Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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VOL. 53 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 18, 2016 P69 The conditions at this year's ISDE varied quite a bit with the first two days as dry and probably dustier than expected. Light rain then made the next two days muddy and slick, especially in the woods where most of the dirt seemed to be gone, ex- posing hard-packed clay and rocks that offered no traction. The fifth day saw some great conditions while the last day consisted of only the final motocross test with the track heavily watered and muddy for the first few Club motos, eventually drying out enough to be very tacky and quick. The 92nd ISDE will take place in France next year from August 28 to September 2 in the town of Brive-la- Gaillarde, site of the 2001 Six Days. Though KTM riders Taylor Robert and Kailub Russell both rode 350s to a 1-2 finish in E2, they weren't the same models. Robert used the same Euro-spec 350 EXC-F with its PDS linkage-less rear suspension that he's ridden all year in the FIM Enduro World Championship. Russell, on the other hand, rode his GNCC-spec 350 XC-F with linkage rear suspen- sion and admitted he'd made a mis- take leaving its stiff GNCC suspen- sion in place. "We're doing good as a team, but I'm kind of hit-and-miss on the tests," he said after the sec- ond day. "I can only mask the prob- lem; I can't really fix it at this point. It's good in some tests and sometimes I struggle really bad with it." Rachel Gutish had reason to wor- ry when her KTM 250 XC-F's six- speed gearbox suddenly became a five-speed after making an unusual noise. But after draining the oil a few times and seeing it cleaner each time, it kept going, though without sixth, she decided to gear it up a bit so the engine didn't strain as much in the higher speed transfers. Howev- er, her race ended on the fourth day when she smacked her knee hard when she laid it down while hustling to make a check; later, the engine let go catastrophically, the guess being oil pump failure possibly caused by metal debris from the original prob- lem in the transmission. Two weeks before the start, Layne Michael didn't have the ISDE on his radar, but when Coastal Racing Husqvarna teammate Ryan Sipes was injured at the GNCC the day be- fore the scheduled flight to Spain, Mi- chael got the call. "I left it up to Antti where he wanted me to go, whether he was going to move people around and put me on the Junior team or the Trophy team. Obviously I wanted to be on the Trophy team. Really, tech- nically, it's my first Six Days. Last year I broke my wrist in the first test. They definitely had a lot of faith to move me straight to the Trophy team as a fill-in. After last year, it was embarrassing, honestly. I've never been so embar- rassed in my life, I don't think. Every- one had such high expectations [for me on the Junior team and for me] to not fulfill them [was embarrassing]. I wanted to come back and show ev- eryone I'm capable and I can be con- sistent and healthy the whole time." Though he said he was done with Six Days after his 25th one last year, the FIM Enduro Vintage Trophy intrigued Fred Hoess enough to have Hall's Cycles build him a 1986 Husky 250 WR similar to the one he raced in the 1985 Spanish Six Days. Declar- ing it faster than the 250F he races at home, Hoess won the inaugural event. WORCS regular and former AMA D-37 Big 6 GP champ Eric Yorba enjoyed a huge week, finishing 11th in E2, 12th Junior and 32nd overall as a member of Mexico's seventh-place Junior World Trophy team. The high- light of his week had to be getting third in the first cross test of day five. Briefly... Taylor Robert rode a KTM 350 XC-F to vic- tory at the ISDE.