Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

A disappointing turnout of less than 1000 spect ators enjoyed an overcast but, for the most part, rainl ess da y. The only mar was a light showe r during the last hour and a half. Section three was the hardest sectio n of the day, cla iming 53 five s from the ride r s. It opened with a run up to a nasty-looking five-foot-high ledge that claim ed most of the fives . A couple of tight turns followed , and then ou t. The only top rid er to five th is sec tion was Pons, on a Gas-Gas. Nex t-hard es t was sectio n four. Th is tra p clai me d 37 fives fro m the riders, and was one of the more in teres ting and technical sections. It opened w ith a coupie of small s teps which led to a very tricky four-f oot dirt step tha t had to be hit jus t right. Much hopping and positioning wa s seen here. Once up on top of the step, riders were confron ted wi th a left tum that also had to be done jus t right. Much man euvering was seen here as well, and a good minder seemed to make the d ifference between a clean, or a d ab or tw o: Once lin ed up for the tum, riders had to make th e tum and get th eir wheels onto a cou ple of sma ll rocks and rid e across a sm all stream. The n it was a relatively easy ou t. This sec tion took fives from several of the top ride rs including Tarres, Piero Semben in i, Dou g La m pkin and Th ierr y Michaud. After sec tion five, riders proceed ed up a hill to sections six through eight. Section seven was the more interesting of the three, although of only average difficulty. It opened with a greasy rock slab riders were required to ride up. The slab was very slick, but most riders had little trouble with this part of the section. Next was a run up a very steep, slick series of rock slabs ab out 50 feet long . Once at the top of the hill , a left turn led rid ers onto a very slick, flat rock slab, then up a small ledge and out. O nce done with section eight, riders had a very steep and slick, quarter-mile up h ill to contend with on the way to sections n ine and 10. Even Tarres was seen fa lling d own on this pa rt of the loop! Once a t the top of the hill, sectio ns nine and 10 we re close togeth er . Nine wa s the fo urth- ha rdest sectio n of th e day a nd p rob ab ly th e most te chnical. The entire section wa s a rid e ove r and amo ng rocks in greasy mu d . The most d ifficult part of the section was about a third of th e way in, where r iders hopped up on to a tw o-foo t ro ck a nd then dropped their front w heels off of it. They then had to get their front wheels up onto another rock a couple of feet away while their rear wheels were still up on the rock behind . If rid ers d idn't five this part, they still had to negotiate a couple more small steps with slippery mud in between. Section 10 was of only average difficulty, an d looked mu ch harder than it was. The trap was th rou gh a se ries of moderate-sized boulders, ranging from three to five feet in diameter, with a couple of feet or more between them. Riders we re required to jump from one bou lder to the next, and do qu ite a bit of hopping on each one to get set up to jump to the next one. After sect ion 10 it was a long ride back among the mo ors to section 11. This section had the dubious distinction of being the only trap of the day where not one rider went clean on all three laps. Then about a mile fu rther on, the riders reached the paddock where sections 12 and one were. After lap one, the su rp rise Italians were in the lead with 11 points, followed by Spain with 12 and then Great Britain with 14. On lap two, the Italians stayed consistent with 12 for a total of 23, while Spain and Great Britain ba ttled it ou t with seven points each. Spain had 19 and Great Brit a in held 21 a t this point. After the th ird loop, Italy again stayed consistent w ith 11 poin ts for an even t total of 34 for third place. Great Britain ha d a lacklus ter third loop of 12, w hich gave them a gra nd to tal of 33. This gave the win to Spain , who had a combined score of 11 on the last loop for a total of 30 poin ts. Almos t all of the top rid ers' individual scores were very close. Colley and Colomer had totals of two a nd three, while las t ye a r' s World Champ, Finn Tommi Ahvala , a n d fo r mer 10-time British Ch ampion Stev e Saund er s fin ished up on eight. Ahv ala got the nod on cleans, 30-29. Italians Piero Sembenini and Donato Migilo fin ish ed w ith 11 points each, with Sembenini ge tti ng th e n od on cleans again, 30-29. Scores of 12 were s ha red by Bilbao, Frenchman Bruno Camozzi and top Italian rider Diego Bosis. Bilbao , having 32 cleans, ed ge d th e others for seven th place in the individual s ta nd ing s. Cam ozzi and Bosis 'a m a zin gly had th e sa me numb er o f cleans a t 27, and the two ha d to be separat ed by ones! Camozzi won, seven to six . On d own the line a b it, the sa me thi ng ha ppened to Germ any 's [ens Ter Jung and Holland's Alex van der Brock, who both finished up on 40 points and 17 cleans. lung got the nod on ones, 118. Even though the Trial des Nations is considered easy in comparison to a World Championshi p round which claims an average of abou t 50 points from the winning rider, only eight riders had no fives at in Ir eland: Colley, Colorner, Ahvala , Saunders, Miglio, Camozzi, Bosis and Rob Craw ford. When the dust had settled, almost all riders and officials co nsidered the 10th Trial des Na tions a success. . Even though the American team 's placing was a little d isapp ointin g, team m anag e r s Mar il yn an d Wi ck Wi ck er co nsi dered it a s u ccessful even t and worth th e team ' s long journ ey. Wh e n o ne co nsi ders that th e bikes tha t the Am e rican team rid er s com peted abo ard we re n ot th e ir personal machines, and that the tea m had only a couple hours of pract ice time o n the machines, the las t-place r es u lt doesn' t look so bad afte r all . (N Results TEAM: 1. Spain, 30 points (Colom.../ 3; Bilbao /l2; Tarres/ 15, Pons/23); 2. Great Bri.. in. 33 (Cotley / 2; Saunders/8; LampIcin /23; Braybrook/24); 3. Italy. 34 (Se mbrnini/ ll ; Miglio /ll ; Bosis/1 2; Grand ine /55); 4 . France, 58 (5 . Camozzi/12; C. Camozz i /22; Nic tou /24 ; Micha ud /35); 5. Fin la nd , 101 (Ah val a / 8; Jahn /43; Haapanen /50; Hi ndgren /S7); 6. Ge rmany, 123 (Hoffmann /34; Lu ng / 40; Lett en~ i ch l e r / 49 ; G re iner / 72); 7. Netherlands. 180 (va n den 8ro ck /40; Reit /4 8; Ewalds /92; van der Linden / 93); 8. Ireland, 208 (Crawford /19; Hanlon / 91; McLau gh lin /98; Smyth /I36); 9. Belgium. 211 (D. Cros se t/30; F. Cro5set /8 6; Mathy / 95; Dupont/DNF); 10. Switze rland.2B8 (C. Monnin / 59; Guill aume/ 59; Daenge li/ll 0; Co tte t/133); 11. Aus tria, 297 ( B ra n da u~ r/6 9; Hit zl er /1 07; 5chwihlik/12I; Kre tz /l 33); 12. USA. 298 (Aa ron / 89; Pete rs / 101; Kempkes/1 08; Co mmo /r./124). (Abo ve) Diego Bosis he lped balance th e Italian team to a th ird-place finish. (Left) Bruno Camozzi was the top-finishing Frenchman, and competed aboard a French-made Scorpio. The team from France fin ished fourth. 7

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