St. Davids Trial, round 5 of the British Trial Championship ... 20th June 2010
| Over the bridge into Wales again, but a bit further this time. Exactly 100 miles from my house, just at the end of the M4, was the location for this years St. Davids trial. And credit where credit is due, the signs for the event started about 5 miles before the actual venue. Still no promotional posters or signs to tempt non trial riders to have a look at the event but we have already established that drawing new people into trials is not something that anyone thinks the British Championship can do... what we need for that is for the British to get rid of the bureaucrats and hold some town centre events like the French seem to be able to put on! Although the sections ultimately proved relatively easy for the top riders on all three routes it was nice to see sections in the rocky stream bed that included not only a few big steps but roots, mud, hill climbs and fallen tree crossings. A pleasant change from just one huge rock step followed by another, although I have to say with my photography hat on that it was much harder to get a good set of pictures under the tree cover in the stream gulley. As a spectator it was very interesting to watch the riders tackle these more technical sections, I could almost relate to the sections more as they were basically hard versions of the sort of thing we would ride in a local trial... I probably learnt more from this event as far as riding technique goes. But not as spectacular to watch as the big stuff. Jack Sheppards lowly result, I believe, was down to the fact that his 125 just wasn't powerfull enough for the big steps and climbs in two sections and because of the closeness of the scores the resulting 5's dropped him way down the list. |
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Trial report and results on TrialMagazine site My Photo Gallery from the event... |
... but, as said above, the sections proved a bit easy for the top lads and it proved to be a test of concentration and in some cases mechanical failures. I think I need to apologise to Shaun Morris, I ended up parked next to him when we arrived and we chatted about many things including the image I took last time out of his chain coming off on the big rock face at the Mitchells. I joked about getting another shot like it but hopefully with the chain on and bugger me he had to take 5's for a lap and a half after his chain came off again and this time knackered his gearbox.. I think I am a curse!! You may also have noticed the image below of the Formula 1 style pit team gathered around Michael Brown's Sherco after it coughed and spluttered to a halt on the 2nd section of the last lap. For the next few sections it failed again resulting in a few 5's... Michael had been on for the win up until that point and he has obviously learnt some Spanish or Italian swear words in his travels, he wasn't happy! I didn't think it was a great idea to talk to him after the trial so I didn't find out if it was electrical or fuel related. Thanks to the Neath club for an enjoyable day in sunny Wales once again. And a big thanks also to John Hulme from Trial Magazine who sorted me out an Alpinestar Media jacket for me to carry all my camera gear in... I almost look like I know what I am doing now!
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