ISDE Notebook: 7 things we learned from the Spain 2024

With the 2024 International Six Days Enduro done and dusted, Enduro21 looks back on the biggest talking points of the week in Spain – KTM and engine problems, Josep the history-maker, France and Sweden plus why two-strokes still rock enduro.

When Silleda in Galicia, North Western Spain was announced as the host location for the 2024 Six Days our Spanish colleagues were immediately on WhatsApp to say, “bring you rain jacket and waterproof boots”.

You only have to open your eyes to see how lush green and how dairy farming dominates the landscape to figure it was going to be a complete contrast to 12 months ago in Argentina.

This is enduro and the ISDE switching host countries each year is part of the deal, of course. But jeez, you sure can have enough of the rain sometimes!

Although the fog and a few bogs affected some tests on some days, on the whole the loamy dirt mixed with sand made for almost unique conditions better than hard-pack or clouds of silty dust in our view.

The hard part for riders in the tests was each other. The sheer volume of 600 riders battering the ground, along with the spells of rain, meant the rocks and roots jumped out as dirt got moved out the way.

Days were long too, in part because of the numbers but also because the route took some long and tricky transfers totalling over 250 kilometres and eight-hour days. Not many people were struggling to sleep at night that’s for sure.

Nobody put money on France

100% we admit a massive error but we don’t think we’re alone in saying we didn’t have the French men’s World Trophy team down as runaway winners of the 2024 ISDE. Podium contenders, absolutely, but winners?

You can point to other teams going out, notably Italy, or others not firing on all cylinders from day one like the USA, but the truth is France were simply the better team and they won because they were fast and had a collective confidence.

Day after day the French quartet hammered home an advantage by being consistently up the sharp end of the time sheets. Led handsomely by Theo Espinasse, riding as good as he ever has and in control this year it seems, not over-stretching himself and forcing errors, they were fast individually, made few errors collectively but also were clearly working together outside the tests.

A decisive move came on day one as they took to a couple of test first, jumping ahead of the American riders who were slow getting to grips with the conditions. Taking on the virgin ground before anyone else gave the French an advantage and they looked at home that day on tests not so unlike their home soil.

Watching them warm up each morning in the paddock before the sun rise, seeing them in the test holding areas, listening the team manager talk and address all four at once…it was all there.

It’s obvious, the best team normally wins the ISDE, but the Espinasse, Hugo Blanjoue, Julien Roussaly and Leo Le Quere were model contestants.

Swedish boys bring it home at last

For two years in a row, and most heart-breaking of all last year in Argentina, Sweden’s Junior World Trophy team were the nearly men in the Junior category.

But in 2024 they started as favourites, led all week, were mixing it with the seniors (notably Max Ahlin who had scratch podiums and finished fourth outright ahead of another Junior, Italian Kevin Cristino), and ultimately almost modelled the French World Trophy team in their team tactics and collective confidence.

But knowing you can do it, seeing you are doing it on the time sheets and actually getting it over the line is another question. A question which haunted them after a commanding lead turned to dust last year in a matter of minutes on the final test.

Their demons are vanquished now though as Ahlin, Albin Norrbin and Axel Semb delivered. They also show plenty of promise for the future with the addition of a strong fourth member, this team can be a challengers in Italy next year for the World Trophy.

Robbed of a World Trophy battle

Speaking of terrible retirements, day one of this year’s Six Days saw three Trophy contenders go out of the race and it is hard to argue it didn’t affect the overall results.

Andrea Verona was a scratch win contender along with Steve Holcombe and eventual winner Josep Garcia. His Italian team were up the top of many people’s list of World Trophy contenders too.

Second scratch for three consecutive years, the former World Trophy winner was out after a couple of tests when his GASGAS expired on the transfer. His Junior teammate Manuel Verzeroli had already retired earlier, in test two of the day. Both with engine failures.

It was a more complicated exit for team Great Britain’s Harry Edmondson. His bike wouldn’t fire up off the start ramp due to an electrical problem. Edmondson eventually fixed it after around 40-minutes but his team were unsure about rules and finishing late, plus having been judged to have received outside assistance, Team GB were also out the reckoning on day one.

Reliability and the riders working on their own bikes is very much part of the ISDE which is brutal on the brain, body and machine. ISDE takes it’s toll cruelly and it was a shame not to see how these three being in it to win it.

KTM engines just don’t do that

Those three riders going out so early was big news but perhaps equally as surprising was the expiration of not one but two factory KTM engines.

Verona and Verzeroli’s race bikes are from the Farioli workshop in Bergamo, Italy. Verona is a factory GASGAS rider, yes, but his 350 engines are factory builds from Austria. Switching to the 250 EXC-F for the ISDE after a world championship-winning season on the 125 special project, Enduro21 understands Verzeroli was also running a factory engine from Austria, much like Josep Garcia.

