ISTE J2: Let the British go

Despite Josep Garcia’s scrappy victory, England won on Tuesday to take the lead at the World Cup. Italians, Spaniards, USA and France follow in 5th place. Zach Bichon is a fast tricolor. The French are still in 3rd place.

ISDEs are predicted to be more open than ever. We have confirmation from this 2nd day. After the Iberian dominance on Monday, the British were the first to open fire on Tuesday. No scratch, still occupied by Joseph “Fangio” Garcia, who scratched 4 of the 5 specials (1st win by America’s Dante Oliveira), but there was a good group shot from four English riders, all in the top 12 of the day. The Watson and Holcomb planes, in particular, were fast and stylish.

What to take in Italy with 1 million 24 in advance and 1 million 29 in Spain. Apart from Garcia, the other Iberian drivers suffered in this second day’s broken specials. Many pilots, such as Salvini with the Italians, are still disabled after injury in the world, or Till de Klerk in the French team because they do not run in these “world” conditions.

Léo Le Quéré, ND takes time to say hello on Day 2’s best link, towards the church of d’Estours. Full of eyes (and hands too…). © JM Pouget

Again the Americans beat the French. At this time 4 short seconds in one day and about thirty in two days. Americans who seem to be running on economy”, less scratchy than usual except for the last stopwatch of the day. Strategy to save money and avoid bad falls (remember Prive 2017)? It’s hard to know. We’ll see over the weekend.

It works under the tricolor awning with 5th place for the World Cup, 3 minutes from the head of the race. © JM Pouget

For the Blues, Blancho and Le Curre enjoyed a great day of scratches, Christophe Charlier was in touch and only Till de Klerk played it safe. They are 5th in the provisional classification, but are already 3 million 33 behind the leaders. An inconsistency that is worrying after two days, but far from prohibitive when you know how far and the number of levels to cross.

Luke Farquier was on track to have a great day, but a double fault on the last lap cost him. © JM Pouget

Another form of tricolor flag is the Zag Pichon. 7th overall after a troubled start to the day. The official Sherco uses enviable space when you’re 21 and junior driving. Freed from the pressure of driving in a group and looking very hard on the scratch, he focuses on his E1 category classification. His team-mate Luke Farquier was on course for a big day, finishing 12th overall after four rounds. But the Beta-Axmoto rider made two mistakes (without injuries) in the last special, losing the lead he had accumulated during the day. The job comes down to who we believe will win the Junior 2 World Title in October during the World Finals in Germany.

Best tricolor of the day, Justin Martell and his teammates finished 3rd ahead of USA and Great Britain. © JM Pouget

Finally, among the women, the Americans held firm and increased their lead over the two days to 7 minutes over the British and 14 minutes over the French! Will they last four days at this rate? In tricolor, Justine Martell showed her experience in the difficult conditions of this Day 2, again in the top 9 of the women’s scratch.

Antoine Meo sets best time for Enduro Dream Team. And the handlebars of the “Ducati KXF” were not spared. “Alligator” forever! © JM Pouget

Tomorrow, new balls, south, with a new course heading to Loser and the town of Longogne. New Virgin Special (besides 5, Mondays and Tuesdays close to paddock and already running). Consider an online special (Enduro Test) near Mont Lozère, which will be a real justice of the peace for the next two days.

Everything Results

World Cup Rankings After Day 2

Junior ranking after day 2

Women’s rankings after day two