Jess Gardiner, Tayla Jones and Jemma Wilson

They’re ‘The Matildas’ of Motorcycling – five times world champions in one of the oldest and toughest disciplines of all.

For five years from 2013, Jess Gardiner, Jemma Wilson and Tayla Jones dominated the Women’s International Six Day Enduro, an endurance test of world renown.

The ISDE for men was first held in 1913. It took almost a century for women to be admitted, and Australia, along with France and the USA, has led the way.

They’ve raced in Italy, France, Slovakia, Belgium and Argentina. Competitors complete a series of trials – more than 250 unique kilometres each day with a motocross on Day Six. Fourteen-hundred kilometres in total.

They’re not allowed to recce on their bikes or use pace notes, so they walk the sections and commit to memory.

They’re allowed just 25 minutes of non-competitive time a day to work on their own machines – no outside hands-on assistance allowed.

Enduro bikes are slightly detuned full works motocrossers with headlights and side stands – but so tight is competition that when the occasion demands they’ll power up.

Even the transport sections are tough. Village by-passes serve up near impossible combinations of tight alleys and tyre eating rocks.

The ISDE awards individual world championship medals. Jess Gardner and Tayla Jones have both claimed the top step.

In Slovakia in 2015 the team totally dominated – Tayla Jones first, Jemma Wilson second, Jess Gardiner third.

Injuries caused Jemma to retire in 2017, but by then the Aussie dream team had set a standard which has seen subsequent Australian attempts flourish.

Locked in a tight annual battle with the USA, Australia can rightly claim its place as one of the world’s best ISDE world championship competitors.