After a mediocre finish at this year’s Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations, American fans finally have something to celebrate as the World Trophy Team took home their third win in eight years at this years International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) in Argentina. Team leader, and the only man to be on the winning team all three years, Taylor Robert, announced his retirement just before this year’s event, making this his last race. There is nothing like going out on top, as Taylor tells us all about his grueling week and what he plans to do after retirement.
Racer X: So first of all, congrats to you and the rest of Team USA on the win. What did you finish individually, was it fourth overall?
Taylor Robert: Yeah, it was crazy with Dante Oliveira, he killed it the first two days, which I kind of knew he would because they were a lot more moto-y than days three, four, and five which were more enduro. So, we had about a 45 second gap after day two and then after day five it whittled down to a 14 second gap. I ended up crashing in the final moto and ended up fourth overall.
You won the individual race back in 2016, as well as it was the first time that team USA Trophy team won. Talk about that and how special that was to be a part of that team.
When we won in 2016 it was insane because even though Ryan [Sipes] had won the year before, individually, he was the first American to win the individual, it wasn’t stressful for him I don’t think because our team was totally out of it that year, we had mechanicals [failures] that year, immediately. And then 2016, I was winning individual, and we were winning as a team. Going into the final day it was honestly the most stress I have ever had going into a race because as a team all we had to do was finish. I think we had like a five-minute lead as a team. But I only had a 12 second lead over [Daniel] Sanders. I have never thrown up before a race before but that was the closest I have been. Then I ended up getting a really good start, passed for the lead right away and won the final moto it ended up working out okay, but it was such a surreal feeling that year. To get the win for team USA and winning individually so that was really cool.
It helped that that year I raced the World Enduros, and it helped that I learned how the Europeans trained. It's great that I have been a part of the [winning] team both times now [2016, 2019] and try to take the experience and what I have learned and try to pass it onto these other guys. This year all of the guys were super selfless, sometimes we get guys who want to keep all of the secret lines to themselves, but everyone was just working together this year. Trying to memorize all of the tracks and it was cool to see the whole team come together like that.
So now team USA has won three times and you have been a part of the team every year. That’s really cool, you were the only guy to do that, right?
Yeah, Kailub [Russell] was on the team in 2016 and 2019, but this year it was basically all new guys compared to the last time we won.
So, you enjoyed the role of the veteran, coming alongside the younger guys and teaching them.
Yeah, it has kind of been that way. Kailub did it in 2021 even though he was retired, he was the one with all of the experience, getting people to come together. But it was just one of those years where the riders didn’t really jive, and we just didn’t have this fully uniform team. And Dante Oliveira was a Junior [team rider] that year, he ended up being the second American. And even though he had a lot of potential, he didn’t put the effort into actually memorizing the tracks. This year once I saw how much effort he was putting in, and listening when I was trying to get everybody to come together, I was like, “All right, Dante is going to be really good because I know he’s super-fast and now that he actually memorized the tracks, he’s going to be good.” And same with all of the other guys, everybody put in so much work during walk-week. We walked every test at least three times before the race even started.
Three times? Wow. These tests are not short, they are multiple miles long per test.
Yeah, they are all between three and five miles long, and you walk each of them three times, and we ended up walking about 100 miles. And it's not just walking either, it would be one thing to just go out and walk 100 miles, but as we are doing it, we are trying to memorize literally every single turn. Maybe not the first time we walk, we are just trying to get an idea of where the track goes. But the second and third time we walk it we are stopping every five, ten minutes and trying to play it back through our heads. It's not only a huge physically demanding day but also mentally. The way we do it now, we will walk a half mile and then be like, “All right let’s run it back from the beginning. We start up the hill then right, left, over the off camber.” And we would do this multiple times throughout the walking, until you can memorize every single turn by the end of the test. By the time you have played it back multiple times, with the whole visualization thing of riding it, that is what really helps. That is the thing that I have done the last five or six times that I have gone, because I learned that’s the way the Europeans do it. And to get all of the guys to do it this way really made a big difference.
So pretty much what you learned from racing World Enduros in 2016 helped you get the win in ISDE that year and in 2019 and this year.
Yeah and our whole program as team USA has evolved. My first year was in 2010 and it is crazy how unorganized team USA was that year. Antti [Kallonen KTM off-road team manager] took over as team manager in 2012 and since then Antti and I went every year together, besides 2022 when I was hurt, and worked hard to really elevate the whole team USA program. From how we do the team training camps before we get there, this year we actually did three teams training camps. The preparation that goes into it now is pretty incredible compared to how it was 12 years ago.
In 2012 Kurt Caselli was team captain, and it was his dream for team USA to win ISDE, I bet he would be proud of you guys for not only winning it but winning it for the third time now.
