VOLUME ISSUE OCTOBER , P47
(Left) Andrea Verona led the way on the first day of 6Days
in Portugal, the Italian the fastest individual in the field, his
team the fastest World Trophy team as it seeks to repeat as
champions. (Above) The three U.S. Women's World Trophy
riders—Rachel Gutish, Brandy Richards and Korie Steede—
lead their division.
PHOTOS: MARK KARIYA
Italy Leads Day 1
D
efending champion Italy start-
ed off strongly on the first day
of the 100th 6Days FIM Enduro
of Nations, topping both the FIM
World Trophy (WT) and Junior
World Trophy (JWT) categories.
The U.S. squads finished the day
fifth WT (with riders Steward Bay-
lor Jr, Grant Davis, Johnny Giroir
and Dante Oliveira) and third JWT
(comprised of Toby Cleveland,
Cooper Jones and Jason Tino).
Baylor, the senior member of the
U.S. WT team, probably echoed the
sentiments of his teammates when
he said, "I know I've got my better
days ahead. Today did not pan out
to be one of those—just a few mis-
takes there, a few crashes there.
"I was actually the top American
the first half of the day but went
down three or four times and after
that, it was all she wrote."
On the other hand, the U.S.
Women's World Trophy (WWT)
team dominated as it strives to
reach a record-tying sixth triumph
in the category. After the first day
of competition, the American trio
(Rachel Gutish, Brandy Richards
and Korie Steede) leads Austra-
lia—the six-time WWT winner—by
just over three minutes, with
Great Britain over seven minutes
in arrears. Richards and Steede
occupied the top two spots indi-
vidually, with Gutish seventh over-
all among women, with the dry,
dusty conditions—and especially
the slick, hard-packed portions of
the special tests uncomfortably
foreign for her and Steede.
Americans also figured highly
in the Club team standings with
two of the top three teams. Team
Rabaconda (Will Sievenpiper,
Colton Shields and Jhak Walker)
topped the results sheet, led by
Sievenpiper, the second-overall
Club rider, followed by Team Italy
and the Missouri Mudders (Anson
Maloney, Collier Martinez and
Lane Whitmer). GTBN (Jaden
Dahners, Layton Smail and Tyler
Vore) finished the day fifth.
Hough Legacy Racing (Chase
Bright, Clayton Gerstner and Lowe
Lord) finished eighth, followed by
Randy Mastin Memorial (Maver-
ick Alaway, Eric Forsberg and Levi
Wilkins) in ninth.
XC Gear (Trevor Hulin, Henry
Symanski and Austin Tsakanikas)
ended the day 42nd while Mojo/
SxS (Nathan Ferderer, Anthony
Ferrante and Tanner Whipple)
was a disappointed 79th after
Whipple's Beta sheared a flywheel
key. He got back to the paddock,
replaced the offending piece and
can restart tomorrow, but the
team is essentially down to two
scoring riders with little chance of
moving much farther up.
Mark Kariya
