McDonald in star-studded team to compete at 100th ISDE

Motorcycling Australia has selected a potent mix of young talent and seasoned campaigners for its 2026 FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) campaign and it includes Parkes' Danielle McDonald. The 100th edition of the longest-running off-road event on the FIM calendar, this year in Grandola, Portugal from October 12-17, will see three Australians make their ISDE debuts – Max Midwinter, Kogan Lock and Madi Simpson – alongside Kyron Bacon, Josh Strang, Gus Riordan, Korey McMahon, Will Dennett, Jess Gardiner and McDonald. Competing in the Women’s World Trophy (WWT), 18-year-old Simpson’s dynamic form in the Yamaha Australian Enduro Championship presented by MXstore (AusEnduro) has been rewarded with her first ISDE selection. She will ride alongside towering figures in the shape of Australian Motorsport Hall of Famer, Gardiner, and the supremely talented McDonald who is taking the American enduro scene by storm in 2026. This will be McDonald's fourth ISDE after securing silver medals with the Women's World Trophy team in each of her 2023, 2024 and 2025 appearances. Lock, 19, has followed a similar trajectory to Simpson, with both winning their respective junior classes in AusEnduro last year before graduating to the senior ranks in 2026 and making an instant impact – Simpson in the EW class and Lock in E2. Australia’s Junior World Trophy team was third overall in 2025 behind Italy and France, while the WWT saw the Aussies finish second behind the United States of America. American-based Strang and Riordan have been producing some excellent performances in the 2026 Grand National Cross Country Series – the same championship where McDonald leads the women’s battle – as the lightning fast McMahon looks to go back-to-back in the E3 class at the AusEnduro Championship. READ MORE: World Cup callings for our hockey stars Teague ticks-off bucket list with an Australian title Sunday belonged to the underdogs