ISDE Women’s World Trophy Day 4 – Team United States leads Team Australia with Team Sweden in P3. In the Individual standings, Team USA’s rider Brandy Richards has nailed clean sweep, winning Days 1 – 4 overall with Team NZ rider Rachael Archer claiming second place and Team Australia’s Jessica Gardiner rounding out the top 3, with 2 days remaining.
For certain, all rider’s from 11 Teams have risen to the challenges presented racing the 98th edition of International Six Days Enduro, with the top tier of rider’s displaying outstanding skills and race-craft to level competition on the routes from Day 1 through to Day 4. The dominant performance of Team USA: Brandy Richards, Rachel Gutish, and Ava Silvestri has pushed the gap to 4’15.72 ahead of Team Australia after Day 4, with the Aussie trio of Jessica Gardiner, Tayla Jones, and Danielle McDonald holding off Team Sweden by 19’31.14.
With Brandy holding top spot in the Individual rankings, Team NZ’s Rachael Archer remains a force to be reckoned with battling with Team Spain’s Mireia Badia – with both women trading P2 and P3 positions in Days 1 – 3 – with Archer nailing P2 after Day 4 and Mireia dropping back to P7. Team Australia’s Jessica Gardiner completed solid performances in Days 3 and 4, holding P3 heading into Day 5 tomorrow.
The test times are so close, that only 2.3 seconds separates the top 8 rider’s after Day 4. From Brandy’s combined 6 special test times of 47’22.25 in P1 to Team Italy’s Francesca Nocera total test times of 49’56.31 in P8, these women are pushing limits within mere tenths of a second between each rider. Add in the loops which have cut out due to rain – racing the Santiago loop on Days 1 and 2 to racing the Vilatuxe-Lalincourse on Days 3 and 4 – each rider will be digging deep to keep mistakes at a minimum heading into the final 2 days.
Such tests of endurance highlights the capabilities and diverse skills these women possess competing in varying disciplines from one season to the next. In fact, no other event brings women together, who pitch their physical, mental, and technical abilities against equally talented rider’s whose race schedules differ in format and location through-out the year.
Starting with Team United States rider of Brandy Richards who finished P2 overall in GNCC WXC 2024 and Rachel Gutish who raced Enduro back home, along with finishing P2 in Enduro Women’s World Championship this season. Switching to Team Australia’s riders: Tayla Jones holds massive 6x ISDE WWT Titles plus 3x GNCC WXC Championships, along with Jessica Gardiner who equals Tayla’s record in ISDE, plus 15x Australian Championships – Enduro.
To further down-under, and NZ’s Racheal Archer has plenty of race arsenal under her, winning GNCC WXC 3x in 2022, 2023, and 2024. The presence of Racheal racing ISDE WWT can not be under-estimated, as her test times are only tenth’s of a second behind Brandy’s on debut. Team Spain’s Mireia Badia has recently achieved long-time goal, winning Women’s Enduro World Championship in September, 2024. Mireia’s mental tenacity has proved formidable over long days of racing, along with Team Italy’s rider – Francesca Nocera – who stands P8 individually, on debut entry.
Heading into the final 2 days of ISDE WWT and the expectation and anticipation on who will be the winners will rise. Will Team United States claim overall victory – and if so – will that mean double success with Brandy Richards taking Individual honours as well? Let’s see – Day 5 and Day 6 October 18 and 19.
Header photo: from left to right Team Australia, Rachael Archer, Mireia Badia, Team United States Images: Teams Graphics: MXLink.
Words: Sharon Cox.
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