Czech it Out
Day one of the International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) in the Czech Republic is complete and it’s still anyone’s guess as to which team is leading, but it’s safe to say that it’s not Team USA, which suffered its fair share of problems throughout the day.

As of 11 p.m. Tuesday (Czech time), the official (and even unofficial) results have not been issued by the organizers, nor will they be released for at least another couple of hours. It appears that Team Sweden and Team Finland are heading the list, while Team USA will be lucky to make the top 10 - that is, if day one is counted.

Day one did not go as smoothly as expected, as a too-fast schedule had nearly every rider late at many of the checks and speeding on the roads, which resulted in numerous tickets by overzealous ticket-writing Policie that are hiding around just about every corner. U.S. Trophy Team rider David Pearson was one of many riders pulled over by the police and delayed. Pearson estimated that he was held up for nearly 15 minutes, causing him to be late at one of the checks. Club rider Amanda Mastin was pulled over twice. (Even Cycle News publisher Mike Klinger was written up a couple times in his rental car.) As a result of the overly fast schedule and the tickets, many are thinking (perhaps hoping) that day one will be thrown out altogether, but that won’t be ironed out until tonight’s jury meeting is concluded, which probably won’t be until early Wednesday morning (Czech time).

Thirty-degree temperatures, rain and strong winds greeted the riders for Tuesday morning’s start time, and many bikes were reluctant to fire up and numerous late-start penalties were assessed - especially in the big-bore four-stroke class. Many of the riders reported that the course was good and getting a bit chopped up, and they weren’t especially keen on the idea that they’ll be riding on the exact same course tomorrow (Wednesday).

U.S. Trophy rider Fred Hoess suffered mechanical problems on the day when his Husqvarna 125 suffered a blown head gasket, which caused his bike to lose water, and him to lose time. He dropped many points, ending any hopes he had of earning another gold medal.

“I lost about 20-25 minutes,” Hoess said. “I guess I’ll go for the collection now; I don’t have a bronze medal yet.”

Just about every member on the U.S. Junior World team had some sort of problem, including Wallace Palmer, who hit a hole so hard that his handlebars broke off in his hands. He had to duct-tape the triple clamps together just to make it to the finish.

It appears that every American rider but one (Caroll Dickerson, broken transmission) made it to the finish, though a couple are on the “iffy” list, depending on how the jury meeting turns out.

In the accompanying photo, Brian Storrie (378) and Luke McNeil (377) push their bikes to the start line. We will post the official day-one results as soon as they are released.