One of the wettest final days in the history of the event saw France, Sweden and the U.S. wrap up their victories in World Trophy (WT), Junior World Trophy (JWT) and Women’s World Trophy (WWT), respectively, at the 98th NOCO FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE).
The U.S. WT team of Cody Barnes, Johnny Girroir, Dante Oliveira and Josh Toth enjoyed a banner day in the mud and topped the day’s standings over France, Austria, Australia and Finland. That narrowed the margin of victory for the French quartet to five minutes and 38.08 seconds with Spain holding on to third, 14:12.33 behind the winners.
Spain’s Josep Garcia aced the final moto in dramatic fashion to claim top individual honors for the fourth time and the second in succession on a 250F. Added to his EnduroGP overall championship as well as the E1-class title, the Six Days triumph is quite the cap to an amazing year.
“In general, the most difficult [challenge] of the week was the [rainy] weather—the weather was very crazy,” he said. “But then also, days three and four on the mental side were the most stressful days because we are used to racing two days in a row [in the GPs] so then you are out of your comfort zone [riding more than that].”
After six trying days, Toth earned the distinction of being the fastest American at 10th overall individually with Girroir not far behind at 12th.
“Overall, I’m pretty happy with my riding,” he said. “Obviously, it’s not what we were looking for as a team result, but as a whole I can’t be too upset about it.”
In JWT, the Swedes fielded the same three riders as last year in Argentina who dominated and appeared to be cruising to the win when Albin Norrbin’s bike died in the final moto, dropping them to third.
Thus, their triumph this week completed what they’d started last year, beating France by 5:50.81 with the U.S. threesome of Grant Davis, Mateo Oliveira and Jason Tino claiming the third step of the podium. Davis had an excellent week, though it was a bit up and down, and he finished as the 11th-fastest individual rider for the week between Toth and Girroir.
In WWT, Brandy Richards (above) proved her year racing GNCCs has improved her mud riding noticeably as she sailed to a clear win in that moto over Rachael Archer, fellow American Rachel Gutish, Shelby Turner of Canada and 17-year-old Australian Danielle McDonald. Ava Silvestri, the third American, finished seventh in the moto.
Their fourth title with Richards at the helm saw the team finish 6:21.18 ahead of Australia and a whopping 30:17.95 ahead of third-place Sweden.
“This year, I had so much change just trying to figure out the GNCCs,” Richards said. “I didn’t feel as prepared as I usually am because when I’m [living out west], ISDE’s all I think about and all I train for.”
Finally, in the Club team standings, GTBN’s Jaden Dahners, Layton Smail and Jhak Walker made a move in their final moto, tallying the second-best time of all teams by less than five seconds and moving to second in the final standings behind powerhouse Team Italy. Moto Club Puy en Velay of France thus slipped to third, 7.09 seconds shy of the Americans.
2024 International Six Days Enduro Results
World Trophy (Top 5)
- Team France 14:28’47.09
- Team USA +5’38.08
- Team Spain +14’12.33
- Team Australia +29’53.46
- Team Czech Republic +40’38.93
Junior World Trophy (Top 5)
- Team Sweden 10:36’43.30
- Team France +5’50.81
- Team USA +14’28.55
- Team Australia +18’03.06
- Team Great Britain +29’40.59
Women’s World Trophy (Top 5)
- Team USA 11:34’20.80
- Team Australia +6’21.18
- Team Sweden +30’17.95
- Team France +42’40.62
- Team Italy +1:46’20.00
Individual Overall (Top 5)
- Josep Garcia (KTM) 3:23’25.34
- Steve Holcombe (Hon) +2’17.44
- Theophile Espinasse (Bet) 5’21.75
- Max Ahlin (KTM) 6’00.39
- Kevin Cristino (Fan) 6’01.70
- Josh Toth (GG) 8’26.36
Day 5: Holding Steady
France, Sweden and the U.S. solidified their leads in World Trophy (WT), Junior World Trophy (JWT) and Women’s World Trophy (WWT), respectively, after times were tallied at the end of the fifth day at the 98th NOCO FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE).
