Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Scott Time and Observation Classic \0 0\ 0\ ,...... 0\ I-< Q) ..0 o .... u o 28 RIGlMOND, ENGLAND, OCT. 19 raham Jarvis has emerged in the last couple of months from the shadow of his more illustrious British peers Doug Lampkin and Steve Colley, and it is becoming more obvious that the quiet, lone works Scorpa rider is suddenly very definitely not content to be the "third man." After winning the last two rounds of the British Trials championship (he finished the year with th~ number-two plate; behind Lampkin but in front of Colley), Jarvis' latest success was in the unique Scott Time and Observation Oassic, second in importance in Britain only to the Scottish Six Days. The Scott actually is an anachronism these days. As trials have become more and more condensed into short loops containing probably only a dozen sections - to be attempted maybe three times at a pedestrian pace - the idea of an 80-mile, all-moorland loop, into ·which are slotted no fewer than 75 different sections, to be completed as fast as possible, is a real stunner. Staged on the bleak, heather moors in Yorkshire, where it is cold even in the summer, the Scott is a trial you either love desperately or hate violently. Yorkshiremen all claim to love it. Most are lying. They ride it because it is a tradition they are stuck with. Others like Lampkin, Phil Alderson and Gerald RiChardson - love every second of it. The rules are simple. Go as fast as you can and lose as few marks in the sections as you can. The fastest man to finish sets standard time. For every two minutes you finish behind standard time, you lose one mark. Only riders who finish within two and a half hours of the standard are classed as finishers. For the majority, finishing is all that counts. Colley set the pace this year, trying to give Gas Gas its first-ever win in the (Top left) Graham Jarvis took his first $cott Trial win. Here Jarvis crosses Orgate Falls early In the trial. (Above) Indoor trials specialist Steve Colley set the fastest time but finished second because of his high observation score. (Left) Doug lampkin's younger brother Harry carried the lampkin flag, as Doug Is stili recovering from a broken wrist. Scott. Colley was really on a mission as he risked a big crash, lashing his Gasser around in just under five hours, carding a time of 4:56:40 seconds. But Colley, winner on a Beta in 1992-93, had gone a little too quickly and paid the price in an observation score of 49 - which was to prove over twice as many as the inspired Jarvis, who parted with a mere 21 marks in the sections. And Ja·rvis was traveling only marginally slower. Keeping a close check on Colley's time, so as not to fall too far behind, he always knew exactly what he had to do, and that was to concentrate on the sections. The Scott is the only trial where you will get more than one rider in a section at the same time. If someone gets stuck or strikes trouble, others just ride straight through. With riders leaving the start at 20-second intervals, the first hour is quite hectic as they settle into their natural rhythms. Most of the quick men like Colley, Jarvis, Rob Crawford, Alderson and Wayne Braybrook were given late numbers and had to charge through the field, carving past the slower boys on the moors and in the sections. For spectators, the Scott is a brilliant day out, riding or driving through the narrow Yorkshire lanes, trying to keep up with the riders who are usually way above them on the moor top. The faster riders are soon at the head of the field and get involved in all sorts of personal races. Oub rider Tony Kaye actually kept the "aces" behind him and his Gas Gas for more than three houcs this year before striking trouble and being overhauled by Alderson, who in tum was reeled in and passed by Colley close to the finish. Colley was the first man to finish the course and he was exhausted by his efforts. "I could actually have ridden for miles, but now that I've stopped I just can't move," Colley said, slumped on his Gas Gas which was parked on its paddock stand. The sections were really, really slippery this year and [ have 10 t a lot on observation. I'm knackered." Heavy rain the previous week made the moors and bankings extremely slippery, not too boggy, just treacherously slippery which caused many crashes. Colley was not immune. "I had one big one which wiped my front-brake master cylinder off," he said. I had to finish one moorland crossing before I could repair it at a refueling check." Alderson, a local lad who lives on the moors and who has won the Scott four times, was next home on his TYZ Yamaha. "The streams and the banks are very slippery, but the moors aren't too bad," Alderson told us. "They are wet in patches. Actually, I lost my gloves in one stretch of bog. And [ just had one puncture, on the way back to the finish." Unflappable as always, Jarvis almost casually cruised in to reveal that he had suffered no problems at all. '1 concentrated on the sections, but I was still going quick, as quick as I felt safe," Jarvis said. "Colley was just mega-quick. I slid off the bike a couple

• Cover