2023 ISDE Results: 5-minute lead for USA after day two

Results from day two of the 2023 International Six Days Enduro in San Juan Argentina where Team USA World Trophy riders continue to lead ahead of Great Britain – Andrea Verona masters “destroyed” tests and hot conditions for the scratch result.

2023 ISDE day 2 in a nutshell:

With the same “destroyed” tests repeated on day two, and the still persistent oppressive heat, Tuesday was another tough one for riders in San Juan. Riding in heat for six or seven hours is bad enough (there’s literally no shade anywhere except at service points under the easy ups) but this is the kind of terrain which batters the body. Choppy, hard and with no let-up even in the transfers, it is brutal and a recipe for blisters.
Andrea Verona must have rubber bones because he sailed away with the scratch win today, knocking 16 seconds better time than his chief rival Josep Garcia overall. On corrected time that puts the Italian three seconds fastest after two days.
They’ve got company here though with USA’s Dante Oliveira clocking in third scratch and getting closer to the EnduroGP boys’ speed in conditions which surely suit the California rider.
It was a repeat performance from USA collectively on day two with all four riders in the top eight overall and already a five-plus minute lead. ISDE is all about the team game and the US boys are proving it so far.
GB are second with Nathan Watson their best performer in fourth scratch, Jamie McCanney P7 in a tight top 10 individually. They have just under two minutes over France in third but a contest is brewing here with Spain and Italy benefitting from their flying talismen but also their fourth team riders making amends for their first day mechanical woes (Navarro and Bernadini). Stay tuned to the gaps between GB, France, Spain and Italy over the next two days.
The Junior World Trophy contest is currently no contest to be blunt. The big news of the day is Italy went out of the contest with Manolo Morettini retiring but the Swedish boys are running away with it and belittling the conditions which are a long way removed from anything you’d call typical of their country.
Axel Semb thought he’d got the day scratch win but was pipped in the last test by Albin Norrbin with Max Ahlin third, all within 30 seconds of each other scratch for a combined class lead of eight minutes already…
That puts USA second but only just as the trio of young Frenchmen were shooting from the hip today finishing up just six seconds adrift in third after two days. Six through ninth place scratch in the Juniors is awash with team USA and French riders fighting for every second.
If you wanted to know how hard the conditions are then look no further than the Women’s World Trophy category which now has just three teams remaining. Three: USA, Australia and an FIM team consisting of riders from different nationalities (to let them ride). Sadly, that means France, Great Britain, Canada, Argentina and Germany are all out of the WWT competition with at least one rider retired, many of them through heat exhaustion.
Team USA Women are having none of it, turning a couple of seconds deficit overnight into a five-minute lead on day two with all three riders in the top four scratch. Brandy Richards comfortably leads the way (having posted 49th fastest time overall) ahead of multi-skilled Rachel Gutish with Korie Steede fourth behind Australia’s Jessica Gardiner. Tayla Jones and Danielle Macdonald were fifth and sixth for the Oz girls but it wasn’t enough to stop USA stretching a sizable lead of 4:26.10.
Josh Toth continues to be the class of the Club scratch result, which you’d kinda expect from a class rider who was in the USA World Trophy team up until last year.
His XC Gear team grew their lead to 2:24.43 today and that was despite the fact the second placed braaptastic.com team riders Preston Campbell and Axel Pearson were P2 and P3 scratch.