The wait is over. Today, amid the enthusiasm of the thousands of enthusiasts who reached the Oltrepo Pavese, the 95th edition of the Six Days Enduro, which in the first three days of competition will see the competitors busy with the difficult routes of the Staffora Valley.
The route developed in the Pavia area, which winds between the start from the paddock in Rivanazzano Terme and the time control of Casanova Staffora, the farthest point, as the crow flies, reached by the race, is nearly 200 kilometers long (195 kilometers for accuracy) and, according to the forecasts of the organizers, can be covered in about seven and a half hours.
There are numerous points that enthusiasts intending to follow the feats of the competitors should keep in mind: on this first day of competition, with an encore in the second, the first noteworthy passage is the one in Casa Tui, not far from Godiasco (GPS coordinates provided by the organization N44 ° 52.873 ‘E9 ° 02.043’) is a Cross Test, what, in the environment, is defined as “taped”, that is, a test on a path delimited by tapes, challenging and real resistance test as generally characterized by tight and slow curves, changes of direction, chicanes and curves in rapid succession.
On the third day the motorbikes will roar shortly before, in Stellara (GPS coordinates N44 ° 53.810 E9 ° 00.053). Also in the initial stages of the race, on the outskirts of Godiasco, under the Nazzano hill (GPS coordinates N44 ° 54.509 ‘E9 ° 02.953’), the Maginot is scheduled, before the two Enduro Tests, in jargon the so-called online test. The road test, for the uninitiated, is a special timed test, characterized by extremely technical passages on natural obstacles, such as trunks, rocks or roots.
The Enduro Tests are considered the most selective tests, the ones that make the difference in terms of classification. Two tests are scheduled in the Pavia area: in addition to the Maginot which, as already mentioned, will be faced by the riders in all three days of competition, a second Enduro Test is also scheduled in Casanova (GPS coordinates N44 ° E46.179 ‘E9 ° 14.375 ‘), scheduled in the part only on the first and second day of competition and which experts consider a must for fans, given the high technical difficulty.
The Pavia course also includes two other Cross Tests (for a total of four): that of Val di Nizza (GPS coordinates N44 ° 53.148ì E9 ° 10.584 ‘), third test both in the first and third day of competition, and the one, considered particularly interesting, of Bagnaria (GPS coordinates N44 ° 49.628 ‘E9 ° 07.069’), scheduled, as scheduled, as the fourth race on the second and third days.
An opportunity to see motorcycles and riders more closely in a less “tight” context will be the three time controls set up in Ponte Nizza, Casanova Staffora and Varzi. The race will see around 650 riders appear on the starting line, with departures beginning, approximately, between 8.30 and 9.00.
National and club trophies
As is well known, the Six Days of Enduro, a veritable Olympics of off-road motorcycling, is the annual race that awards, above all, the title of Enduro World Champion to National Teams. This means that the difficult work of preparation for the race begins early, with the selection by the National Federations of the members of the team that will be deployed in the race. Now let’s try to understand how the most important race of the two-wheeled off-road season is tackled: by regulation, national teams can field a team of three or four components, taking into account only the times scored for the ranking. by the three best placed drivers in the day’s standings. It is the practice for the National Federations to regularly deploy four drivers, a choice that allows you to face the race with the almost certainty that the eventual setback of a team member does not affect the absolute classification The World Trophy in the Junior category, played by teams made up of three pilots no older than 23 years. In this race, any situations of equal merit are resolved in favor of the team that ranks the driver with the best time. The legislation governing the Women’s Trophy is still different: by regulation, the National teams can be composed of two or three athletes and each driver, if he is in a position not to be able to continue and having to withdraw during the day of competition, has the possibility to be readmitted to the race with a three-hour penalty. It is a kind of “token” that each competitor can spend only once during the entire competition. This rule, in the same way, is also applied to the Club Trophy: in this class the Six Days, in addition to giving away a Team Trophy, also assigns individual prizes to individual drivers in the form of medals. Gold medals go to pilots who complete the six days of competition within 10% of the time of the best in their category, silver medals go to pilots who finish with a total gap of less than 40%, while medals of bronze to all other drivers, provided they are classified within the time limit. In all this, however, it is sufficient to ask any competitor, from the titled national professional to the passionate gentleman rider, to understand how the main concerns, rather than the difficulty of the race course and the struggle with the stopwatch, come from the unknown reliability: in the eventuality in fact, each competitor must also be a mechanic of himself, since the regulation prohibits receiving assistance, except for a few operations, such as refueling, oil changes and bleeding of the brake fluid. –
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