After almost a week of in-country preparation, Team USA is ready for the
84th Maxxis FIM International Six Days Enduro to start here in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, and its optimism runs high for good results.
After unloading the Team USA container, the first order of business is uncrating all the bikes and reassembling them. Some of the crates are more colorful than others.
Unlike many years, the container with bikes, spares and tools arrived on time, eliminating the mad last-minute scramble that has often plagued American efforts and led to small issues that grow to big ones.
The area is roughly midway up Portugal’s Atlantic coast, and the terrain is similar to Chile in 2006 in that there will be an abundance of sandy “cross tests” while the enduro tests promise to be technical and rather unforgiving of mistakes. In addition, some transfer mileage will take the competitors through the many small villages that dot a hilly countryside rich in eucalyptus and olive trees as well as fields of rice.
Most years, the U.S. team fights only to stay in the top 10 and is considered by the European titans as a mostly unproven squad with talented individuals who have yet to realize its potential as a team.
But after earning third last year in Greece, the U.S. World Trophy lineup returns largely intact and with a very high profile. Four riders from last year’s group are the same: Destry Abbott, Kurt Caselli, Ricky Dietrich (who posted the fastest American score last year and was second overall individual) and Nathan Kanney.
The remaining two are ISDE rookies who carry impressive résumés earned in other facets of the sport such as former supercross star Damon Huffman and Tim Weigand, another motocrosser-turned-WORCS hero.
After passing tech, it's into the impound area. Here, Chilly White parks the Motorcycle-USA.com
Honda CRF450X ISDE project bike on Saturday. The next time he lays hands on it will be Monday morning.
Though one might think that such recognition carries heavy pressure to perform, such is not the case—at least in Dietrich’s opinion: “I know myself, personally, I don’t feel the pressure and I don’t think the rest of the team feels the pressure either. We’ve been having a lot of fun since we’ve been here, walking tests and stuff.
“It seems like once we went out and saw [the terrain] we were going to be riding, everybody really just perked up. The riding looks awesome. I am so stoked for the tests out there. Most of the stuff is really sandy; it’s stuff that I like riding at home. Some of the tests look like a practice track I’d have set up in the hills or something. It’s like, ‘Dude, this stuff looks really cool!’
“So that’s really got me motivated and excited for the race. I think the rest of the team is really pumped for it as well. We’ve got a bunch of solid riders this year and everybody is really riding great right now. I’m 100-percent; I’m ready to go. My foot’s healed; it’s good.
“I think we’re all building up for something big right now.”
And we’ll find out how big that is at the end of the week.
Video is Courtesy of Kawasaki Racing
