While the US Women continue to grow their lead further into the double digits, the World Trophy riders remain in third with a two-minute buffer in either direction, and the Junior Team ends their championship dreams early losing a rider in Day Four due to injury.
Day Four has now concluded in this year’s FIM ISDE signifying only 1/3 of the event left to go. Day Three saw a rather stagnant day in the results from a bird’s eye perspective. While being Stateside, it is pretty tough to get the inside scoop of all the action breaking down in Italy. That leaves us to rely on combing through the results and social media posts to piece together how the American 2021 ISDE campaign is going.
Noteworthy moments of Day Three include a pair of break out rides from JT riders Cody Barnes and Dante Oliveira. Fast, consistent test times from each of them are just the thing we saw on Day Two that propelled them into the 2nd place position. Barnes recorded two top 10 finishes while Oliveira clocked in one of his own. Also, Johnny Girroir would continue to improve his overall day finish, seemingly building his confidence heading later into the week in his debut ride.
One of the most impressive things that we have witnessed this year, however, is the continued domination being laid down by WWT rider Brandy Richards, and the WWT team as a whole. Richards has remained perfect through four complete days of racing winning 23 out of 23 tests. Another stand out ride is coming from Rachel Gutish who has cemented herself as a legitimate contender as well. Gutish has consistently remained one of the five fastest women in most every test enroute to four straight top 5 overall day finishes. These world class rides paired with a very consistent Britney Gallegos, are exactly why the trio have now lengthened their lead to over 11 minutes.
Johnny Girroir would be the singular WT rider to improve his overall result between Day Two and Three, while Ryan Sipes would struggle to find his groove once again and post his second consecutive day where his time was the one out of the four members that was dropped.
Inversely, Day Four would sway things in the opposite direction. On Thursday, Girroir would instead be the singular WT rider moving the opposite way on the leaderboard while Sipes bounced back and recorded his second-best day finish this week with a 16th. Taylor Robert continues to be the golden standard, though. Robert has predominately been the fastest American throughout the week, which doesn’t come as that big of a shock as the dry and dusty Italian terrain is most like the lone Left Coaster’s typical riding conditions.
Another rider that is pushing the pace is Layne Michael. On Day Four Michael finished all but two tests inside the top 10. The two that he didn’t? Both of those tests Michael was 11th. Coming off of a sprint enduro championship season, Michael did admit that he struggled in the beginning of the week to feel comfortable while adjusting to the dry and dusty conditions. Making it through Day Four keeping the rubber side down with no crashes and posting his career highest day finish will undoubtedly increase his confidence at he looks to finish the week out strong.
The biggest news comes via the JT team that was slowly chipping away at test times and looking well on their way to what seemed like a medal-winning finish. Unfortunately, in Test Three on Day Four Austin Walton would suffer a tough crash after colliding with a tree. Walton courageously rode out the rest of the day before ultimately getting checked out by medics. Walton had another significant crash on Tuesday that he said affected his shoulder, but today’s crash proved to be a bit unluckier as it was determined his scapula had been broken and he would be retiring from the event; thus ending the JT team’s chances of earning a medal in 2021.
If you want to stay even closer to the action, give International Photographer Nir Amos a follow on IG @nir_amos32 some awesome shots of the world’s top talent throughout the week.
Below are the full list of test finishes for both Wednesday and Thursday.
