Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

79th International S ix Days Enduro inland, once again, proved that it is the world's strongest enduro nation by winning both the Trophy and Junior Trophy team classes at the 79th running of the Inte rnational Six Days Enduro in Kielce, Poland. As favorites to top the six-man Trophy team competitio n with the ir Scandinavian enduro "dream team," the riders from Europe's froze n north also came away from the event w inners in the Junio r Trophy category after Spain was knocked off the top spot following the disqualification of one of its team 's best riders. Sadly for everyone involved in the competition, the Polish Six Days will be an eve nt remembered for all the wrong reasons. With the sad loss of one of Germany's top enduro riders touc hing all riders on day three of the event, lawless Polish spectators , organized gangs of thieves, a disappoin ting course and special tests , most riders competing in the event left glad to see it finish . The event many hundreds of people had been looking forward to turned out to be one of the very lowest points in the history of the "olyrnpics of motorcycling." For Finland's Trophy team , a winn ing result was one that was expected by all. With more reigning and fo rme r World Enduro Champions within its squad than most other Trophy teams combined, the ease with which Juha Salminen, Samuli Aro, Petteri Silvan, Mika Ahola, Jani Laaksonen and Mika Saarenkoski topped the eve nt's mos t pre stigious class came as litt le surprise. W inning the Trophy team category on all but the second day, when F Salminen suffered mechanical pro blems that allowed Italy to finish top in the class, the Finns were otherwise untouchable at t he top. With Italy's squad cons isting of mainly experienced ISDE regulars and veteran WEC competitors, its team, on paper at least, didn't look strong enough to finish in the top three. But with consistent scoring on each of the five days of competition, the Italians made the ir experience count and placed 3 1/2 minutes ahead of France . In finishing third, France achieved a resu lt that few expected due to its sixman squad contain ing few WEC regu lars. With Enduro I-class riders Marc Germain and Fabien Planet performing as the team's best tw o riders, the French quie tly went about the ir business to place on the th ird step of the rostrum. Sweden's failure to finish in the top th ree came as a bit of a surprise as the team had some experienced and highly decorated riders w ithin its squad . W ith none of the team's riders challenging for a class win, the death of Swen Enderlein affecte d Swed ish team leader Anders Eriksson more than most competitors. For the seven-time World Champion , the death of a ride r he had become frie nds with duri ng years of competing in the Ge rman Enduro Championship meant Eriksson found it hard to motivate himse lf after day three. Behind Sweden, Great Britain finished as the next-best team, some seven min- 30 OOOBER 6,2004 • CY CL E NEWS utes adr ift of Sweden. Just like Australia in sixth, the lack of de pth of talent in the British squad stopped it from placing higher despite strong performances by David Knight and Paul Edmondson. With Spain having put its eggs in its Junio r Trophy team basket, the Spanish squad rode well all week before its lack of restraint saw it removed from the top spot in the Junior Trophy team by the international jury. With one of the team's riders assaulting a fe llow competitor dur- 40th Anniversary ing the final moto, Spain's week of hard work and consistent team finishes came to not hing. Fo r Finland the Junior Trophy-team win came as a pleasant surprise. HaVing ridden well during each of the five days, its victory was a deserved one. After starting the week by finishing in fo urt h place in the Junior Tro phy team category, Finland's juniors topped day tw o be fore placing third on days three, four and five. Placing less than one minute ahead of

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