fans back home, he life," he said at the Six Days this year. "To be said , "They're not missable to ride in America at that time was fanin g any thin g . This is tastic; it was a dream come tru e. [ worked for rid icu lou sl y dus ty . Barry Higgi ns and race d on the weekends , The y hav e the potential lived in a mo to rhome w ith my wife Jenny to put on a really great and her daughter. It was great..To be part of race here, but I d on't the Aussie Trophy team this yea r again, and kn ow wh at they're try actually make the podi u m at m y age, well, ing to pro v e . We 're that's also a g rea t thing . I'm very happy running 'A' sc he d u le; today." w e s h o u ld be o n ' B' sched ule because of the Old Aussies never die... A held on to eighth, waiting for an opportu nity to move up . With the deficit they'd piled up, ahout25 minutes of lost points, all they cou ld hope for was consiste nt lu ck a nd to take advantage of other folks' mistakes, O n day four, it just d idn't happen. Bef ore th e en d o f the day, Des tr y Abbo tt's Kawasa ki 250cc ingested enough d irt to stop running ano ther,bott om-end bearing failure, the sa me probl e m th at took h im ou t last year . ow the U.s. Trophy Tea m was unprotect ed agains t any mo re failu res, and they wo uld all have to rid e carefully in orde r to preserve the team resulls. Fortunately, thi s is a p osition the Ll.S. team has been in a n umb er of times before, and they do a great job of protecti ng a position . Sometimes it's easy to forget that the AA riders and National Champions on th e Troph y Team are there for a reason, but watching them ride, y ou r emember - they're th ere