Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128398
France should have pulled themselves back to the top of the Trophy team results, its hopes of victory well and truly disappeared, as Germain retired with mechanical problems, along with fellow E I-class rider Damian Miquel. Down to just three riders - Seb Guillaume, jordon Curvalle and Emmanuel Albepart - the team vanished from the first sheet of the result to 15th, beating only Canada, Venezuela and Greece. On paper, Finland looked like the team to beat in Slovakia, and prior to the start of the event, few would have bet against Europe's northernmost Trophy team doing anything other than winning. But Finland came up short and only managed the runner-up spot. So why did Finland, with some of the world's highest-paid professional enduro riders on its team, fail to repeat its 2004 success? That was a question a lot of people were asking when all was said and done. There are a number of reasons as to why they didn't get the job done: Too much pre-event merriness certainly didn't help their performances at the beginning of the week, while, according to seven-time World Champion Tiainen, they simply "rode like shit." But there were a couple of very definite factors as to why Finland didn't win. First, they didn't seem to have the "want" that they have had in previous years - the desire to really win and prove themselves as being the best. Second, Mika Ahola deciding to race on a 12S for the first time in umpteen years - haVing raced a 500cc four-stroke for the past five seasons - which resulted in the long-haired, threetime overall ISDE winner failing to be properly competitive until day five. But without a doubt, the main reason as to why Finland didn't win was because Marko Tarkkala, the rider who would likely have finished as runner-up to David Knight in the Enduro 3 class, failed to finish. Crashing out on day three, the loss of one of the team's key riders ultimately resulted in its failure to win. The team also missed juha Salminen's presence, not only as a rider capable of contributing minimal daily scores but also as the squad's gUiding influence. Without Salminen, the team seemed a little disoriented. The Slovakian Six Days was, as many riders described it, "a bloody good event." Well-organized, challenging, featuring good motocross and proper forest-based enduro tests, the final motocross race brought the event, as it should, to an exciting and enjoyable climax - and not to a controversial and disappointing close, as has been the case at several recent events. With the paddock situated on the outskirts of Povazska Bystrica, a town of around 43,000 inhabitants situated 107 miles from Bratislava, the event used three main courses - one for days one and two, one for days three and four, and another for day five. On day six, a short 3 I-mile loop took the riders from Povazska to the former GP motocross track of Sverepec. On days one and two, the course was all but identical to that used in last year's Slovakian World Championship round, proving that the organizers certainly weren't interested in putting on an "easy" event. Passing through some 40 villages during the six days, each rider spent around six hours in the saddle each day, with two laps of each day's course being ridden by all. Each of the first five days saw riders complete around 155 miles per day. On day one, the event featured three special tests: two grassy motocross tests and one enduro test. Ridden on B schedule, as soon as the grass had been removed from the tests, dust soon appeared, with the Slovakian soil remain- ing hard and unwilling to rut up. On days three and four, two motocross and one enduro test was again the order of the day, with the motocross tests again being grassy, and the enduro test laid out on a steep, picturesque slope featuring a central wooded area, as well as some spectacular jumps. On day five, two motocross tests and one enduro test decided the winners. Of the six days, Thursday proved to be the tightest on time, with most Club team riders only haVing a few minutes to spare at each checkpoint. Being the tightest day on time and also the first wet day, several riders crashed out of the event, haVing lost control of their machines on the fast, slippery tracks between checks. During the Six-day event, the weather remained dry for the first three days, with light rain first appearing on day four. On day five, however, conditions took a turn for the worse with heavy overnight rain resulting in an extremely muddy day. With tests and check penalties often scrubbed when conditions take a turn for the worse, Dr. Peter Smizik, the event's clerk of the course, made the penalties stand. Bringing the event to an exciting close, the final motocross was run at the National Motocross Centre track of Sverepec. Hilly, a little wet for the first few Enduro I class races, and featuring several exciting and spectacular jumps, the track was a full-blown motocross track lined by several thousand spectators who had come to watch the racing. AMERICAN HOPES By STEVE BERKNER Team USA was hoping to relive good times in Povazska Bystrica. It was here, some 14 years ago, that four young Americans proudly held the junior World Trophy over their heads after six grueling days of competition in the mountains of what was then called Czechoslovakia. David Rhodes, jimmy Lewis, Steve Hatch and Chris Smith joined forces to win the junior World class in 1991, IB years after Team USA:s last major victory at the Six Days, when the Stars and Stripes won the Silver Vase (now junior World) trophy in Massachusetts. While this year's team might not have the success it had in 1991 or 1973, it did put forth another formidable effort. Leading this year's charge for Team USA was, once again, American ISDE sensation Kurt Caselli. Competing in only his fourth Six Days, the 22-year-old Californian earned the unofficial title "Top American" for the third consecutive year. just as he had done the previous two years, Caselli dominated the American headlines, again finishing 13th overall despite an "off day" that probably cost him a chance at a top-five overall finish. "Day one was just a catastrophe for me," Caselli said. "I just had one problem after another. I made some bad line choices and crashed a lot." Caselli finished the day 33rd overall after finishing sixth and eighth in the two special tests that he did not crash in, and B2nd, 79th and 54th in the tests that he had "problems" in. These problems left him one minute and 27.65 seconds behind the E2-c1ass and overall day-one leader, Australian Stefan Merriman. Kurt Caselli was the USA's top-finishing rider.