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INTERVIEW 2014 AMA GRAND NATIONAL CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPION KAILUB RUSSELL P196 er for the whole week, so I was able to come away with a solid finish overall," says Russell. Many in the off-road commu- nity gave Russell and his U.S. World Trophy teammates a good chance at taking America's first win in the World Trophy division at this year's event, with the des- ert-like terrain suiting their style, and because of the fact that the Europeans didn't have a home field advantage in Argentina. "We had a really good team this year and the French, who won it last year, had a few top guys that were out this year due to injuries, so as a team we were in good shape, but we just had some mechanical troubles and a bit of bad luck," says Russell. "Last year we made a few rookie mental mistakes, but this year we were all on the same page and we all stayed error free, but we had three major catastrophes that kept us from winning." When team member Zach Os- borne dropped out on day one with mechanical problems, it left the U.S. squad without a throw- out score, which meant they had no margin for error for the rest of the event. "That was a huge disappoint- ment when Zach dropped out," says Russell. "And then Charlie had a couple of crashes on day three and had to go to the hospi- tal that night. But he came back and rode well. And then Taylor's bike wouldn't start on day three after he sucked dust into his en- gine. That cost him, and us, nine points and if it hadn't been for that we would have beat the French, and Taylor would have been top American, so it was just a bit of bad luck." Russell had a couple of mental errors at last year's ISDE in Sar- dinia, Italy, but rode a clean race at this year's event. "I personally came into the race a lot more prepared and I applied a lot of lessons I learned from last year," says Russell. "Mainly, I just tried not to rush anything. Last year, I never could get comfort- able in the special tests and I just felt like I was riding over my head. This year, I just went out and rode my motorcycle like I do at home. Looking back at how well we did this year, I think next year, we can finally get it done!" When asked what it is that makes the French riders more successful than the Americans, Russell thinks it's nothing more than familiarity with the format. "The biggest difference be- tween their top guys and us, it's like me in the GNCC series," says Russell. "In the GNCC series, there's not a whole lot of differ- ence between me and some of the other guys, I just know how to get the job done. And that's how Renet is; he's ridden that format for so long he knows how to win with it. He's the E2 World Cham- pion and he's the outright cham- pion in the World Enduro Series. Obviously, he's going to know how to win in that format and he knows how to win Six Days." According to Russell, the U.S. Winning the Six Days has become priority for Russell. He and his nearly did that this year in Argentina. Russell is beginning to show