New Zealand’s Rachael Archer continues to astound with her remarkable performances in the Women’s World Trophy Team class at this year’s International Six Days Enduro in Spain.
The young woman from Te Awamutu (pictured here) is just over 16 seconds behind the No.1 woman thus far at this massive annual off-road motorcycle racing marathon, United States rider Brandy Richards, with Spain’s recently-crowned women’s enduro world champion Mireia Badia experiencing a major set-back on Day Five and plummeting down the individual rankings from third to 30th equal.
Now third overall in the overall women’s rankings is Canada’s Shelby Turner, just a little less than nine seconds behind the hard-charging Archer.
Meanwhile, in terms of team honours, the three-rider Kiwi effort in the Women’s World Trophy (WWT) teams class – Archer (Kawasaki) joined by Opunake’s Taylar Rampton (Husqvarna) and Tapanui’s Kylie Dorr (Beta) – remains 10th out of the 11 WWT nations after Day Five.
Archer is not only 2nd overall in the individual standings for the women after Day Five, but she is now up to 87th overall (when ranked alongside the men) out of the more than 550 riders at the event.
Dorr has moved up to be classified 29th individual in the WWT class (and also improving to 130th overall alongside the men), while Rampton have improved to 30th among the women (and she stays 137th overall when counted alongside the men).
In the battle for national team honours in the WWT class, the Australians refuse to give up without a fight, and took the Day Five win.
Closing the gap to class leaders the United States, they are now just 3m 48s behind. The United States will no doubt look to manage that cushion on Day Six, but cannot afford to take it too easy with the Australians still charging hard.
Sweden remains in a comfortable third position and look set to complete the podium on the final day.
France and Spain round out the top five.
Led by Archer, this year’s ISDE saw the debut of New Zealand in the Women’s World Trophy competition. Although the team is down in 10th, Archer has obviously turned heads in the individual standings.
The final day is a motocross competition and that might favour Archer, a noted top exponent in this faster-but-less-technical branch of the sport back home in New Zealand.
Kiwi fans will also be pleased to note that Thames rider Chris Birch (KTM), a former winner of the famous Red Bull Romaniacs hard enduro in Romania, who is riding as part of the KTM All Star Team in the “Club” grade, has moved up to now be 36th overall individual (up one place from 37th) in the Club class ranks after Day Five.
Palmerston North rider Liam Ellis is the only other New Zealand rider listed among the entries and he is racing his KTM motorcycle in the C2 Club class as part of a three-rider Oceania squad.
Ellis has also moved up in the individual standings, now a remarkable 53rd overall (up from 68th) in the Club ranks after Day Five.
Day Five marked the penultimate day of racing in this year’s 98th edition of the ISDE and it featured two laps of the Orense-Irixo loop, ensuring more than 200 kilometres of riding for the day.
However, with dense fog resulting in the cancellation of the second enduro test, riders were offered some relief to rest their weary bodies midway through the day.
France is now on the cusp of first World Trophy (WT) win since 2017 as they once again topped the premier WT classification.
Entering the final motocross phase of the ISDE at Galicia, France holds a 7m 34s-advantage over the United States in second, with host nation Spain two minutes further back in third.
Australia holds fourth, but with 14m separating them from Spain, they can only hope Spain run into trouble on the final day if they wish to reach the podium. Rock solid, the Czech Republic completes the top five.
Despite the cancellation of special test five, the overall individual standings still saw Spain’s Josep Garcia (KTM) claiming the Day Five victory.
Topping the first four special tests, he went on to win by more than 14s over Great Britain’s Steve Holcombe (Honda) in second. Another solid performance by France’s Theo Espinasse (Beta) saw him place third.
Italy’s Samuele Bernardini (Honda) recorded his best result of the week with fourth. Sweden’s Max Ahlin (KTM) took fifth, and he was the best Junior World Trophy class rider.
Making it five-from-five, Garcia was once again best of the Enduro1 class competitors.
Espinasse in second headed his fellow countryman Hugo Blanjoue (Honda) in third.
Similarly, Holcombe also made it five wins from five starts in Enduro2. Bernardini and Ahlin rounded out the top three. It was a win for Belgium’s Antoine Magain (Sherco) in Enduro3, who continued to enjoy a stellar ride in Galicia. The Italian pairing of Kevin Cristino (Fantic) and Matteo Cavallo (TM) were second and third.
The New Zealand ISDE campaign is supported by Ward Demolition, MJH Engineering Ltd, FIM Oceania, Macaulay Metals, Signbiz, Kiwi Rider Magazine, Silver-Bullet, New Plymouth Underwater, Hirepool and Motorcycling New Zealand.
Photo by Future7Media
© Words by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
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