VOL. 54 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 P63
because we have a super-strong team. I'm pretty
confident we have a good shot at it this year."
Unfortunately for the Americans, Duvall went
down suddenly and hard in the week's very first
special test that was almost in sight of the pad-
dock. He suffered a wrist injury that forced him
out of the race and onto a flight home the next
morning to get treatment in hopes of being able
to continue fighting for two domestic champion-
ships.
Immediately, attitudes changed. In the new era
of World Trophy rules, there are no throwaways; if
one guy has a problem or DNFs, the team's hope
of doing well is dashed. That's why early overall
individual leader Christophe Nambotin kept going
at a markedly slower pace after he fell late in the
week and suffered a possible broken hand—had
he DNFed, it surely would've cost the French
their lead while just riding around preserved it, so
great was the lead they'd built to that point. (The
Juniors, Women and Club teams can toss one
score from their three riders each day so they
have a bit more flexibility.)
"It's definitely disappointing, but in one sense
it's less pressure on us because all we really
have to do is focus on ourselves. If we mess it
up for ourselves, it's all on us—we don't have to
worry about wrecking it for the team—so we can
just leave it all on the table," Robert said.
He ended up just short of Nambotin for both
the E3 (500cc two-stroke/650cc four-stroke
class) and individual overall during the first half
of the week. When Nambotin crashed, Robert
was all alone at the top of E3, but found himself
behind Nambotin's teammate Loic Larrieu—
the E2 (250cc two-stroke/450cc four-stroke)
leader—and Josep Garcia of Spain—the E1 (125cc
two-stroke/250cc four-stroke) leader—for overall
honors. Tellingly, Robert was the only E3 rider in
the top 10 individuals at the end of the week; five
were E1s and four were E2s.
Though Sipes was in E1, it was his first time
racing the Husqvarna FE 250 on a big stage
instead of the FX 350 he normally rides at home,
plus he missed last year's Six Days.
Still, he came to grips with circumstances and
overalled day two despite winning no tests, a
morale booster for the entire team. But he knew
he'd need to do even better as that still left him
fourth overall individually, 26.49 seconds behind
Nambotin. While he got better as the week wore
on, so did his rivals and Sipes ended up one
minute and 3.65 seconds short of Spain's Josep
Garcia for second E1, fifth overall and second
American.
