Trials Blog - Watching the big boys - Trials UK

Trials Blog - Watching the big boys

• 29th June 2010
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You look at some rocks and think to yourself "yeah, I would have a go at that on my bike. I reckon I could get over that". The rocks in question, of course, are ones that come up to your chest - or in my case, just past my knee. Well, this weekend, I have seen things that have left me utterly open mouthed. Riders who have the ability to defy the laws of physics.

It was a mighty 6 1/2 hour journey this week to go and watch the FIM Trials World Round up at Ben Nevis (Fort William) in Scotland. As I have said before, the scenery up there is incredible. It really is one of the most beautiful parts of the country - and, indeed, the world. The drive was a monster effort and I was joined by Simon Green. Thanks heavens he was there with me because I would have gone stir crazy on my own. By the way, our journey was short compared to some as I spoke to one chap whose journey was a monster 13 hours. Pete, who was due to come with us, met us up there late on Friday night, just in time for the "Bash on the Ben", a charity auction, arranged and organised by the guys over at www.trialcentral.com. What a great job they did, raising over £5,000 on the night from simple donations made trials riders, traders and manufacturers..

So, Scotland welcomes the world's best riders to come and do their stuff in the Highlands. All the big names are there from the top juniors, through to the intermediates riders, and then the toppest-uppermost-bestest riders like Bou, Raga, Cabestany, Lampkin, Fujinami, Dabill and Fajardo. I'm tempted to add Michael Brown into the mix because, boy - can he ride that Sherco.

We arrived in plenty of time (in fact the day before - practice day) and met up with a number of people we know - in fact, unbelievably, as we pulled in to get our tickets who should we meet but a load of lads from our local club. We wandered around and managed to watch the mightily impressive Danny Macaskill (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o) do his stuff. That nicely set the tone for what was to come over the next 2 days.

We met up early on Saturday morning and got a lift up to the event with Nige and Nick from Trials UK. We helped them to set up then went to find a good viewing position on one of the sections. We chose section 3 first which was a fantastic man-made section (one of only 3 man-mades on the whole route). The juniors and intermediates (if I dare call them that) had a tough ride on this section, but the top riders - well, wow. Their section was utterly incredible. First off they had to climb a slim 8 foot near vertical rock with no more than 4 foot of run up. Then, after that they had to navigate a sharp turn left, then a sharp turn right, then up and over a huge rock. They came off that to face what can only be described as a nearly vertical wall of rocks, approximately 18-20 feet high. You wouldn't think it would be possible to get a trials bike to the top of it, but as many of the top riders proved, it was. Having said that, a number couldn't make it and came crashing down to earth with a bang. They then had to loop round, come down the vertical hill of rocks, up and over a monster rock before hopping their way over some mahoosive boulders to the end line. All in 60 seconds. It was that hard that the normally 'clean' Toni Bou went over the handlebars for a 5 (welcome to my world, Toni). Now that's the sign of a flippin' tough section!

I could write about all the other sections as enthusiastically, but don't have the space. I can tell you quickly about section 15 though. This was the section which was built as a crowd pleaser and had a grandstand stadium seating thingy in front of it. An Evel Knievel type leap of faith on to a flat rock from a sloping rock ramp started the section. No one in their right mind would even attempt it, but these master trials riders did - with varying degrees of success. After the leap they had to navigate a range of enormous rocks with no room for manoeuvre whatsoever before racing up another enormous rock and dropping into the finish. Mental!

All the other sections were more 'natural', using the landscape. They were well thought out and were incredibly challenging with some big rides up to the top of Ben Nevis in between. 

An excellent event, but sadly, not that many visitors chose to go so far up the country to watch these outstandingly skilful riders do their thing. A shame for them, but a real pleasure for me.