It was Taylor Robert, Ryan Sipes, Kailub Russel and Baylor Stewart who raced a clean six days in Portugal barely putting a foot wrong in the race. Team USA progressed and became stronger as the race progressed. Team RecoveR8 Australia the defending champions pulled off the line with some real race pace placing themselves in the lead for half of the race. Team USA was in second for the second half of the race but their hunger and determination drove them to catch and pass Team RecoveR8 mid way into the race.
This only meant war between Australia and USA for the remainder of the race with Team RecoveR8 taking the win on the 6th and final day of the race showing their strength and will to not give up. Unfortunately for Team RecoveR8 the bridge to gap between them and team USA was to big and had to settle for this years runner up for the FIM ISDE International Six Days Enduro.
Not only did USA show their power in the top category, USA took the win in the Ladies category. Rebecca Sheets, Brandy Richards and Tarah Geiger was the ladies to beat this year. Germany showed courage and fought their way into a secured second place over Great Britain in third. Spain secured fourth and a very pleased sixth place for Portugal on home soil !
The final category and also the youngest category in the race is the juniors. Here is where the competition was going on and certainly were the spectators were ! The young guns from all over the world, champions in their home territory, came together to duke it out for the world title.
Mimicking the trophy category the junior Australians jumped off the line setting the pace for the remainder of the race taking the victory on day one. Great Britain's champion Brad Freeman broke his arm on the first day damaging his team's strength in battling it out for the top spot in the category.
The young guns of Australia felt comfortable on their bikes and eyes filled with determination the young team kept pushing hard throughout the race, never looking back at the teams hunting them down all six days, claiming the junior world FIM ISDE trophy. Team USA never gave up and fought up until the very last second to finish as the runner up team in the junior category.
It has been a tough and long FIM ISDE enduro in Portugal. Each day over 130km and some days ranging up to 250km each rider's mental and physical strength and their mechanical skills has been put to the test each day. For the top three of each category seconds was what they were racing for minimizing and extending gaps between the hunters and chasers. Team USA took 2 category victories home and a solid second place in the junior category. With the majority win came the overall win for the USA team.
For the ladies, the American girls ended the six year winning streak of the Australian girls and with the score breaking victory the battle for next year will be big as the American girls are setting out to make history after proving they do have what it takes to become international champions.
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XL-Lagres : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amUvD96r6ps
Trefle Lozerien AMV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUovsrkdqRM
Erzbergrodeo : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgwvr4nMABo
Hixpania Hard Enduro : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rizjBQH4vxA
Red Bull Romaniacs : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7RB6dBOfTU
Hawkstone Park Cross Country : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRRT_JSnqHY
BR2 Enduro Solsana : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPMey93xnxw
GetzenRodeo : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E1NX4HaHPc
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The weekend of the 7th December 2019 some of the top riders of the world entered the SuperEnduro event in Poland to bang bars and see who will come out on top. An old favorite Billy Bolt, the big kid who can seriously handle and manipulate a bike, made his return to racing in Poland after a serious leg injury that kept him out of the 2019 racing season. The injury was so serious that some people thought that Billy will never be competitive again.
Well with that said Billy decided to make his return to racing and show everyone that he is more than capable of racing at the front and took two heat wins, one second and with all of that the overall victory in Krakow, Poland.
Riders that lined up were Billy Bolt, Taddy Blazusiak, Johnny Walker, Alfredo Gomez, Blake Gutzeit and Pol Tarrez. All of the riders were eager to win and in top form for the race. From the first gate drop it was bar banging racing between the riders. Billy and Tady banged bars coming into the first rocky turn with both losing their balance and almost falling ! This was the start of the battle between the 2 front runners in this race.With Billy out in front Taddy was doing the hunting but Billy was too precise with his lines and made minimal mistakes throughout the race leading him to the number one spot, Taddy taking the number two spot and Alfredo Gomez rounding of the top three for the first race of the evening.
Gate 2 dropped and the riders were all over each other ! Riders funneling in for the perfect lane trapped Billy inside and Taddy and Walker was out front to set the pace for the second race of the evening. Taddy slowly started to gain moment but Billy was hungry and determined to get to the front. After 2 laps Billy fought the the pack holding him back and only a few riders were left in his way to reach Johnny and Taddy. Johnny knowing that Billy is on his way and his own desire to perform the pressure was too much for a moment and he lost concentration resulting in him losing his balance in the rock bed and getting stuck. This gave Billy and Alfredo the opportunity to pass Johnny. Billy locked his eyes on Taddy that was not too far ahead of him now. Billy was making up ground on Taddy but he was unable to catch him and Taddy took his first win of the night with Billy in second, Alfredo in third and Johnny in fourth.
Third and final race for the evening and Taddy took the lead with Johnny in second and Billy in third. After the second turn Billy jumped into second place and chased after Taddy. After one lap Billy passed Taddy by jumping into the inside of the rocky corner and getting the drive out first to take the lead. From there on the the chase was on Billy but Taddy and the others had no luck in catching Billy. Each lap Billy extended his lead and made no mistake, only needed to navigate through the traffic ahead of him. Johnny made a mistake in the rocky turn and went flying into the rocks when his bike landed on a big rock bucking him off. This set Johnny back into fourth and Alfredo back into third.
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Coming into the finals for the EnduroX event next to the Lesotho mall was a fully stacked gate with some of the top riders : Graham Jarvis, Wade Young, Scott Bouverie, Will Slater, Matthew Green, Brett Swanepoel, Luke Walker and Chris Brich.
