VIVE LA FRANCE
By Team TMX on 16th Sep 15
France claimed victory over Australia in a controversial finish to the 90th edition of the ISDE.
There was triumph for Jamie McCanney, with the Husqvarna rider recording the Enduro 1 class win, while Great Britain ended a tough week fifth overall in the FIM World Trophy team classification.
The 90th edition of the International Six Days Enduro in Slovakia will go down in the history books for a lot of reasons – but most will remember it for the way it ended.
France were provisionally declared the FIM World Trophy team winners following an overturned FIM jury decision midway through the race, which saw three of their team riders reinstated into the event.
Getting things underway on September 7, day one of the ISDE saw all of the main players hit hard early on to set the scene for the week.
Fastest on day one, USA grabbed an early lead as they made their bid to finally capture that elusive victory.
Australia were close behind in second with defending champions France just adrift in third.
Australia hit back on day two and chewing up USA's two-minute advantage they went on to end the day eight seconds in front. But on day three the script for the ISDE was torn up.
USA hit problems early on as team leader Kailub Russell (KTM) spectacularly crashed out of the event, hurting his knee in the process.
But what followed next was what ultimately the 90th edition of the race will be remembered for.
In total eight riders from five different nations – Taylor Robert (USA), David Knight (GB), Manuel Monni (Italy) and France's Anthony Bossiere, Jeremy Joly and Marc Bourgeois plus Spain's Lorenzo Santolino and Cristobal Guerrero, all missed an intermediate checkpoint on the opening lap.
A jury decision then saw all riders immediately disqualified and suddenly Australia were out front by 15 minutes.
The race was now theirs to lose. But with the French federation launching a successful appeal all eight riders were allowed to start day four.
Riding with nothing to lose, France attacked hard and despite – at the time – not officially showing on the results sheet they had worked their way back into contention and on day five took control of the race lead.
With the FIM's International Disciplinary Court provisionally reinstating all affected riders back into the results, France started day six and the final motocross with two minutes in hand over Australia.
Naturally frustrated with the outcome of the decision, the Aussies pushed hard to try and win the time back on track but ultimately lost out as France secured a dramatic one-minute margin of victory when the final scores were added up. Spain eventually placed third.
In the FIM Junior World Trophy classification things were much more clear-cut. Dominating proceedings from start to finish Australia were unstoppable.
Led by KTM's Daniel Sanders – who went on to top the Enduro 3 class outright – the young quartet of Sanders, Tom Mason, Broc Grabham and Tye Simmonds won all six days to top the standings by almost 16 minutes from Sweden and Italy.
And Australia's Women's trio of Tayla Jones (Yamaha), Jessica Gardiner (Sherco) and Jemma Wilson (Yamaha) did their country proud as wel, as they were simply untouchable.
Jones dominated, winning all but two of the special tests to help Australia rack up a massive 54-minute victory over France and Sweden.
While USA didn't deliver the goods in the World Trophy Team competition they did have plenty of reasons to smile come the end of the week, as Husqvarna's Ryan Sipes became the first American in the history of the race to win the ISDE outright as an individual.
On the British front, the team enjoyed one of their most successful ISDEs in recent times. Led by the efforts of Jamie McCanney (Husqvarna) and David Knight (KTM), along with Tom Sagar (KTM), Jamie Lewis (KTM), Jack Rowlands (Sherco) and Joe Wootton (Husqvarna) they placed a very competitive fifth overall.
Despite being dealt a cruel blow on the opening test when Wootton exited with a broken leg, Team GB kept plugging away and after ending day one in seventh they improved to sixth on day two as they settled into the rhythm of the race.
They then moved up to fifth on day four and stayed there for the rest of the week.
Top Brit McCanney headed the Enduro 1 class, the young Manxman only once dropping out of the top two, to capture victory by over a minute and end his week outright fifth.
"It's been a good six days of racing – and winning Enduro 1 was the icing on the cake,” said McCanney.
"It's been a long hard week but I feel like that's probably the best I've ridden in a long time.
"I enjoyed the conditions and never pushed beyond my limits. Maybe that was the key to success in this type of race. It's been 10 years since David Knight last won a class in the ISDE so to be the next guy to do it means a lot.
"Overall as a team we delivered maybe more than what was expected of us. All the lads gave it 100 per cent and kept fighting until the end.
"Obviously we were gutted to see Joe hurt but sometimes that happens in racing. So this result is for him as well.”
In the FIM Junior World Trophy class Team GB also bagged a top-five result.
With the entire squad starting for the first time on the Trophy team, James Dent (KTM), Josh Gotts (TM), Rob Johnson (KTM) and Lee Sealey (Husqvarna) ended the week in fifth but only three minutes shy of the podium.
"It's been an awesome experience riding on the Junior Trophy team,” said Dent.
"It's been a brilliant week and a massive experience for us all. You never really know what to expect in a race as long as this.
"The days were long and tough and after day three the body was hurting. To finish fifth on the world stage is fantastic and we can be proud of what we achieved.”
In the Club Team Awards, SACU Team Scotland were the best-performing British Club team in the ISDE.
The trio of Fraser Flockhart (KTM – second in Club E1), Frazer Norrie (KTM – fourth in Club E2) and Andrew Bisset ended their week fifth overall.
Team St George were the next-best placed British team in 21st.
