Enduro21 daily notebook number two direct from the paddock of the International Six Days Enduro in Rivanazzano Terme, Italy – a day of stamping authority for Josep Garcia and Brandy Richards individually but the collective result is crucial in this game.

Giornata positiva for Josep Garcia, Brandy Richards and the Italian squads on day two here in Italy. It was a day which dawned cloudy, cooler and during the morning even saw some rain falling. But it did little to dampen the dusty terrain and by the afternoon the sun was out baking the ground some more and the air filter testing dust was back – like it ever really left.

The daily results are a repeat of day one in many ways with Italy’s senior riders edging further away up top, ditto the Juniors while Team USA’s Women opened up a gulf between themselves and Spain who are fighting hard with Great Britain for second.

Aside from USA Women’s 5:47 lead, the big movers at the top of the team tables were their Junior male teammates who jumped ahead of France, thanks to a strong performance collectively and not least because Dante Oliveira who put in the second best performance of all the USA riders in P12 scratch.

Team spirit is a thread running through tonight's ISDE notebook but surely no team is a better example than Italy. Six of the top 10 riders overall are Italian flag bearers including all four of the World Trophy team – so far this ISDE it is copybook performance from the boys in blue.

“The tests are destroyed now,” says Thomas Oldrati, “so it was a difficult day but for me and especially for my team it was a very good day. Taking 30 seconds from Spain on the day is perfect. All four of us in the top 10 is important.”

It certainly is. Even though this is only day two, things look ominous.

Team USA drop the ball

Taylor Robert turned up the wick for day two finishing fourth overall. The problem he has is that his teammates dropped the ball a little, losing time overall and instead of being level-pegging, they have fallen over one minute behind Spain. Layne Michael 13th, Johnny Girroir 15th, and Ryan Sipes 20th is not where these guys need to be if they are to retain their title from 2019.

Could it be they’re not used to these tests? It seems unlikely with hugely experienced riders like Ryan Sipes on the team but something hasn’t clicked.

“I’m just struggling a little bit in the hard packed and silty tests,” says Layne Michael,  especially the Enduro tests which are like my kryptonite right now and that’s a bit unusual for the US riders I guess.

“I’m just not quite dialled with the bike. I’ve had some decent times in the Cross tests but definitely struggling with the conditions and it being dry and silty. We have dry races back home of course but here it’s different and just crumbling underneath you.

“My riding’s ok, I’m doing ok but I’ve been on the ground a couple of times and that’s frustrating giving up time like that for free.

“The team overall is struggling a little bit, although Taylor rode really well today the other three of us are slacking a little bit. It’s nothing major that’s gonna make a difference, just something little but we’ll keep plugging away and see what happens.”

Four amigos

That’s not to downplay the Spanish squad’s performance in second. The oldest competition in bike sport has a blueprint for success: ride fast, don’t crash and post solid times collectively. That last word is important and that's why it is a reoccuring theme in this notebook.

Spain’s collective result is helped by the rocketship Garcia out front but Jaume Betriu and Marc Sans are inside the top 20 and very much in the running. Both are on big 500s too and that could play into their hands as the week progresses onto some (even) faster tests.

Shout out to Mikael Persson

“I was a little nervous at the start of the day.” Mikael Persson tells Enduro21 but you wouldn’t know it. The Swedish rider looks pretty relaxed for a guy up there with the best in the world. Why was he nervous on the morning of day two? “Because of not really knowing if my pace. I was thinking maybe yesterday I took advantage of starting early being in E1 class.” Today proved it was no fluke.

Importantly he looks great on the bike. Standing trackside at some of the heavily beaten-up tests today (some of them have had thousands of bikes through them already – see below), Persson looks at one with his 250 EXC-F. He is standing up on the bike where others are looking sketchy and looks like he’s bossing it.

What’s the secret? “Confidence on the bike. I did the Swedish round of the World Championship because it was close to home (taking two top 15 scratch results). I just did 20 minutes with the 250 before that race and I didn’t really have the feeling.

“But I took that race as a test ahead of this – normally I ride a 350 at home in the Swedish Championship. So I think I learned there and trained a lot ahead of ISDE and it has paid off. I have a good feeling with the 250 and I tried to carry that through.

“I’m trying to do my race, not think too much about the times, just checking after each test and I didn’t know about the overall until I arrived at the pre-finish. So I am very, very happy for the overall result. It’s a nice feeling to be up there with the fast guys. I don’t really have words to describe how it feels.”

Are the Women putting on the hottest contest?

Brandy Richards’ says the one box she hasn’t ticked off so far in four ISDEs is to win the outright – she’s going the right way about it so far this year. After two days she sits in 80th place overall and 31st in E2. Oh, and 1:48 ahead of her rivals in class.

“She’s in another world” says next best rider, Spain’s Mireia Badia who was P2 scratch today after a titanic battle with Jane Daniels who traded test times all day and to finish just 1.6 seconds apart.

“We were fighting all day,” says Badia. “We were always switching one second here or one second there and finally I was able to take it by just over one second. I’m enjoying it a lot.

“Some of the tests are broken now because we ride them two times each day and it’s dangerous, but we have to push because we are so close. We fight all day with no let-up so the race is more interesting!”

Day three is a repeat of the opening day with the Maginot test ridden one last time plus a new special at Steffara. Apart from the new test, the rest have now, or will have been ridden at least twice each across the three days. That means roughly 2500 bikes have passed through and there’s more to come – two more times tomorrow. 

Arnold Staal

As Enduro21 was putting this story together news had just broken about the passing away of Dutch rider Arnold Staal today at the ISDE.

It is with much regret that we report the news about Arnold who was riding this week with the MCCZ Club Team.

The event organiser was notified by the Dutch Motorcycle Federation (KNMV) that their rider was unaccounted for and unfortunately when he was located he had already passed away.

Enduro21 joins all at the ISDE and indeed the entire motorcycling community in extending condolences to Arnold's family and friends at this time.

Photo Credit: Enduro21 | Andrea Belluschi