DAILY DIARY – ISDE 2014
© Edmunds / Enduro21.com
Day four of the ISDE is in the books – we’re on the home stretch…
Toby Price’s Movember is really taking shape. Phillips, Renet and Strang are all secretly jealous.
Fabien Planet casually changes a clutch during his 10-minute morning work allowance.
After 111 riders didn’t make it to the end of day three, a lot of riders began day four with a worried look on their face.
Argentina is getting behind the ISDE. Each day strong crowds of spectators line the specials.
Despite daily injections to his ankle Ivan Cervantes is still all smiles – yeah boy, day four!
Premix made simple!
Bebidas y Sandwichs – five dolla…
The queue for the ice baths is growing by the day. Warning – they may give you a nosebleed.
Oh that fesh-fesh. It. Gets. Everywhere.
There’s nothing like a day of riding fesh-fesh and rocks topped off with tyre change while suited and booted in a 35-degree heat.
Pela Renet’s hopes of a clean sweep of day wins in the ISDE ended when Toby Price – pumped by his flourishing Movember – ripped his way to victory on day four.
Team media – f’yeah! This is how we roll…
DAY THREE
When the going gets tough the tough keep going. For the third day in a row Pela Renet remained unbeatable. But he’s taking nothing for granted – the end of the race is still a long ways off.
Matt Phillips keeps on trucking. Third overall and second in E2.
Kevin Benavides – 30
th overall – and Franco Caimi – 21
st – have pushed host nation Argentina up to fifth overall in the World Trophy classification.
Extreme heat, lingering dust and fes-fesh like conditions have played havoc on day three in Argentina. With 111 riders dropping out the race, its one of the worst rates of attrition seen for some time. Expect losses more to follow.
Day three pretty much marked the end of the road for Australia. Jarrod Bewely nuts deep in a faulty stator plate tries to keep himself and his team in the race but to no avail. He’s out and later Josh Greene joins him. Zac Osborne – right – feels his pain.
She nailed the shot – obviously straight to Instagram with that one!
Taylor Robert was having the best ride of his life – winning tests and almost winning the day – until it all went pear-shaped. A casualty of the dust and fesh-fesh, he lost nine minutes on the trail. Finishing the day, he was then later excluded for apparently receiving outside assistance. We hope USA’s hopes of winning are lost.
Rail roadin’…
At every service control riders changed air filters to keep their bikes breathing as best as possible. Some even carried filters and changed whenever possible. The great Alfie Cox watches on as son Brad Cox gets to grip with another filter swap.
Christophe Nambotin might be leading E1 by a country mile but he’s far from happy to be fifth overall.
DAY TWODay one of the ISDE is a distant memory – we’re pushing one. Here’s day two’s daily diary…
Down but not quite out. Day two was a tough one on USA’s Charlie Mullins. Arriving to Argentina off the back of a serious wrist injury he’s not in tip-top shape. He picked himself back up after this moment to keep his team in the race.
Just one of the numerous river crossings on day two.
It’s getting hot and dusty out there.
Bananas, oranges, ham sandwiches and not a croissant in sight – the food of team France.
Mike Brown fires his way out of a dusty berm to keep inside the top ten in the overall standings.
It’s not been the best of weeks so far for Ivan Cervantes but also not the worst. That ankle injury he suffered earlier this year is still plaguing him.
The ISDE is the one time of year riders get right back to the roots of enduro and work on their own bikes. Midrace, Pela Renet works on cleaning a fork seal. No time to rest here.
The scenery around is pretty unique. Gigantic clay hills fill the landscape. In places it’s like riding on the moon.
Three weeks ago Toby Price was racing a rally bike against the world’s best in Morocco, now he’s in Argentina beating some of the world’s best enduro riders. The man is a machine!
Oliver Nelson is having a right good go at this year’s ISDE. Generally speaking the Swedes are not known for loving the hot, dry and dusty conditions Argentina has to offer but it’s not stopping Oliver. Seventh in E2 and 14
th overall for him.
There’s no I in team! Zac Osborne may be out of the race but he’s still in the trenches spotting lines and making sure his boys are ok. We like that spirit!
DAY ONE
Just under 400 hundred bikes rolled out of the parc Ferme bright and early on day one to start the 89
th edition of the ISDE
Day one was a battle of the French or more so a battle between Christophe Nambotin and Pela Renet. Nambo’ lead the way from the second special and managed to hold his buddy Renet off for the majority of the day but it wasn’t enough to take the win.
There’s not a lot of vegetation in this neck of the wood, just an awful lot of rolling mud hills to play on instead
Can Matt Phillips race a 350f? Yes indeed he can. Hot out of the traps he won the first special test of day one. He dropped down the order to fifth as the day wore on but that’s partly because he’s been on the couch mending his foot since the season ending EWC GP of France.
Day one took a couple of prisoners. USA’s Zach Osborne was one of them. Bike trouble stopped him in his tracks.
Daniel Milner was also another rider not to see day one out.
Easily the strongest member of the French junior team, Loic Larrieu’s eight overall on day one would have placed him highly among his senior counterparts.
He started a little slow but he ended day one bloody fast. Pela Renet picked up the overall win on day one in San Juan.
Sand or rock – day one was a case of one or the other. And if the soft loose berms didn’t catch you out then chances were the loose slippery rocks would. Day two is more or less exactly the same – just with added holes and bumps.
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Jeu 6 Nov - 10:52
