ISDE 2024 Results: France firm on day four as USA overhaul Spain in World Trophy

2024 FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) day four results from Spain where the imperious French men’s World Trophy team continue their march towards victory ahead of a titanic battle between the USA and Spanish World Trophy teams.

2024 ISDE Spain day 4 in a nutshell:

The day four route of the 2024 ISDE was a repeat of day three with riders beginning with around an hour transfer south of the paddock to the first of six tests, the Cross Test at Lalin. Conditions were slick again, more so out from under the trees in the grass fields where rain came and went, keeping everyone on their toes. It turn out nice in the end, mind.
It’s worth taking note of the different test lengths which challenge and contrast each other hugely on these two days of six. The three-minute Cross test near to the paddock is a short, sharp sprint compared to the 11 minute-plus Enduro Test part way through the lap which, especially after five days and 600 riders already on it yesterday, was a long test for any rider.

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Day four is also duly noted as the day Josep Garcia walked away with the overall lead. Steve Holcombe looked like he had answers to the world champion’s speed on the Spaniard’s home soil but mistakes and a brake issue yesterday, followed by a couple more today puts the already three-times ISDE outright winner Garcia one minute clear and on course for a fourth scratch victory.
The main news of the day in the World Trophy competition is the USA fight back to overhaul Spain. Much better results on the day from Johnny Girroir and Josh Toth (P6 and P11 respectively) plus Dante Oliveira and Cody Barnes inside the top 20 was a collectively improved results and it rewards them with a move ahead of the hosts.
By contrast the Spanish quartet, heavily bolstered by Garcia, looked to struggle more today on the rough tests, despite all having raced here before. 22nd, 30th and 44th positions for Josep’s teammates meant a collective dropping of time for the Spanish boys who now sit 1’23 behind in third.
France are imperious out front by the way. We’re not not mentioning them deliberately, it’s just that they are doing such a superb job of nailing the team game we’ve ran out of things to say. Once again all inside the top 20, led once again, by a top five result by Theo Espinasse their standout performer, the Frenchies now have an eight-minute lead overall. The famous trophy really is theirs baring disaster.
Sweden’s Juniors continue to stand tall above the French trio who look set for P2. It was a day of contrasts for Sweden though as Max Ahlin claimed third overall behind Holcombe and Garcia for his best-ever ISDE result but Axel Semb had a bad day finishing in 47th and five minutes down on his teammate.
The USA Juniors meanwhile need to watch out because the old foes Australia are gunning for that final Junior World Trophy place. It’s two minutes between them but it’s fair to say if it wasn’t for Grant Davis’ standout performance (consistently the XC2 GNCC champ has bettered the senior trophy team riders this week so far) it could be a different story.
In the Women’s category the runaway leader Brandy Richards didn’t have it quite so smoothly today. Australia’s vastly experienced ISDE rider Jess Gardiner (12 Six Days already) went fastest in the first test and was followed by ISDE rookie Rachael Archer in claiming a test win to stand on top of the individual classification. All are inside the top 100 scratch results.
The WWT team classification saw USA finish almost four minutes ahead of Australia today and the positions look set pending two more days of course. The Swedish women are third, nearly 20 minutes behind Australia but comfortably clear of France’s girls fourth and Spain fifth.
Like all of the above, the Club Trophy award is more likely than in any category to be settled already. The Italian Federation squad of Macoritto, Rinaldi and Scardini are now 16 minutes clear of the French Le Puy en Velay who are in turn just running clear of the marauding American teams GTBN and XC Gear who are 30 seconds apart.