VOLUME 58 ISSUE 35 AUGUST 31, 2021 P37
extremely short notice, though
the FIM granted Knight an exten-
sion to get it teched (Saturday
morning instead of Friday after-
noon).
"I was just dumbfounded
by how supportive everybody
was," Knight said. "Not that I
would doubt that anybody would
be willing, but everybody was
jumping in super-fast. I had full
gear setups in a matter of 15, 20
minutes—maybe half an hour."
Most eyes, of course, will be
on the U.S. World Trophy team of
first-timer Johnny Giorror, Layne
Michael, Taylor Robert and Ryan
Sipes, the latter two part of the
team that won in Portugal in 2019
(the last ISDE to run).
To that end, most of the team
arrived even earlier than usual
in order to walk the nine special
tests that'll be used over the
course of the six days in Rivanaz-
zano Terme, Italy.
As Sipes noted, though,
"Starting in 2019, we flew in a
couple days earlier than normal—
three days earlier than normal.
This year they made a rule so a
lot of guys did fly in three days
early, but [officials] made a rule
[a week or so] before the race
that you can only start [inspect-
ing tests] eight days in advance.
So those guys got here and sat
around for a day and a half."
Still, the Americans put in a lot
of miles walking each test two or
three times. In previous years,
that would mean 60-70 miles.
This year, it was closer to 95!
The Italian tests are also
marked by an abun-
dance of hills, off-
cambers and dry,
rocky terrain.
"What's kind of
tough about this year
is how much eleva-
tion there is," Sipes
said. "But whatever.
The people that want
to work hard and put
in the time, I think it's
going to pay off."
After the first day of
competition, the U.S.
Trophy Team is sitting
in third place, 52.64
seconds behind the
leading host coun-
try of Italy. Spain is
second, less than a
second of the U.S.
team.
Taylor Robert (FMF
KTM) was the team's
top finisher. "Day one
was definitely the
roughest start I've had at ISDE
in a little while," Robert said. "I
crashed in the very first test, but
hopefully I got that out of the way
now and just moving forward
from here. I gradually got better
throughout the day and started
minimizing some mistakes. I
think the whole team in general
had a bit of a slow start, but we
definitely got better throughout
the day. We'll just try to keep
chipping away at the lead, it's
day one and we've got a lot of
racing left.
"As far as myself," he added,
"I was riding good, but the times
weren't where I was hoping they
would be, so I just need to pick
up the pace a little bit tomorrow."
The U.S. Junior World team is
also third behind the leading Ital-
ian squad and the French team.
Brandy Richards (FMF/KTM)
is leading the U.S. Women's
Team at the top of the charts.
Richards finished two minutes
ahead of the next-best Women
racer.
Mark Kariya
Brandy Richards (pictured), with
teammates Britney Gallegos and Rachel
Gutish, is leading the Women's team
division.
PHOTO: MASTORGNE PHOTOGRAPHY
