1 week Ago
New Zealandmade its debut appearance this season at the women’ssection of the International Six Days Enduro, held in Spain,and impressed many at this huge gathering of themotorcycling world elite. The three-rider New Zealandwomen’s contingent that battled in the Women’s WorldTrophy (WWT) teams’ class – Te Awamutu’s RachaelArcher (Kawasaki) joined by Tapanui’s Kylie Dorr (Beta)and Opunake’s Taylar Rampton (Husqvarna) – managed a fewjaw-dropping results on their way to finishing 10th overallin their first-ever appearance at this massive annualdirt-biking marathon. Individually, Archer was thestand-out for the New Zealanders, the young woman from theSouth Waikato region finishing overall runner-up among thewomen, just two minutes and 51.
12 seconds behind UnitedStates team rider Brandy Richards after an incredible sixdays of brutal racing in the Galicia region, on the Atlanticcoastline in the north-western of Spain. Archermanaged to tap into any left-over reserves of energy tosignificantly cut her deficit to Richards on the final day,which featured a motocross, an aspect of off-road motorcycleracing that is considered faster but arguably lesstechnical. The rider who finished the ISDE thirdoverall in the women’s rankings was Australia’s JessicaGardiner, ending the event just a little under five minutesbehind the hard-charging Archer.
“It felt goodto win a special test (a tightly-timed sprint section) atthis event,” said Archer. “I felt like I rode decent anddidn’t crash, so put in a solid ride. “It’s beena cool first ISDE for me.
I didn’t really set any goals orexpectations for myself coming into the week. I just wantedto learn and gain as much experience as I could. I feel likeI’ve done that and also shown some speed.
” Dorrwas meanwhile classified 28th individual in the WWT class(and also finished 129th overall alongside the men), whileRampton was forced to drop out after Day Five with aninjury, but was still credited with finishing 30th overallamong the women (and 137th overall when counted alongsidethe men, easily within the top third of competitors at theISDE this year). “New Zealand was so close to havinga rider on top of the podium!” exclaimed team managerJustin Stevenson afterwards. “Rachael Archer! Secondoverall and second in the final motocross race by just eightseconds.
Have we ever done better? “Rachael was 54thoverall out of 570 starters and 18th in the E1 bikecategory, second woman by less than three minutes after sixdays of racing! Not the dream result for Team New Zealand,but close,” said Stevenson. “The Kiwi girls werefeatured on the front page of newspapers everywhere overhere. Enduro racing is bigger than rugby inSpain.
” Kiwi fans will also have been pleased tonote that Thames rider Chris Birch (KTM), a former winner ofthe famous Red Bull Romaniacs hard enduro in Romania, who isriding as part of the KTM All Star Team in the “Club”grade, finished the event 35th among the Clubriders. Palmerston North rider Liam Ellis was the onlyother New Zealand rider listed among the entries and he wasracing his KTM motorcycle in the C2 Club grade as part of athree-rider Oceania squad. Ellis also moved up in theindividual standings within the Club grade, settling at aremarkable 49th overall (up from 68th overall earlier in theevent) when the six days finally wrappedup.
Meanwhile, Team France won the premier WorldTrophy (WT) class ahead of the United States and Spain. Inthe Junior World Trophy (JWT) class, Team Sweden won aheadof France and the United States. There was no Kiwimen’s team entered this season.
The New Zealand ISDEcampaign is supported by Ward Demolition, MJH EngineeringLtd, FIM Oceania, Macaulay Metals, Signbiz, Kiwi RiderMagazine, Silver-Bullet, New Plymouth Underwater, Hirepooland Motorcycling NewZealand..
