On The Pegs December 2019 - Volume 4 - Issue 12 | Page 74

On The Pegs
XC Gear Club Team
Wins Club Trophy
In addition to our winning Trophy Teams, an American Club
Team also found success at the 2019 ISDE. The XC Gear team
of Dante Oliveira, Ricky Russell and Austin Walton topped
a 124-team field, finishing 18:03.05 seconds ahead of a club
team from France. Olivera and Russell ended the event as
the second- and third-fastest riders in the C2 class.
Ricky Russell talked to On The Pegs after the event and he
gave us thoughts abiout his first ISDE.
“It was a little bit gnarlier than I expected, just how many
miles we did every day and then some of the transfer trail
was really gnarly,” said Russell. “But other than that, it was
kind of what everyone talked about. It was a long six days,
is what it was. Actually, a long fourteen days. I didn’t realize
how much the first week we get there, how much we walk.
They walk twenty miles a day. So it was a lot of walking.
“Also, the terrain kind of caught me off guard. That was
one thing I wasn’t really expecting from Six Days. It’s kind
of like all cross tests. They call them enduro tests, but they
were kind of all… Some were a little more technical I guess,
but there was one test that we had a tiny bit of single track.
Other than that, it was all like twenty feet wide or fifteen feet
wide and just cross testy. So, it didn’t suit my style complete-
ly, but I kind of adapted and did the best I could. There was
times where there were tests that I didn’t think I would do
that good and I actually did decent. We were getting top ten
overall times. I was definitely pleased with how I rode. Just
needed to minimize some of the mistakes. When I would
over-ride and push harder, I would make more mistakes and
it was easy to do because you were trying to go faster be-
cause you made a mistake, and then you’d make more mis-
takes. A very big learning experience and I’m proud to have
been on the XC Gear team and get this win.” n
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