Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127380
BTRULSw~~~~~_O_~_"_~_T_~_ls_&_ri_~:_R_oU_~_2~~~~~~~~~~~_ e World Champion Jordi Tarres finished third overall . The event was held on the grounds of a hereditary Knight of the Realm. Diego Bosis mastered the rain-slickened terrain to score the overall ·win. Bosis scores soggy British win By John Dickinson Photos by Eric Kitchen 14 HOGHTON TOWER, ENGLAND, APR. 21 Ow did we know that we were a t th e Bri tish World Tria ls ro und? It was ra ini ng, that's how ! It' s tradition al , for o ne th ing the H British riders love it, don't they? And the Continentals just wou ld n't know where they were witho ut it. It 's ra ining - therefore it mu st be Brita in! T he Continentals obviously didn 't mind th e dampness too much, as Ital ian Diego Bosis rod e hi s Fantic through three loops of 14 sections and dro pped 64 poi nts to score the win at the British ro u nd of the World Ch ampio nship Obser ved Tr ial s Series. Compatrio t Donato Miglio, aboard an Apri lia, finis hed second in the event, two points behi nd Bosis and one point clear of reign in g World Cha m pio n J ord i Tarres of Spain. T he same three riders to pped the pod ium a t the season opener two weeks previously in Luxem bourg where T arres was the winner. But when it comes to En gland, guys lik e three-t ime World Ch ampion T hierry Mich aud, who has been doing the contesting in the World Championshi ps for 10 years now , th inks that it rains every single day of the year. He o ug ht to, the stuff has come down in buckets every time he's been in England. It was th e sam e for Edd y Lejeune befor e him - the differen ce being that the wetter and muddier it was, the grea ter Lejeune's winning margin on th e bi g 36 0 four -strok e Honda eq u ipped with H onda's FSMG (Fo ur Stroke Mega Grip) system was going to be. Hell , we tried escaping the rain in Wal es in the South, in York shire and no w in La ncesh ire, but it was still rai ni ng .. . O kay, maye that's laying it a bit thi ck - but not by mu ch. This year, the North West Centre of the Auto Cycle Unio n played host to the British round of the World Champions hip Obs erved Trials Seri es and they did a gr eat job . The event was act ua lly held on the gro unds of a heredi tary Knight of the Rea lm, Sir Bernard de Hoghton, Baronet, bei ng th e landed gent in qu est io n . And H ogh ton Tower, a cen turies-old sta tely pile situa ted near Man cheste r, mad e a terri fic ven ue. Now Britain is of course the home of motorcycle tria ls riding , so why not a sta tely ho me? Unfortunately, th e leading expo nent s of the art are now mainland European wi th Spain, Ital y and France sup plying the main con tend ers for the World titl e. T he openi ng ro und of the '91 series, held two weeks previously in Luxernbo urg, had th rown up few surprises. Worl d Cha mp ion Jordi Tarres had wo n by a mi le from hi s three big rivals of last year - Italians Diego Bosis and Donato Miglio and Finn Tommi Ahvala. Each year seems to throw up at least one new kid who is a sensation. Last year it was Fren ch teenager Bruno Ca rnoozzi and Brit Robert Crawford, but th is seaso n h as come up with 16year-old Spaniard Marc Colome wh o is being nurtured by the Montesa factory and put in the hands of Pedro Olle, wh o worked with curren t World Champion J ordi Tarres for years. Colome popped in with a Championship point in Luxembourg, the event being o nly his third World Trials even t. The format of the trials was three laps of a short 10 kilometer course containing I4 long, demanding sections, as recommended by the FIM these day s. Luxembourg had proved that there is a drawb ack with this format. With a large entry, there just aren 't enough sections to split th e field up and queuing becomes a problem. And this year , the FIM have decreed in their wisdom that riders will leave the start at the rate of one every two minutes. This means that the first riders away can easily arrive at the first section on their second circuit before the top 15 riders - they are graded together at the back of the field - have even started. Given that the top 15 are a tardy bunch anyway, this is a recipe for disaster. That this happened in Luxembourg but not on the same scale in Britain was nothing short of a minor miracle. The Hoghton T ower Estate had not previousIy been sullied by dirt bikes and before the trial not a wheel had tu rned on any of the sections. All the hazards wer e long, technical an d physically demanding. Not the traditional British natural straight streams and gullies at all. The very first section featured several steep climbs, turns and drops in an old quarry and ended with some pretty fierce rocks. This was only mastered II times in total with World Champ ion Tarres demonstrating his mastery with two clean rides and a single prod on his final lap. The surprise clean came from New Zealand teenager Stefan Merriman. Merriman is based in Britain for the summer where he stays with former trials star Malcolm Rathmell , who now imports Aprilias into Britain. The second section was meant to be the star of the show, but a half-hour walk put the majority of the massive IO,OOO-strong cro wd off visiting it. A doubl e-st ep waterfall in a narrow stream bed was the problem. And it cer tain ly was a problem since not a single rider could better a three , and a hard work three at that on the first cir cuit. . It was looking better the next time around, though, and Bosis, Frenchman Philippe Berlatier , his compatriot Bruno Carnozzi and Colome made it th rough with scores of two. Then o n th e final lap, tall Japanese ace Taku mi Narito too k his lon e works Honda TLM260 to a brilliant clean. Ahvala , the super-strong Finn , also went clean o n th e works Aprilia Climber and he was followed by Bosis, never one to p lay safe and alw ays look in g for the spectacu lar. These three wer e the o n ly feet-up riders record ed. T he th ird section was unusual in that whi le it was pe rfectly poss ible to get a three since there were no im pos sible stops, th e gr easy nature of the rocks made a clean look very unlikely, and so it turned out. On the opening lap only ApriI ia-mounted Miglio managed a single-mark ride. It was memorable though as he got com-