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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128176
IAbove) These smiling members of the U.S. support crew had hot spaghetti ready for the hungry riders at the end of each day. IBelow) NcNeIl(377), Brett Dooley (364), Andy Stokely (370) and Fredette (383) take the long walk to the start of the final MX special test. (Above) Storrie (378) and Luke McNeil (377) hope that their bike's start on a very cold and wet day one. ILeft) For every rider In this year's ISDE. there seemed to be two cops. (Right) Jeff Fredette makes jetting changes momenta before the start of day one. he was one of the main guys. I pointed at my bike and said, 'water, water.' At first he thought I meant gas. He pointed to a church that was down this dirt road, I said, 'thanks' and start to ride my bike to the church, then he grabbed my bike and wouldn't let me go. I pulled back, 'let me have it.' He kept grabbing it. He started pointing to his scooter, and eventually I figured out he wanted me to ride his scooter. I thought, 'okay.' So, the next thing you know, here I am, riding down this dirt road on this silly little scooter, in my gear and everything. I'm thinking, 'this is crazy.' "I finally get to the church and thought, 'now what?' I found this spigot and thought, 'how am I going to get the water back to my bike?' I saw this dumpster, looked inside and found a bottle. I filled it up with water and took it back to my bike. I thanked the marshal and took off." Hoess said he had to stop every few miles to fill the radiator with water. He finished out the day and replaced the cylinder head. Hoess was this year's "Top American." THE RED DDT The local policie were out in force at this year's ISDE in the Czech Republic. In fact, it seemed as though there were more cops in Jablonec nad Nisou than there were riders and spectators. And there were certainly more cops here than in Prague's international airport, where most of the competitors flew in and out. With all of the police, most of them hanging around in groups of four, and the "water-cannons" reportedly seen on the tops of some of the buildings around parc ferme, it made us wonder what they were expecting. A riot, perhaps? Did they think the enduro riders were a bunch of bikers coming into town to raise hell? Who knows, but it certainly made most of us feel unwelcome in this relatively small town. The cops didn't cut the racers any slack, either. A fast time schedule on day one forced the racers to "speed" on the city roads, which wasn't a hard thing to do, since the city speed limit in the Czech Republic is 50 kilometers an hour, roughly 35 mph. The police pulled the racers over left and right, either handing them citations or issuing them warnings, but, either way, delaying them to the checks. Many of the teams complained of this harassment at the nightly jury meeting held that evening, asking the organizers to slow things down a bit for day two, but nothing doing. On day two, the cops set up a speed trap and took photos of the riders as they sped through town. At the end of the day, the cops set up a tent in the impound area and every rider had to stop by the tent, give the cops their riding number, and if they had a photo, you were busted. Luckily, most of the riders were just given a warning, but some had to pay up. Some of the riders made it through the whole Six Days without getting flashed the red dot (the elongatedlooking ping-pong paddle with a distinctive red dot on it that meant you must pull over), such as Fred Hoess and Jeff Fredette, while other riders weren't so lucky, such as U.S. Club ISDE. Notes: Fred Hoess was this year's "Top American" Brian Storrie was the top-placing U.S. Club rider. The Ridge Riders Motorcycle Club (Eric Bailey, Luke McNeil and John Yates) was the top-finishing Club team (26th). No American riders won a Final MX Special Test moto. cue I e n e _ S • OCTOBER 16, 2002 23