As soon as the gate dropped Wade Young grabbed the lead and never looked back. This giving him a clean win on the first day of the Roof of Africa.
While all of the gold riders where in the city banging bars, the silver and bronze riders went out to Thaba Bosiu for their time trial. Austin Stuart set the fastest time in the Bronze class with 52'36". Dwayne Barnard set the fastest qualifying time with 48'56".
The first day of hard enduro racing to test the riders true skills and their relationship with their bikes. Young blood Wade Young has his eyes locked on winning day 1 in the mountains and this is exactly what he has done. After a long and hard day with 7h18'23" in the seat for Wade Young took the checkered flag together with a 23 minute lead over Graham Jarvis in fourth and a 21 minute lead over Scott Bouverie in second place.
In the silver class young gun Ryan Pelser fought hard to take the win showing he is capable of taking the victory in the silver class this year. With 6h31'46" in the saddle and only a one second lead over Dwayne Barnard.
For the gold class things were no different the the day before. Wade Young raced to the finish to secure his 5th Roof of Africa win and his 3rd Roof win in a row breaking the tie between himself and Graham Jarvis who came into this year's Roof of Africa with both having four wins. Wade Young has now set course to grab the title from legend Alfie Cox with 9 Roof of Africa wins in his title.
Although Wade took the win overall the last day in the mountains did not go to Wade but instead to Graham Jarvis being 3 minutes faster than Wade Young and only 22 seconds faster than Scott Bouverie who took second place on day 2 and overall. Graham Jarvis finished the Roof in fourth with 2 seconds behind Kyle Flanagan who took the number 3 spot overall.
Silver, well now that was racing! Young silver bullet Ryan Pelser going into the last day with only a one second lead kept his head down and gave it his all. As soon as young Pelser broke away from Dwayne he extended his lead with 8 minutes half way into the race. After 5h05'39" in the saddle Ryan Pelser took the win on the last day in the mountains and an overall win for the 2019 Roof Of Africa. Dwayne Barnard in second place and Brucy May rounding off the silver podium for 2019.
Austin Stewart had a clean first ever Roof of Africa winning all three days and grabbing his first ever Roof of Africa bronze victory. Austin ended his Roof with a 35 minute lead.
For 2020 the Roof might be moved a week or two earlier with the hopes to see more of the international riders joining Graham to come and battle the top South African riders and to take the win at next year's Roof of Africa.
Remember the words of Charan Moore, organizer of the Roof, from now on for the vision for the future of the Roof of Africa
The Monster Energy Cup of 2019 was held in Las Vagas, United States. The 9th annual Monster Energy Cup hosted 34.545 spectators in stadium and $100,000 prize money for the 450 pro winner of 2019.
This iconic event marked Adam Cianciarulo's first 450 pro event on his factory Kawasaki KX450F. If you want to see a full detailed review of Adam's factory 450 click here to see what makes his bike unique : https://dirtbikemagazine.com/inside-adam-cianciarulos-monster-energy-cup-winning-kx450/
Fighting with the big boys Adam showed his capable from the first gate drop of the night. In main event #1 Adam ripped up the ground to take the hole shot with Malcom Stewart and Jeremy Martin who both made their return after their serious injuries in the previous racing season. Cianciarulo made a small mistake early on by washing out the front end sending him back to fifth. Getting back on the bike and chasing the front runners for the remainder of the race, Adam managed to finished second behind his team mate Eli Tomac.
Main event #2 Adam had a bad start finding himself buried 14th at the start of the race. Adam showed his determination and will power to succeed in an impressive push from 14th to 2nd. This excellent performance tied Adam with Malcom Stewart and Eli Tomac for the $100,000 money prize and 2019 Monster Energy Cup title. To see how Adam pushed up to 2nd click on the link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2txsXnqS9g
Main event #3, the final and deciding race of the evening between Adam, Malcom and Eli for the winner of the six figure payday. Adam grabbed the hole shot with Tim Gasjer and Eli Tomac close behind. A few turns in Adam got off balance sending all three riders at once into the corner but no positions were switched up. When Eli Tomac passed Tim Gasjer in the following corner the nine lap battle between the two factory Kawasaki riders took place. Finishing strong with a wheel length to spare, Adam the rookie showed great technique determination and took the event win, overall win and a perfect six figure pay check to end off his 2019 season.Click here to see what a nine lap battle looks like : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVpHXGVwycY
On the podium Adam said : "My first thought was, 'What I life I get to live!' That whole race I knew he was behind me. We had a gap and I knew it was going to come down to the Joker Lane and - just the opportunity to race with Eli. He's accomplished so much and just to be out there on the track with him. I'm stoked to be out there. Honestly, I always looked up to Eli and so just to be out there racing with him is unreal. And to come out on top of my first race is, I just can't ask for anything better..." .Cianciarulo also showed some insight into a racer's development when asked if the win taking place in the stadium where his Supercross championship slipped away gave him a sense of redemption. "It's a little bit of redemption but to be honest with you I look at Vegas now - after winning the outdoor motocross championship - I look at Vegas as something that helped me get there. I really don't look back on that race and think, 'Oh, man.' I think it's really helped me grow. And what a better way, to get a Monster Cup win in 450. I always love coming here, even that night, it sucked, obviously, but I love Vegas and I'm just so grateful, can't say that enough."
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