Yeah, definitely. It is kind of crazy to think about, when we won in 2016, I think it was 91st running. So, in 90 years we never won, and now in the last eight years we have won three times. So that is pretty cool.
Yeah, and the Junior Trophy team got second this year and the Women Trophy team won as well so it was a good year for the entire team.
Yeah, and the women crushed it this year. It was a really difficult year with the terrain and the heat, and a lot of women got hurt, I think we were the only full team left at the end of it. But it wasn’t without hard work because I think both Brandy [Richards] and Rachel [Gutish] got hurt on days four and five, maybe. Both of them were racing the last couple of days with pretty serious injuries. But they are both super tough chicks and were willing to go out there and do what they had to, to make it happen. [Note: It is reported Richards finished the week dealing with a broken collarbone and Gutish is reported to have broken some ribs!]
So, talk about the terrain down in Argentina, was it really rough and sandy again?
Yeah, this year it was in San Juan, which we actually raced in San Juan for ISDE in 2014, and in 2014 they ran us through a lot of sand. And this year we raced on the upside of town and there was no sand this year, honestly it was all rock. It was even rockier than I had anticipated, in my preparation I was just doing a lot of dry hard packed riding. But the terrain is very similar to Arizona, so I have a lot of experience, same with Cole Martinez, he lives here in Arizona too. So, we had been practicing a lot. The terrain was pretty technical, especially days three, four, and five were all super technical. And the tests, some of them were super fun and some of them were kind of scary. The transfers this year, I wouldn’t say they were difficult, not like in Germany in 2012 where I was on the limit of making it up some of those hills. But the first two days it was over 100 degrees, and then it cooled to the 80’s on days three and four, and then it was back up to 98 on day five and six. So, the first day there were tons of people dropping out due to heat stroke.
That’s insane to be on the bike for eight hours in that heat.
Yup. Days one and two were long days, seven and a half, eight hours, and there were no roads, we never rode on pavement all day. No breaks. Even the sections that on a map looked like they were going to be easy, they were either super rocky or they were just whoops. Like I am not sure if they ran desert races or hare scrambles through this area before, but they were just super rough. You are riding at transfer pace, so you really don’t want to go fast to get on top of the whoops, but the slower you go the more energy you are using. So, trying to find the happy medium of “How do I not waste all of my energy on the transfer, but how do I also get through this in an efficient manner.” I don’t think I sat down for eight hours. The only time I sat down was if there was a good rut in one of the turns on a test.
So, last week you announced your retirement, and then you go out as a team and win your last race.
Yeah, going into it I knew we had a really good shot at it because like I said I had been riding with the boys before at the training camps and I knew everyone had the potential to do it. But even when everybody is really strong there’s always weird stuff that will happen whether it's crashes and gets hurt or has a weird bike malfunction. Whatever it may be, that whenever you have the fastest guys and the fastest team, it doesn’t always work out. This year it was really cool to see that we had the fastest guys, and everybody kept it together and we were able to make it happen. With it being my last race, it was an awesome feeling to have it all work out like it was planned and not end up just another “Woulda, coulda” deals.
So, what is next for you?
That is a good question, before ISDE I was talking to Antti and I had decided, and Antti was supportive with the fact that this was going to be my last race. So, then I brought up the, “All right so what is next for me at KTM?” And he was super stressed out because we actually had some issues getting our container this year, it was stuck on a ship up until like three days before the event started. We were almost going to ride rental bikes, but he knew that was coming so the week before we went down there, he was super stressed about that and he was like, “Honestly can we just talk about this when we get back from the race?” So, I haven’t had that conversation with him yet, so whether it's some sort of brand ambassador thing, or something like what Kailub does with team training on the East Coast, maybe something like that with the West Coast riders. So, still some details to work out but one way or another hopefully I will still be involved with team USA and KTM.
So, you will still be riding then?
Yeah, definitely. Actually, one of my buddies texted me today and asked, “Hey do you want to go for a hard enduro ride this week?” And I was like, “Actually that does sound kind of fun.” That is one of my favorite things to do these days is just go out and explore and be like, “All right let’s see if we can make it to the top of that mountain?” So, I am looking forward to going out and just having fun on a dirt bike now, not necessarily having the stopwatch out, pounding sprints and motos. Now I get to go and enjoy it.
Expect most people’s definition of enjoying it is not, “Let’s go map out our own hard enduro course for the fun of it.” So now you are just trying to figure out what retirement looks like for you and looking forward to being a dad [in January] then.
Yeah, with Stephanie [wife] pregnant and me retiring, I am looking forward to it.
Main image courtesy of KTM