France Continues to Dominate the Red Bull ISDE World Trophy
OutdoorHub 09.27.12
France continued its charge towards total domination of the Red Bull ISDE in Saxony Germany on the fourth day on Thursday and is now leading the World Trophy, the World Junior Trophy and the women’s World Trophy going into the penultimate day in Saxony, Germany.
Three top KTM factory riders and Christophe Nambotin, the E3 World Champion, Antoine Meo, the E2 World Champion and leading E2 rider Johnny Aubert are anchoring the French World Trophy Team and they are currently the fastest three individual riders. Meo has been the leader in past days but he relinquished the advantage to Nambotin today and now trails him by just 7 seconds.
Australia is second in the World Trophy but now have a deficit of 32 minutes on the leader. Lead rider Toby Price, KTM’s Australian Offroad Champion slipped to ninth overall but is riding with a bent wheel and cracked ribs. Another one of their riders, Glenn Kearney was riding with a badly gashed leg, an injury he suffered on Day Three. Italy, Finland – with KTM factory rider Eero Remes (E1), currently fifth fastest overall and Spain are in places 3-5. The USA World Trophy Team, also heavy with KTM USA factory riders slipped to seventh place and KTM USA reported that KTM rider Charlie Mullins was riding with an injured shoulder. Mullins obviously put in a massive effort throughout the day and finished fastest in the final test.
France leads the Junior Trophy with Britain, USA, Australia and Portugal assuming places one to five. The British are going well and trail the leaders by just under two minutes. Meanwhile the French women have a stranglehold on their trophy and are 1.5 hours ahead of Germany with Australia in third place.
Heavy overnight rain created very difficult conditions for the riders on Day Four but they were well supported by big crowds of spectators, underlining that this region of Germany has a strong tradition of Enduro sport. Tomorrow for the penultimate day riders will be on their bikes for a longer time but organizers say the conditions will not be as tough as today.
The final day on Saturday will have a Supermoto character with 40 percent of the race being on the world famous Sachsenring racing circuit and 60 percent offroad in the terrain around the circuit.
