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The American Motorcyclist Association Posted November 12, 2007 |
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Calm before the storm in Chile: Team USA gears up for ISDEStory and photos by Steve Berkner The motorcycles are in impound and the opening ceremonies complete. Team USA spent Sunday enjoying its last moment of calm before the 82nd International Six Day Enduro (ISDE) kick-started in La Serena, Chile. The U.S. riders are among a total of 498 riders from 30 nations participating in the ISDE. This is the first time the event has been held in Chile and only the second time it has been held in South America. La Sirena, the site of this year's ISDE, offers grueling riding conditions similar to those found in southern California and Baja California. According to Team USA support rider Chilly White, the conditions are "right out of the Baja 1000." "If a rider coming here wasn't a desert racer before getting here, they're going to be one when they leave," White said during a team meeting. "Dust and bottlenecks are going to be the biggest challenges. The trade-off is most of the course is over some of the best desert terrain imaginable. It's sure to be a memorable Six Days." Leading this years Team USA ISDE efforts is recently crowned WORCS champion and desert ace, Kurt Caselli, who arrived here Monday after winning the WORCS championship just the day before. Last year, Caselli lead the four-rider U.S. Junior Team (for riders 23 and under) to a world championship during the 2006 ISDE held in New Zealand. This year Caselli will be competing with the premier six-rider U.S. Trophy Team along with Fred Hoess, Jimmy Jarrett, Ron Schmelzle, Rory Sullivan, and Jordan Brandt.
Russell Bobbitt, another member of last year's winning U.S. Junior Team, along with Ben Smith, David Kamo and Cole Kirkpatrick, will be defending that ISDE Junior Team World Championship title. In the newly created ISDE Women's World Cup division, Amanda Mastin, Nicole Bradford and Lacy Jones look to be one of the teams to watch, as the three-rider team has the most combined ISDE experience. The remaining 30 riders from the United States competitors make up the 10 three-rider club teams, most notably lead by 26-time ISDE veteran Jeff Fredette, who looks to extend his ISDE perfect-finish record to 27. "Everything this week came together without any real problems," said Bruce Wakeley, Team USA manager. "The U.S. shipping containers were on the ground when we got here and the rest just seemed to fall into place. "The only drama we had all week was in getting U.S. Junior Team member Cole Kirkpatrick here after his arrival was delayed by two days due to a canceled flight. But with a little extra help from all of us he made it into impound right on schedule." © 2007, American Motorcyclist Association |
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