The French WT squad’s lead over the U.S. is now seven minutes and 34.63 seconds with Spain almost two minutes behind the team of Americans—Cody Barnes, Johnny Girroir, Dante Oliveira and Josh Toth.
As he’d done two days ago, Oliveira seemed to save his best for last, coming away with the fastest time in the last special test of the day by a whisker-thin 0.11 seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Steve Holcombe.
“Not too bad of a day,” Oliveira said. “I still struggled. It was a big struggle for the five days of enduro racing. I had two good tests so that was cool.”
That helped propel him to 10th overall individual for the day, 1:09.44 behind overall leader Josep Garcia of Spain who is on the threshold of topping the overall standings individually for the fourth time.
While Sweden JWT team carries a lead of 1:48.39 over France into the final motocross test tomorrow, it’s very mindful of how things can change in that last test. Last year in Argentina, the dominant Swedes saw a crushing change of fortunes when Albin Norrbin’s bike died and he DNFed as a result, dropping the team to third.
The U.S. JWT trio of Grant Davis, Mateo Oliveira and Jason Tino appear to be headed for third as they are over nine minutes behind France though Australia lurks less than two minutes behind the Americans.
Despite a crash that rang his bell, Davis was fastest of the American Juniors, placing 22nd overall for the day and is the third-fastest American at 15th overall.
Brandy Richards had a little rougher day than the previous four, winning “only” three of the five tests for the day. (Test five was canceled due to thick fog at the mountaintop location, severely limiting visibility.) Despite losing two tests, she remains the fastest of the women and in the overall rider picture, holds 84th place while the next-fastest woman is GNCC WXC Champ Rachael Archer from New Zealand at 87th, less than three minutes behind her American rival.
Along with Rachel Gutish and Ava Silvestri, Richards eyes the final motocross test tomorrow, knowing the team is nearly four minutes ahead of Australia and almost 22 minutes in front of third-place Sweden, so tomorrow’s goal is to get to the finish—what every competitor has in mind when starting this race.
Day 4: Team USA Moves Up
After a comparatively sluggish start, the U.S. World Trophy (WT) team enjoyed its best day yet on day four of the 98th NOCO FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE), ending the day the fastest team, besting WT leader France by almost 25 seconds. This moved it past Spain into second place, leading the host country’s squad by about a minute and a half though France owns a daunting lead of six minutes, 51.27 seconds.
In Junior World Trophy (JWT), the U.S. trio appears entrenched in third behind Sweden and France while the Women’s World Trophy (WWT) standings also remained static with the U.S. leading comfortably over Australia and Sweden.
Day four repeated the previous day’s loop and tests with some minor variances to avoid areas that could potentially bottleneck or be dangerous. Sporadic rain throughout the day helped minimize dust.
Though Spain’s Josep Garcia came out swinging to win five of the day’s six tests over Steve Holcombe of Great Britain and Swedish JWT rider Max Ahlin, American interest was focused on Cody Barnes, Johnny Girroir, Dante Oliveira and Josh Toth. Of those four, Girroir had a breakthrough day, claiming sixth overall individually and ending the day with the third-fastest time in the final test.
Despite a fall in the second test of the day and getting stuck underneath his bike for several moments, he mused, “At the beginning of the week I just wasn’t gelling with my bike and kind of just rushing things, overshooting corners—just riding like a knucklehead!
“I just went out and did what I know how to do so that’s all good.”
Not to be outdone, U.S. JWT rider Grant Davis set the pace for his team that sits solidly in third by claiming the day’s seventh-fastest overall individual, 5.10 seconds behind Girroir.
“I definitely have some confidence right now, winning the GNCC’s [XC2] championship and now getting two top-10 overalls for two days out here,” he said. “The tests are fun and the tests [look] fun tomorrow, too. I like the rocks and harder stuff so we’ll keep pushing and trying to stay smooth and stay off the ground.”
Staying off the ground wasn’t in the cards for Ava Silvestri of the leading U.S. WWT team. Separate crashes left her with, first, a lacerated forearm that required post-race stitches and a dislocated shoulder after hitting a kicker especially hard in the first test.
