VOL. 53 ISSUE 30 AUGUST 2, 2016 P41
[weekend] I've walked [them]
five times, and they don't give us
very much time to walk so you
have to cram it all into a short
period of time," he explained.
After two previous camps, Kal-
lonen is simply fine-tuning things
with the biggest hurdles being
lack of manpower and time, so
he makes do with what he's got.
Robert enlisted Max Gerston
and Gary Sutherlin to help lay
out and mark the tests, though
they had to be largely re-marked
after a monsoon blew through
the area Monday afternoon and
destroyed lots of the arrows and
track tape. But after examining
photos and video of the terrain in
Spain, Kallonen decided that Ari-
zona made sense for the camp's
venue.
Heading up the ISDE team is
really just an extension of Kal-
lonen's day job, which is running
KTM's off-road racing program
in its many facets. Besides
having the riders walk the tests
beforehand, perform multiple tire
changes and hustle to stay on
the schedule Kallonen devised,
they had to do so while keep-
ing their bodies hydrated in the
desert heat and keeping their
composure.
"I'm just trying to bring them
out of their comfort zone and
push them a little bit harder
[than they'd do alone]," Kallonen
said. "The second day [of camp]
would be like a Day Four [at
Six Days]. Like you saw today,
the guys started to kind of not
necessarily fade but maybe lose
a bit of mental focus and see-
ing that I didn't want to push too
hard and have them make bigger
mistakes. We kind of cut it short
also because of the heat and
everything playing a big factor.
Obviously we're not going to
have this kind of heat in Spain,
but the fact is, they're going to
be out of their comfort zone
regardless, whatever the condi-
tions are because it's not their
normal race series."
But after completing three
intense days of training, every
one of the riders as well as the
mechanics have a better idea
of what to expect when they set
foot on Spanish soil in October.
While they may all have previous
Six Days experience, the camp
nudged them all to begin think-
ing about the most prestigious
international race they'll do this
year and how best to prepare for
it between now and then.
Mark Kariya
The first order
of business was
for every rider to
walk the three
special tests.
