Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SECTION ONE BYJOHN DICKINSON orld Championsh ip trials riders are a pretty toleran t bunch . At ' times th ey put u p with co nd itions tha t ot her profess ional sportsmen would laugh at - and walk away from. They have been allotted "pare fermes" in deserts, in swam ps, alo ngside bu sy freeways - sometimes without adequate p o w er, water o r toilet facilities - a nd shrugged it off. They tolerate both indiffe re nt official do m and dow nrigh t aggressive officia ldo m with little more tha n a murmur. Very ra rel y do th ey rise in a nger, which is - unfortunately for them - just as well, becau se w hen they do protest, even en masse, they are exposed as ha ving as much collective bite as a goldfis h. The last time ou r feet -u p gla diators made a comm una l protest was in Bilbao, Spain, in 1995, On Friday night, few sections had be en ma rked ou t, and those that could be seen the ride rs didn't like, In a twilight meeting that evening, they demanded that the AM Jur y take action or , they sta ted, puffing out their collective chests, they woul dn 't ride, Saturday mor ning ca me, wen t a nd lunc h ti me arrived . The AM Jury returned from its previewing of the sections - an d admitted that eve n they had visited only half he sections. "That's it, w e a ren't riding thi s ve nt! " sta ted the riders after several eated meetings that afternoon. Half an ou r la ter, every o ne was on his bike, eading for the first section. Basically, the Spanish Federation pu t he heat on its riders (otherwise, the bigoney cigarette com pany which sponors the Spanish wouldn' t b e very leased ) and the factories did likewise o their contracted riders. The rid er who lost most face w as 992 World Cha m pio n Tommi Ahvala. t w a s Ahvala, elected as ride r pokesm an, who declared tha t the riders vere unanimous in their decision no t to ide. And five minu tes later it was an mbarrassed Ahva la who had to face his ellow riders with the new s tha t Fantic ad informed him that he was in fact tarting shortly - a total collapse of rider W we rt oYEARSAGO... GUS U T3,1967 riu mph' s Sk i p Van Leeuwe n took his firs t ational Dirt Track ictory when he won e 50-lap N atio n al T at Ascot Park in alifornia . Du sty oppage finish ed -cond on a Triumph nd Dave Palmer piloted his .o r ton to third . Triumpho unted Ji mmy Odom wo n e Amateur IS-lap final over oger GoldWaite on a Royal nfield .. . CN did a p iece lied "Meet the Racers" and was 25-year-old desert ace N . Roberts in t he s p o tght... Hodaka rider Tom ruckenstein won the l OOcc atianal Motocross event eld in A thena, O regon, e r Jerry Do b b in s on a awasaki and Rick Cray on a no ther odaka ... Jo hn Jorgen sen wo n t he Expert class at a Sho rt Track even t th e Lod i Cy cle Bowl in California . In Italy this year we had a very similar rerun of this little playlet - only this time, they d id actually get as far as bringing th e event to a tota l h a lt . In Italy, the beef, very rightly, was that the sections marked out and viewed on Friday looked very dangerou s. The riders protested to the A M an d the organizers - and to no one's surprise, nothing was done. On Saturday, in ter rib le conditions an d fo llowing a migh ty cras h fr om Doug Lam pkin on the seco nd sec tion, followed by a ridiculo us third hazard of wh ich only one rid er saw the exit cards, the top riders called a halt . They called a halt for all the right reasons bu t then, having brought the show to a stands till, got carried away and pr ese n ted th e FIM with a d em and to the e ffec t th a t un less th e co n trov ers ia l "stop-d ab" rule was repealed before the follo wi ng week 's Fren ch round, the re wo uld be a rid er boycott of that trial. The riders' demands were thus: With regard to the stationary dab rule introduced this year, we the riders make a protest to you, the FIM . We will not compete in the next Wortd Championship trial (to be held in France June 21-22) until the rule is reoetsed to that as in 1996. We woutd also like to be informed in the future of any major rule change and pros, pest that a test -. "3 -. 75

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