Results from day four of the 2023 International Six Days Enduro in San Juan Argentina where the USA team carry the healthy lead but France, Great Britain and Italy enter a dogfight for the World Trophy podium – Aussie Women go out.

2023 ISDE day 4 in a nutshell:

• With a lead of 11 minutes USA have a solid cushion to sleep on tonight. Though Cole Martinez had an off day, Taylor Robert, Johnny Girroir and Dante Oliveira in third, fifth and sixth scratch remain remarkably consistent (look at their times) and are well on course for victory.
• One long day of enduro tests remains and, as is traditional, it brings fresh tests and a certain amount of uncertainty: how much can riders remember since they last walked them? Keep on keeping on or back off to make sure? And that’s without starting to hear all those mechanical noises…
• The drama in this ISDE World Trophy contest is for the podium places now with France, Great Britain and Italy all within half a minute or so of each other. This is as close as we’ve seen it in recent years and those podiums are still all to play for.
• Day four saw Italy overtake Spain for fourth in the general classification, finishing second (for the second day in a row) today and just 3.9 seconds behind USA.
• We said it earlier in the week but Italy must be cursing the broken chain for Samuele Bernadini on day one or they could be challenging for the win here.  
• Team Great Britain need review mirrors. Test by test today the French edged closer to their silver medal position until test five, when they sneaked ahead and went onto finish just over 10 seconds apart. Italy are only 22 seconds further behind as we already look to tomorrow’s final long day and the motocross test for each category on Saturday. At this rate it could easily come right down to that final race.
• In the individual rankings things are less exciting with just one test win taken away by Andrea Verona spoiling what was otherwise another perfect day for Josep Garcia. For the third time in a row the Spaniard looks like he’s heading for the scratch outright win with over 30 seconds advantage over his Italian rival. Take note: Josep’s on a KTM 250 EXC-F this year which snubs all those riders who say you need power to win in enduro.  
• We oh-so-nearly had a change in the Junior individual running order today as Mateo Oliveira challenged the all-conquering Swedish trio. In the end, normal service resumed with three Swedes in the top three and Albin Norrbin best placed in P7 overall. Their JWT lead is now over 16 minutes.
• France are second in both the World and Junior Trophy categories after day four and are delivering on their pre-race promise to be podium contenders. Their team of Juniors have been hot in the EnduroGP Youth category and carried their form across the Atlantic, albeit it in very different riding conditions.
• Team USA Juniors are third but have dropped over five minutes now, although they look safe for a podium with fourth placed Argentina over 30 minutes back.  
• The big news in the Women’s World Trophy class today is that just two teams remain in the contest – to our knowledge it is unprecedented to have less than a podium full of teams remaining at the ISDE. Tayla Jones, who arrived in Argentina fresh on a bike after almost a year of injury, was forced to retire, taking Australia out of the 2023 ISDE.
• Despite a beaten-up Rachel Gutish limping over the line (she had a bad crash in the final test yesterday), Team USA are miles clear of the only other team remaining, the Latin American team. 
• It was another clean-sweep of test wins today for Josh Toth in the Club Team individual classification. It wasn’t such good news for his brother Zach who retired on lap one, meaning the second placed braaptastic.com team are out. That leaves Josh’s XC Gear team 15 minutes clear of GBTN (another USA trio) and allows a home Argentine Club team promotion into the third podium position.
• Day five promises much and will spring surprises. The last full day is always about maintaining status for the leading teams – USA in the World and Women’s Trophy and Sweden in the Juniors – but things can certainly go pear-shaped and that battle for World Trophy podium is a spicey one.

2023 ISDE World Trophy classification after day 4:

Junior World Trophy classification after day 4:

Women’s World Trophy classification after day 4:

Scratch (individual) day 4 results (top 40):

Club Team classification after day 4 (top 10):

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Nicki Martinez