“I had to pop that in really quick before the end of the test. That was basically [all] within the first hour and a half of my day so it was a bit of a rough first loop for me, but we kind of picked it up around the second loop so I’m happy with that, happy that I was able to rebound after that first loop!” she said.
Teammates Rachel Gutish and Brandy Richards had far easier days. Gutish put her mechanical woes from the day before to rest and scored the day’s fourth-fastest WWT time behind Richards (who won three of the six tests), New Zealand’s Rachael Archer and Australian Jessica Gardiner.
Day 3: France Continues To Lead
Happy Hump Day! Though things remained fairly static atop the standings, there was movement below that in many categories with three days done in the 98th NOCO FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE). France remains atop the World Trophy (WT) division, Sweden continues to lead Junior World Trophy (JWT) and the U.S. padded its lead in Women’s World Trophy (WWT).
While the third day was always going to feature a different loop with new special tests, last week’s storm damage forced organizers to forego running it entirely. Instead, riders would tackle day four’s loop and tests a day early as well as run it as scheduled on day four. (Overnight rains made one transfer section so difficult that officials had to delete that section as well.)
France’s WT lead is now seven minutes and 7.02 seconds over Spain, but the U.S. managed to close the gap on the host country’s quartet, the difference now a scant 7.72 seconds.
Part of that could be tied to the improvement Dante Oliveira showed. Admittedly off the pace the first two days, he ended the day on a high note by posting the fastest time of the entire field in the final test, besting overall individual leader Josep Garcia of Spain by a tenth of a second and Great Britain’s Steve Holcombe by 0.44 seconds.
“It’s a little improvement, for sure,” Oliveira noted. “It’s definitely not where I want to be at all by any means. I have high expectations for whatever I race and to be out of podium contention [individually], it puts a little sour taste in my mouth. I need to figure out a couple things and put a little more charge, a little more flow [into my riding], use a little more of the track, and I should be able to trim some seconds down.”
As a result, Oliveira and teammates Cody Barnes, Johnny Girroir and Josh Toth actually beat the Spanish team’s time for the day and while remaining third in aggregate time, they closed the gap to the Spaniards to less than eight seconds. Spain now trails France by seven minutes and 7.02 seconds.
Sweden added nearly a minute to its lead over France in JWT. While the U.S. was fourth for the day, the team of Grant Davis, Mateo Oliveira and Josh Tino continue to hold third, almost six minutes behind France and about a minute ahead of Australia. Davis fell a couple times, so he couldn’t match yesterday’s ninth overall individual, but he still was 15th fastest overall, third-best among Americans behind Oliveira (11th) and Toth (14th).
Brandy Richards won every test to help the U.S. WWT add five seconds to its lead (which is now 3:34.07) over Australia. Teammate Rachel Gutish nursed her bike to the finish in order to replace a clutch and address an electrical issue at the end of the day but still managed the eight-best time of the day with Ava Silvestri 10th.
Day 2: France Pulling Away
The standings at the top of the 98th NOCO FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) didn’t change after the second day of competition with France continuing to lead the World Trophy (WT) division, Sweden tops in Junior World Trophy (JWT) and the U.S. setting the pace in Women’s World Trophy (WWT).
Rain in the morning made many nervous, fearing a repeat of last week’s deluge, but after a short downpour, the clouds quit leaking and the loop (again, done twice with three special tests per loop) remained quite rideable, though organizers did have some reroutes in place to avoid the really nasty sections.
France again demonstrated unparalleled depth with all four WT riders within 24 seconds of each other and individually occupying positions three through six. Only day winner Steve Holcombe of Great Britain and Spain’s Josep Garcia—split by less than two seconds—are proving faster. Garcia continues to have the fastest time after two days, 7.25 seconds ahead of his EnduroGP rival.
Runner-up after day one, the second day saw the U.S. (Cody Barnes, Johnny Girroir, Dante Oliveira and Josh Toth) slip to third, supplanted by Spain which now sits four minutes and 14.00 seconds behind France.
The U.S. JWT team (Grant Davis, Mateo Oliveira and Josh Tino) remains third behind Sweden and France. A bright spot had to be Grant Davis who clicked with the conditions and set the ninth-fastest individual time for the day overall, third-fastest among all Juniors.
