VOL. 51 ISSUE 46 NOVEMBER 18, 2014 P51
dre "Pela" Renet a further two-
plus seconds behind.
More important, France and
the U.S. both had three riders in-
side the top 10 with Australia and
Spain each claiming two of their
riders in there as well.
Unfortunately, Team USA
didn't have much time to cel-
ebrate.
In the very next test, Osborne's
bike quit. A quick diagnosis re-
vealed something beyond the
scope of a trailside repair so he
had to push the stricken Husky
FE 250 through the sand and
over the hills back to the Ameri-
can pit area at the check just be-
fore the test.
Eventually, the team diag-
nosed the problem and pirated
the ignition from a chase bike,
sending the second-year Six
Days rider on his way—but well
over the hour time limit. He was
later designated a DNF, mean-
ing the team no longer had the
option of throwing out the worst
score of the day. All five remain-
ing players not only had to go fast
but also make sure they finished
as well—a fine line to balance
upon, especially for racers who
Briefly...
required ignition replacements.
Organizers were overwhelmed trying
to retrieve broken bikes from the des-
ert at the end of day three, forcing
many riders to seek or accept help
on their own. Chris Bach left his Lu-
cas Oil/Rockstar Energy/JCR Hon-
da CRF450R, hiked a while to find
help and then returned to the spot.
However, his bike was nowhere to
be seen. In a stroke of luck, he hap-
pened to see a local reviewing pho-
tos on his cell phone. Bach peeked
over and noticed one picture was of
his bike! He immediately asked the
local where he'd taken the photo and
how long before. After some discus-
sion that included a $100 finder's
fee, the local led Bach to a spot on
the next dune over where they found
most of the bike. Some parts had
already been stripped. However, a
couple other locals soon appeared
wearing backpacks with the parts,
saying they'd found them in nearby
bushes. By the time Bach and most
of his bike got a ride back to the parc
ferme, it was around 9:30 P.M. Prior
to this, he said of his Six Days experi-
ence, "About halfway through walk-
ing a test, you're kind of like, 'Man,
I'm never doing one of these again!'
Then as soon as you take off the
line and all that, it's like, 'I totally see
why everybody does this!' If all goes
well the rest of the week and we get
a good result, maybe I'll keep doing
these things."
Granted, Jeff Fredette was one of
the later Americans to start day three,
but even that didn't prepare him for
what he saw on the trail. "When I
came into the check before I DNFed,
I think it was Anthony [DiBasilio], or
(Above) Australia repeated its
Women's World Trophy triumph
from last year, all three riders
finishing and sweeping the top
three spots in the class.
(Right) The only American woman
to reach the finish, Mandi Mastin
had her issues with a clogged air
filter but she earned a bronze medal
for finishing her 13th ISDE.
continued on next page
