INTERVIEW
2016 CYCLE NEWS RIDERS OF THE YEAR
P64
II THE CASELLI LEGACY
The ISDE effort is bigger than
any one man, but there is one
man who rightfully comes to
mind: The original Captain
America of the U.S. World
Trophy team, Kurt Caselli. The
Caselli family, starting with Kurt's
dad Rich, was instrumental in
setting Team USA down the path
toward victory.
"It started out as a three-year
plan and it actually ended up tak-
ing five years," said Jon-Erik Bur-
leson, president of KTM North
America. "When Kurt passed
away it went from a three-year
plan to a lifetime obligation that
we had to fulfill. We had to make
sure every resource was provid-
ed to give the team its fair shot."
The behind-the-scenes
support is a major challenge
at Six Days, especially for the
non-European teams who fly in.
Ground support, sponsorship
money, volunteers were hard to
come by, but year after year, it
grew to what it is today—no less
than 113 volunteers attended
The 2016 ISDE with the Ameri-
can contingent, with hundreds
more behind the team's effort at
home.
"This year you could tell we
were there to win," Kudla said.
"We had a super small pit, we lost
our lead rider literally the day be-
fore we were supposed to leave,
and we were still leading by day
one. Every check had American
flags at it. Volunteers were taking
their bags for the riders, taking
their times, giving them waters—
everybody could tell we were
there to win this year."
The long overdue win was a big
weight off everyone's shoulders,
including Burleson's. "My mission
was to make sure the support
was there for the guys to get done
what we said would get done. We
(KTM North America) put hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars into
Team USA hopes this scene is
repeated more than once. They're
hungry for more.
