when he set the best time of the
Americans on the rainy first day
and again on days four and five
(the other rainy day of the week).
"I was just really patient [on
the first day]; I rode not too fast
and it worked out good," he said.
"The tracks got rougher on day
two and hurt my broken hand
pretty good; it was just painful,
but no excuses.
"I'm looking forward to the next
[few] days and looking forward to
trying to get better and have that
mental strength and block the
pain out and keep paddling."
But he was far from the only
competitor riding hurt. Josep
Garcia of Spain's WT team sliced
a finger on his throttle hand when
he clipped a post in the second
test of day four. He soldiered
through the pain and asked for
help from "Doc" James Mc
-
Gee—the U.S. team doctor. They
Despite breaking his
hand just a few weeks
before leaving for Italy,
Johnny Girroir was
the fastest American
for the week at eighth
overall individually.
VOLUME 62 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 3, 2025 P75
stitched him up after impound-
ing his bike. (Despite the injury,
home country
hero Verona beat
him by less than five seconds
that day for overall individual
honors, though Garcia rebound
-
ed to top day five.)
However,
it ended on a posi-
tive note for the Americans as
Oliveira
burst off the start of
the final moto of the week and
extended his lead to the finish,
winning the moto and the day
convincingly. His margin over
runner-up Kimi Koskinen of Fin
-
land was 24.30 seconds. Barnes
Gus Riordan (an Australian)
teamed with Sweden's Max Ahlin
for third on Team KTM 2.
ISDE VET
Finland's Seppo Suominen may
have been the oldest rider to
start in Italy at 73. He's taken
part in various Six Days starting
in 1971 when it was the ISDT.
While he hasn't ridden every one
since, he's still amassed quite
the record, having ridden at least
one Six Days in six consecutive
decades: 1970s, '80s, '90s, '00s,
'10s and now '20s! He made it to
day three in Italy before bowing
out.
TEST WINNER
Brody Johnson was one of the
American Club riders to win a
test when he turned the fastest
time in test two of day five, 2.24
seconds ahead of the second-
fastest rider, fellow American
Thorn Devlin. That helped John-
son finish the week second in C1
behind Italian Luca Colorio.
Briefly...
Grant Davis was just
cruising through
San Pantaleone,
definitely a good
idea on Italy's
smaller streets
where there's only
room for one car or
two bikes at a time.