Day Three
Test One
Girroir: 8th – 9’41.02
Michael: 10th – 9’41.44
Oliveira: 11th – 9’41.85
Robert: 13th – 9’45.14
Barnes: 20th – 9’50.01
Walton: 43rd – 10’06.37
Sipes: 47th – 10’06.78
Richards: 1st(EW) – 10’27.97
Gutish: 5th(EW) – 11’02.62
Gallegos: 12th(EW) – 11’25.91
Test Two
Robert: 3rd – 7’56.89
Barnes: 7th – 8’05.64
Girroir: 10th – 8’08.11
Michael: 19th – 8’20.03
Sipes: 21st – 8’20.99
Oliveira: 27th – 8’22.29
Walton: 38th – 8’29.99
Richards: 1st(EW) – 9’07.35
Gutish: 4th(EW) – 9’29.67
Gallegos: 17th(EW) – 10’36.75
Test Three
Robert: 8th – 6’21.67
Oliveira: 9th – 6’22.86
Sipes: 16th – 6’27.32
Girroir: 17th – 6’27.43
Barnes: 19th – 6’28.70
Michael: 44th – 6’38.38
Walton: 46th – 6’38.83
Richards: 1st(EW) – 6’50.17
Gutish: 5th(EW) – 7’16.31
Gallegos: 18th(EW) – 7’48.52
Test Four
Robert: 7th – 5’15.22
Oliveira: 17th – 5’18.26
Sipes: 18th – 5’18.92
Walton: 19th – 5’18.96
Girroir: 21st – 5’19.74
Michael: 25th – 5’20.48
Barnes: 42nd – 5’24.70
Richards: 1st(EW) – 5’30.96
Gutish: 9th(EW) – 6’01.39
Gallegos: 12th(EW) – 6’06.13
Test Five
Robert: 5th – 8’06.90
Barnes: 10th – 8’14.66
Michael: 14th – 8’17.72
Girroir: 20th – 8’23.68
Oliveira: 31st – 8’31.03
Walton: 42nd – 8’37.03
Sipes: 48th – 8’43.12
Richards: 1st(EW) – 9’06.70
Gutish: 5th(EW) – 9’50.00
Gallegos: 19th(EW) – 11’06.91
Test 6
Michael: 9th 9’46.60
Robert: 11th – 9’47.19
Oliveira: 14th – 9’50.10
Girroir: 15th – 9’51.11
Barnes: 19th – 9’55.13
Sipes: 22nd – 9’55.81
Walton: 26th – 9’55.81
Richards: 1st(EW) – 10’25.59
Gutish: 4th(EW) – 11’09.65
Gallegos: 18th(EW) – 11’59.43
Day Four
Test One
Oliveira: 5th – 9’28.75
Robert: 6th – 9’31.34
Michael: 10th – 9’37.18
Sipes: 16th – 9’40.25
Girroir: 19th – 9’43.11
Barnes: 14th – 9’46.24
Walton: 59th – 10’05.21
Richards: 1st(EW) – 10’08.04
Gutish: 5th(EW) – 10’57.28
Gallegos: 17th(EW) – 11’43.99
Test Two
Robert: 5th – 10’51.35
Michael: 7th – 10’54.04
Oliveira: 11th – 10’57.03
Sipes: 12th – 10’57.17
Barnes: 35th – 11’11.19
Girroir: 37th – 11’11.70
Walton: 42nd – 11’15.99
Richards: 1st(EW) – 11’52.21
Gutish: 4th(EW) – 12’24.92
Gallegos: 15th(EW) – 13’18.22
Test Three
Robert: 19th – 15’05.32
Michael: 11th – 15’09.26
Sipes: 17th – 15’20.31
Oliveira: 18th – 15’24.69
Girroir: 22nd – 15’28.24
Barnes: 26th – 15’30.98
Walton: 137th – 21’09.73
Richards: 1st(EW) – 16’51.03
Gutish: 5th(EW) – 17’47.70
Gallegos: 11th(EW) – 18’27.32
Test Four
Robert: 10th – 8’41.67
Michael: 11th – 8’42.78
Sipes: 14th – 8’44.81
Oliveira: 17th – 8’45.62
Barnes: 24th – 8’49.26
Girroir: 40th – 8’58.42
Walton: 116th – 9’50.34
Richards: 1st(EW) – 9’18.40
Gutish: 7th(EW) – 9’59.52
Gallegos: 14th(EW) – 10’14.71
Test Five
Test Five was not scored on Day Four.
Test 6
Oliveira: 3rd – 9’28.61
Robert: 9th – 9’35.51
Michael: 10th – 9’35.90
Girroir: 20th – 9’44.95
Sipes: 26th – 9’47.28
Barnes: 36th – 9’52.70
Walton: 125th – 11’26.24
Richards: 1st(EW) – 10’22.72
Gutish: 4th(EW) – 11’08.82
Gallegos: 17th(EW) – 11’48.27
Just one more full day of tests remains before Saturday’s motocross concludes this years ISDE. We will keep a close eye on the action and continue to bring you updates on the Team USA Trophy Teams.
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