“I came here wanting to get top 20, top 15 overall every day,” he said. “Finishing ninth overall for the day with a couple top-five overall test times was pretty sick. The last test I messed up a little bit and lost top Junior by one second, but, hey, we’ll take it and I’m still pumped on the day.”
In WWT, Brandy Richards set the pace once more, her test times 26.89 seconds faster than New Zealand leader Rachael Archer—a continuation of their GNCC battles this year. With Rachel Gutish seventh for the day and Ava Silvestri 10th, the American women stretched their lead over Australia to 3:29.32 with Sweden another two-plus minutes back.
New trail and tests await for day three, but the excitement for many may be tempered by the forecast for rain moving in, possibly for the rest of the week.
Day 1: France Leads In Spain
[Update from Monday, October 14, 2024]
The 98th NOCO FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) got underway before the sun came up this morning (Monday, October 14) in Northwest Spain. After nearly seven and a half hours of racing, France’s depth gave it the lead in the prestigious World Trophy category by two minutes and 5.81 seconds over defending champ Team USA with riders Cody Barnes, Johnny Girroir, Dante Oliveira and Josh Toth. Host country Spain is third, 2:43.96 back of the French quartet, home country hero Josep Garcia the top individual, 8.96 seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Steve Holcombe.
Four Frenchmen fill individual spots 3-4-5-6, with Oliveira seventh despite a spill in one test, Barnes ninth, Toth 11th, and Girroir 12th.
“Overall, it was decent,” Oliveira said. “I’m not too stoked on how I rode and how I attacked the track. In test one, I went down in the mud real quick, so that put a little damper on things. I felt better on loop two. I kind of struggled finding a flow. The team’s [still] driven to take the French down!”
Sweden leads the Junior World Trophy category over France, with the U.S. trio of riders under the age of 23 (Grant Davis, Mateo Oliveira, and Josh Tino) third, 1:25.47 behind the mighty Swedes.
Defending Women’s World Trophy champion is the U.S., with Rachel Gutish, Brandy Richards and Ava Silvestri, and the three women started the week off in front, 1:39.33 ahead of the strong Australian women, with Sweden third.
Team Italy tops the Club team standings after the first day, with GTBN (Jaden Dahners, Layton Smail and Jhak Walker) from the U.S. fourth, one slot ahead of XC Gear (Cooper Jones, Hunter Smith and Cole Whitmer).
U.S. ISDE Team Raring To Go In Spain
[Update from Sunday. October 13, 2024]
The 31 riders that comprise the U.S. team entered in the 98th NOCO FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) have been in the Northwest of Spain for more than a week and have already successfully weathered a number of challenges. It’s not just been jet lag or the fatigue that results from walking more than 100 miles in order to learn the various special tests, but it’s been doing so in storms that have caused the organizers to throw out two tests of day three that remain mostly underwater.
But the defending champions remain focused and ready to go racing for six days starting on Monday morning, October 14. Preliminary indications are for less rain and many kilometers on public roads to link trail sections and tests. Still, the Spanish Six Days promises to be a stern test for all.
Johnny Girroir, one of two returning team members of last year’s winning U.S. World Trophy team (the other being Dante Oliveira, with recent replacement rider and former Junior World Trophy rider Cody Barnes and 2023 Club team winner Josh Toth joining them), eagerly anticipates his third Six Days. He said, “The nerves are out and I’m more familiar with [the format]; I’m not so nervous coming over here, walking the tests, remembering more, talking with the team, and it’s just all coming together more, for sure.
“I think everyone’s working together [well], and we’re all working as a team and discussing the tests. Everyone remembers a lot, so we’re ready to roll.”
On the other end of the experience scale is Olivia Pugh, a member of the Eric Cleveland Memorial trio—alongside Jocelyn Barnes and last-minute call-up Rachel Stout, all of them ISDE first-timers—which is entered in the new Club team category for women.
“This is my first time out of the country!” Pugh said. “We don’t have a lot of grasstracks in Washington; it’s a lot of trees. It’s a lot different, because it’s a lot of grasstracks compared to what I’m used to. I’m excited for it, though.”
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