Enduro21 asked around and no-one could remember the last time a factory KTM engine broke in a race. In the mid-2000s there were some issues with electronics which caused some retirements, costing David Knight an overall ISDE win according to the man himself. But an engine failure? It never happens.

Back at the paddock there was a lot of analysis behind the closed pit areas with screens going up around the bikes as they were investigated. No doubt they started to worry about Garcia’s bike making it to the finish at that point too – the Spaniard’s team were pretty damn worried last year in Argentina we recall as he finished the last couple of days with a very noisy engine.

We’ll likely never hear the truth of it, speculation was rife for valve failure, but we have no way of knowing.

The French love a two-stroke

Sticking with the subject of engines, it was notable how many two-strokes peppered the entry list. Clearly many riders still prefer a two-stroke and with Beta, Sherco, TM and Fantic still developing models, the appetite for 2T is as strong as ever.

Take the ISDE top 20 scratch results as evidence: Theo Espinasse P3 on a Beta 250 2T, Kevin Cristino Fantic 300 2T in fifth, Leo Le Quere P6 on a TM 300 2T, Matteo Cavallo P8 on TM 300 2T, Antoine Alix P9 Beta 300 2T, Julien Roussaly P16 on a 300 Sherco 2T and an honourable mention to Antoine Magain on a Sherco 300 2T who had been top five until the horrible final test cost him a chunk of time.

If you add in Thibault Giraudon (Sherco 250 2T), Leo Joyon (Beta 250 2T), Jack Edmondson (Beta 300 2T) and Josh Strang (Beta 300 2T) all inside the top 30 scratch that was a majority.

What’s also clear is the appetite for a two-stroke is strong in France. The stand-out fact is the French Trophy teams collectively were all on a two-stroke except one rider – the French love a blue smoker!

Speaking of KTM, where’d all the orange bikes go?

Not that long ago the ISDE parc ferme was seemingly full of orange bikes. Latterly also Husaberg and then Husqvarna and GASGAS too, but for many years a KTM was the manufacturer which prevailed across a major international races.

There are many factors at play here including prices of bikes and, as mentioned above, the continued development of 2T bikes from Beta, TM, Fantic and Sherco. Plus the serial failure of the TPI and TBI bikes to achieve success in any numbers at the highest level in racing (except Hard Enduro but that’s a different kettle of fish).

But it’s also true to say if manufacturers go racing to sell motorbikes, for “brand awareness in the marketplace” (that’s the whole point), then not having such big teams and presence is having an effect in enduro race paddocks.

There was a time when KTM was the undisputed king of enduro with factory teams of six or more riders and a domination of the world championships. Fast-forward to now and there is one factory KTM rider, Josep Garcia, no factory Husqvarna team, and for three season just Andrea Verona on the GASGAS.

Though they have two of the best riders on the planet and, in Josep, someone who dominates our headlines, on the ground you can see the effect of less physical ‘marketing’, no matter how much noise they make on social media.

When Enduro21 attended the factory team photoshoot in 2014 the riders were: Antoine Meo, Johnny Aubert, Christophe Nambotin, Ivan Cervantes and Matt Phillips.

A decade earlier and it was Giovanni Sal, Ivan Cervantes, David Knight, Fabien Planet, Juha Salminen, Samuli Aro, Marko Tarkkala to name some but champions all.

A hell of a lot has changed at KTM since then, not least the many street bikes and MotoGP racing for example, but the effect on our sport is clear. There are less orange bikes than there used to be.

ISDE history man

Last word must go to the man you’d think KTM would be shouting louder from the roof tops about, their Spanish history maker, Josep Garcia. Some say having children makes you slower but Josep is proof of how much crap that is as he topped a perfect 2024 season with the scratch ISDE victory in Silleda. 

Three ISDE outright victories in a row was historic. A fourth for Josep this year on home soil marks him out as one of the greatest enduro riders of all time. Think of all the best riders on the planet ever, from any nation you like, and not one of them has clicked off ISDE outright scratch wins like this guy.

We thought he’d have a harder time this year in the conditions against Steve Holcombe and Andrea Verona, plus US off-road champions and flying Aussies on bigger bikes. But the factory KTM 250 EXC-F is a high-revving rocketship which hooks up so well out of corners (there’s speculation he is running traction control) it doesn’t seem to bother Garcia that he has a horsepower disadvantage because, 10 metres out of every corner, he has already gained any advantage the bigger bikes might have.

Whatever the conditions, and he faced many different ones in Galicia as indeed they do all year in the EnduroGP World Championship, it is remarkable, he is amazing to watch on a bike and it is a pleasure to witness.

That’s a wrap on our ISDE coverage for another year. It was a blast as always. The clothes are still drying as we type...

Photo Credit: Enduro21 | Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi + Nicki Martinez