WOMEN’S WORLD TROPHY TEAM
Racing the same course as yesterday, Tuesday’s special tests looked much different the second time around but that didn’t stop the American ladies from rising to the occasion. Delivering a smooth and steady performance well ahead of the rest of the field, Brandy Richards finished just over a minute ahead of second-place to give the team another big charge early in the week. KTM-supported rider Korie Steede contributed another day of solid scores to finish fourth in the Women’s division, and Rachel Gutish (GASGAS) came in seventh on the day.

Brandy Richards: “Day two was really great. We had the same tests and transfers as yesterday, so just getting a little more comfortable on the tests today. As a team we gained another three minutes, so I’m super stoked on the day and going to keep it rolling!”

Korie Steede:“It was a rough day for myself on the tests, I was just kind of fighting the bike and not getting very comfortable out there, but the team killed it! Brandy is crushing it, as usual, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow and leaving today behind.”

WORLD TROPHY TEAM (WT)
Still sitting fourth in the World Trophy competition, the U.S. team lost a little momentum on day two but they’re still in the fight for podium contention. FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Dante Oliveira excelled right from the start, capturing his first special test win – and the first for the Americans this week – in the first test of the day. He went on to collect a sixth and fourth in the final tests to close out the day in fifth outright. Teammates Kailub Russell and Josh Toth struggled to stay on pace with the front-runners but they were both able to deliver steady times for the team.

Dante Oliveira:“Better day today for me, I finished fifth overall and I got a test-win on the first one. I kind of dropped back on two and three and then picked it back up for four and five. All-in-all, it was a good day. The track is beat up but tomorrow we’re going to have a new course with a bunch of fresh tests and we’ll be able to get another run at it.”

Kailub Russell: “At the end of day two, everybody is pretty deflated about the day and how it went. I struggled for the most part and hit the deck one time but nothing too major. We’ve got some fresh tests for tomorrow and we’ll try to regroup and get things back on-track here.”

Josh Toth:“It was another long day in the saddle – another 175 miles – and I’m really feeling it. I started out a little off-pace in the first test and then later in the day those tests seemed to be better but I ended up having an incident where the guy in front of me went off the course like 30 seconds gap between us and then jumped in right before me and totally white-out dusted me, so that was super frustrating and really ruined my special test there. I did what I could in the last one and we’ll start fresh tomorrow with new tests, I’m excited for that!”