VOL. 53 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 20, 2016 P59
low the arrows, whatever color
arrow—blue today.' Those are the
mistakes that have happened in
the past, that riders get fatigued
and start following wrong arrows
or make a wrong turn and get a
of the standings was Italy on day
five. This left Team USA with
over three minutes of breathing
room, but as Kallonen quickly
pointed out to the riders, that's
when mistakes happen.
"Going into day six for me was
just, be smart, get through it and
not do anything dumb to break
your bike or break you," said
Kailub Russell. "It was definitely
(Left) Taylor Robert was also
the top individual rider in Spain.
(Right) Even a multi-time champ
like Kailub Russell has to do all of
the work on his bike.
ping out and we just kept going."
But the approach was working,
as evidenced by the other teams
who were suffering in the stand-
ings due to small (or sometimes
big) mistakes. Without throwaway
scores, the ISDE proved to be a
whole new ballgame, one that the
Americans were ready for.
"I think we just came out there
most prepared," said Kallonen.
penalty. Things like that."
Bike maintenance was also
a major issue throughout the
week, as always. Kallonen put
great importance on inspect-
ing and maintaining the bikes at
every opportunity.
"They wanted to sit in a chair
on the out-check and I said, 'No,
get up and start cleaning your
bike, checking out your bike,'"
Kallonen said. "Maintaining the
bikes, that's really what it came
down to. There were quite a few
bike problems with other coun-
tries that resulted in them drop-
"Maybe the others didn't have
as much emphasis on this new
rule. They just went on with what
they usually do every race since
they used to, or they're used to
racing that format. Like we saw,
there were many top countries
dropping out because of either
injury or bike problems, and we
just kept going. We really stayed
on top since day one. We had
some issues along the way, but
we had the least amount of is-
sues, which turned out to really
make the difference.
The final top team to drop out
