VOLUME ISSUE SEPTEMBER , P77
As promised, he showed
more competitive speed, and on
day two he set the third-fastest
times in two tests en route to
finishing that day best of the
Americans in sixth overall indi-
vidually. Day five was another
good one for him, with a third-
fastest time overall in one test
and eighth-best time for the
day, second among Americans
behind Girroir, who was sixth.
On the last day, with the fast
JWT heat running just before
the fast WT heat, it turned out
to be preview time and a show
of moto force. Mateo Oliveira
had a decent start and used his
MX skills to quickly hit the front,
with Davis close behind.
While Davis tried to pass a
couple of times, Mateo repelled
each attack to beat his team
-
mate by a scant 1.92 seconds.
Jones would slip back from an
early third to sixth at the finish,
24.14 seconds behind Mateo
and giving the U.S. JWT team the
day's best result. That, however,
was insufficient to improve their
final standing, which was fourth
behind Italy, France and Australia.
Mateo wasn't very happy with
his performance overall for the
week, though he said, "It's not
that I could care less if I won the
moto, but [most of] these other
guys are all enduro riders, and
you want to beat them at what
they do, so I'm a little frustrated,
but it's always cool to win some
-
thing."
Italy ended up on top of the
week's JWT standings, 1:30.80
ahead of France, Australia
3:22.16 behind for third, while the
USA was fourth, 11:46.76 back.
Gus Riordan, then the USA with
Davis, Cooper Jones and Mateo
Oliveira.
Though somewhat inconsis
-
tent throughout the week—a
common theme this year under
the U.S. tent—Davis showed
commendable improvement
after a tough first day when he
declared, "I'm ready for tomor
-
row. The tracks will be way better
and more beat up, more my style,
so I'll like that more—I'm ready!"
JUNIOR WORLD
TROPHY
The situation was similar in JWT,
except Italy's trio of Kevin Cris-
tino, Alberto Elgari and Manuel
Verzaroli led from the start and
did enough to keep the others at
bay the rest of the week.
France (Romain Dagna,
Thibault Giraudon and Leo Joy
-
on) started out second, followed
by Australia's Kyron Bacon, Ko-
rey McMahon and GNCC regular
This riverbed test
was almost like
riding in the Arizona
desert back home
for Brandy Richards.
She led the U.S. WWT
team to its third
straight victory.
