Overnight rain brought more moisture to the course in Galicia for Day 2 of the 2024 ISDE.  Normally the race is conducted on three different courses for one or two days, and a motocross style course the final day. Day 2 this year was a revisiting of the course that the 5-600 riders absolutely mutilated in the wet weather yesterday.  That made the difficulty level go way up.  The conditions made some of the teams shine, and others fade. 

The French World Trophy Team extended their lead with a fantastic effort by all four of their riders.  The big story today was the rise of the hometown Spanish Team, led by their star Josep Garcia Montana.  They rode even better than yesterday, which was enough to move into second position.  Team USA had a different experience.  None of the four riders even cracked the top ten, and only two were in the top 20 on the day.  Despite this, they managed to maintain a third-place spot going into day 3.

The American Women had a solid Day 2, extending their lead to about 3 ½ minutes over the Australians and almost 7 minutes over the Swedes.

The U.S. Juniors are currently in third place, around 3 minutes behind the French, who lag behind the Swedish Juniors by a minute and a half.

Now let’s take a look at the U.S. Club Teams.  I’ll go through the members of the top two teams today.

In the first year of the Women’s Club Team division, the United States is represented by the Eric Cleveland Memorial Team. The riders are Rachel Stout, Olivia Pugh, and Jocelyn Barnes.  They are currently leading the division by over 14 minutes, with Great Britain and Canada the only other countries fielding Women’s Club teams.

In the Club Team division which includes 124 teams from around the world, the top performing American team after day 2 is Team GTBN.  I believe this stands for Good Team, Bad Name.  The riders are Jaden Dahners, Jhak Walker, and Layton Smail.  They are currently in 4th place around 5 minutes behind the leading Italian team.

Overall, the team results after two days of racing are very predictable due to the racing conditions.  I’ll refrain from updating the performances of individual riders until the racing is over, since there are simply too many riders to follow.  Then we’ll see who the top performers are, and how our NorCal men performed overall. 

Hopefully the U.S. riders will find a groove and make up some time on a fresh course tomorrow and move up in the standings.  Stay tuned for another wrap up tomorrow, and we’ll introduce you to the riders from two more of our Club Teams.  As always, LET’S GO TEAM U.S.A.!!!