1980 - After an absence of fifty years, the last event on French soil in fact went back to 1930, the ISDT International Six-Days Trial returned to France, to the High Loire in Brioude, the beating heart of French enduro riding, a sporting discipline that developed late in respect to the rest of Europe but was experiencing a rapid growth, making up for lost time.
The 55th edition of the competition was run from 22nd to 28th September and was impeccably organised by the Moto Club d’Auvergne to the satisfaction of some 433 registered riders at the start, representing 19 nations.
Apart from heavy representation from the USA and Australia, for the first time Mexico provided a team while there was only one rider from Japan, the land of the rising sun.
From the very start the trial showed itself to be hard and selective and only 228 riders managed to finish.
This selection was especially evident in the 50cc class whaere one after the other all the favourites at the beginning dropped out. The first was Tomasini on a Fantic followed by Perego on an AIM. On the 4th day it was the turn of the Frenchman Delavault, again on a Fantic and then Dario Salvi.
The victory went to the only two survivors of AIM, Luca Benedetti, followed by Frenchman Daniel Delavault of Fantic.
In a group of six official bikes, BMW R80 G/S, from 798 cc, twin-cylinder short stroke to minimize the lateral dimensions, a prototype 1000 cc appeared with more than 60 hp and less than 140 kg in weight.
The overall performance was not up to expectations, and only two BMWs ended the test which was led by two masters of the field, Witthöft Rolf and Kurt Fischer.
There was a really impressive performance by the Italians who dominated authentic stars in all the upper classes, squeezing MZ and Jawa to the ranks of extras.

Guglielmo Andreini, Elia Andrioletti, Gualtiero Brissoni, Gianangelo Croci, Andrea Marinoni and Augusto Taiocchi were awarded the Trophy without any of their rivals being capable of undermining their undisputed supremacy.
In 2nd place stood Czechoslovakia, followed by Sweden 3rd, 4th France, Switzerland 5th, 6th the DDR, 7th Holland, RFA 8th, 9th GB, U.S. 10th, 11th Austria, 12th Australia, Poland 13th, Canada 14th, Finland 15th, 16th Mexico.
The Team of West Germany, consisting of Arnulf Teuchert, Bert von Zitzewitz, Christel Reinhard and Rolf Witthöft, won the Silver Vase, followed by Sweden 2nd, 3rd Czechoslovakia, DDR 4th, 5th Holland, France 6th, 7th Poland, Switzerland 8th, 9th Canada, the U.S. 10th, Australia 11th, 12th Finland, GB 13th, Italy 14th, 15th Belgium.
The 50cc class was won by Luca Benedetti on an AIM, the 75cc class by Stanislaw Olszewski on a Simson, 100cc class by Arnulf Teuchert on Zündapp, the 125 class by Harald Stronssenreuther KTM, the 175 class by Klaus Bemd Kreutz Zündapp, the 250cc class by Elia Andrioletti on a KTM, the 350cc by Augusto Taiocchi on KTM who turned out to be the overall winner, the 500 class by Guglielmo Andreini of SWM, the 750 class on a KTM 750 by Antonio Villa and the class of over 750 by Manfred Rossel on a Maico.

1981 – There were many new trends introduced during the eighties. In fact in 1981 the new 80cc class was introduced that incorporated and substituted the first three classes, 50, 75 and 100 cc.
At the same time this most famous event was re-named from the ISDT International Six-Days Trial to the ISDE International Six-Days Enduro. 

Many thanks to our friends Giorgio Mazzoleni, for help and consulting, and
Rick Jones, for the English version.