The Great Britain Trophy team, containing Isle of Man riders Jamie McCanney and Jed Etchells, lost time to the United Staes on day three of the International Six Day Enduro on Wednesday.

Moving into a new area of mid-Argentina, the 115km loop took competitors southwest of the Villicum Circuit along the northern shorelines of the nearby Dique Ullum and Punta Negra lakes.

There was a sombre start to proceedings after news of the sad passing of Albert Pos from the Netherlands had filtered through the race paddock the previous evening.

One minute’s was held prior to the start of the day’s action in memory of Pos who had been competing in the Club team category.

USA won the opening special test by four seconds from France, with Spain close behind in third. Team GB’s combined time for four riders was fifth best, losing some time to their rivals.

At the end of lap one Spain led by 34 seconds, with France and Italy separated by only two seconds. This time is was the United States that suddenly looked in trouble, 54s back in fourth.

The Americans were back on the pace in the fourth special test, racing their way back into the lead, going on to win day three by 55s.

Italy put in a strong afternoon to edge out Spain by nine seconds to claim the runner-up result on day three, with France fourth.

Great Britain struggled on day three, finishing almost three minutes behind USA in fifth.

‘We lost a bit of time to France today, but we’ll try to pull that back tomorrow (Thursday) and push on again,’ said St Mark’s man Etchells on the 250cc Fantic.

‘It was nice to have some more relaxing liaison sections. The new tests were good too, so overall it was a good day out there.’

The overall classification saw the United States lead the FIM World Trophy category by 8min 15sec from Great Britain. France remained third, but had closed the gap on the British quartet to 40 seconds.

In the fight of individual honours, Etchells finished fourth in E1 class, two seconds behind France’s Theo Espinasse.