Mexico ISDE: Destry Abbott Interview

2010 Mexico ISDE

With a rollercoaster year in his rear view mirror, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Destry Abbott competed in the 84th running of the International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) in Moreila, Mexico.

After returning home on Monday, Abbott sat down to talk about the ISDE and his experience south of the border.

Q: How many years have you been involved in the ISDE?

Destry Abbott: My first one was in 1997. I was involved every year until 2002 when I took a break from it for a while. In 2007, Rich Caselli got the ball rolling to bring a good team to Greece in 2008. From that point, Kurt and I have been putting together the team ever since. So a total of seven years that I’ve been involved.

Q: Does it ever get old? I know in the midst of competition it’s grueling and hard, but everyone always seems to be interested in coming back.

Destry Abbott: No. I really enjoy the challenge. I only stopped back in 2002 because I didn’t feel the best team was being sent as a whole. In my opinion, you should send guys that will represent the USA as best as they could and I think we’ve really started doing that since 2007. We’ve seen some pretty decent results the past three years. At least now we are showing up with a good presence.

Q: This year you went to Mexico for the ISDE. Can you talk about what the terrain and the tests were like?

Destry Abbott: It was definitely a different six days. This was probably one of my least favorite in terms of the tests. It was pretty rugged. The tests were really hard packed and we ended up doing them more than once per day. They didn’t have as many tests set up, which made the courses deteriorate by the end of the day. It just got really rough. It was hard on the wrists and knees when it’s that hard packed. They had some great trails in the transfer sections, but it was really rough on my body.

Q: This year was different because you didn’t compete on the sixth day. Tell me about that and how it feels to compete in only five days of competition.

Destry Abbott: I was nervous going down there, but once I got there, it was actually a really good atmosphere. The organizers were all great to us and everyone that was there seemed really friendly. But towards the end, there were some arrests made in the city, and a lot of violence broke out on Friday night. We could hear gun fire and see buildings on fire from our hotel.

The next morning we were set to go and we heard that they canceled the day and just called it. It was definitely the best call, but pretty anticlimactic to just have it end unexpectedly. We had a clear hold of fourth and were too far from third to make up any time. Saturday would have been just a fun day for us anyways, but it still felt like we were all geared up to go and it was just over.

Q: Were you ever scared at any point?

Destry Abbott: Not at all actually. Before I got there I was a little nervous, but once we got there, the organizers were great. It was actually a great time and I love going to this event because we get to hang out with certain riders that we don’t see on a normal basis.

And even the ones we do, we might be on different teams during the season, but at the ISDE we become team members and try to help each other out. We walk tests and go to dinner, which really makes it a fun time hanging out with everyone.

Q: Do you think you’ll compete next year or is it too early to tell?

Destry Abbott: I think it’s too early to tell. Finland is going to be pretty awesome from what to hear and I would love to go. Kurt and I really want to put the best team out there and hopefully I’m one of those six riders. If I’m not, then I’m fine with that too. I just want to put the best team we can together.

Q: If you didn’t race, do you think you would go over anyways as a kind of “veteran coach?”

Destry Abbott: I would probably do that as long as it didn’t cost too much money. I think Finland is going to be a good event and I would want to do anything I could to make the team the best it could be.

Q: The 2010 season has one more race on your schedule, the Las Vegas EnduroCross. Are you excited for the race and to have the season be over?

Destry Abbott: I am really looking forward to Vegas. I need to start practicing for it now that I am back from two weeks in Mexico. I got to practice a few time. I have 100 seat fan section that I sold out on and Vegas is usually always a good time. So it should be good.

My goal is to go there and make the main first and then go from there. I love to race, especially the EnduroCross stuff, so it will be sad to have it end, but I’m looking forward to spending time with my family.

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