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/128614
S c o t;tis h Six -Day T r ia l th e pod ium . Th ird wa s Co nno r. eN Scottish Six D Trial ay Fort William. ScoUand Resuhs:~ay l -6.2DDD DAY I : 1. Steve Colley (0) . DAY 2: 1. Steve Colley (0) . DAY 3 : 1. Sam Conn or /Am os Bil bao/S am Ludgate (1) . DAY 4 : 1. Sam Conno r/Jo rdi Ta rre s /Ad am Reqa/B erletier (0) . DAY 5 : 1. Adam Raga (0). DAY 6 : 1. Ada m Rag a/Ste ve Cclley/Berletle r ( 1). Spaniard Amos B ilbao (abo v e) prevented the Brits f rom totally dominating the event, fi nis hin g second. Steve Saunders lIeft). a multi-time winner of the even t, led early on but faded later in the week. B R I EF L Y••• The oldest and most prestigious trials event in the wo rld attracted 270 riders. representing 11 nations . A noticeable absentee was Englishman Graham Jarvis. who just had a knee operation after an injury at the previous World round . The small. Sco ttish tow n of Fort W illiam · out of w hich the eve nt was based · is 100 miles nort hwest of Glasgow. Competi tors covered nearly 600 m i les in the surro unding hills ove r the six days. Each day feat ured a diffe rent loop. and each loop featured 30 sect ions. Though the zones were fairly easy, a tight time limit meant ride rs often we ren' t able to plan thei r rides in much detail. Each day featured a d i ffere n t s t a rti n g order , w hich meant the playing field was as level as possible, and that no rider had an advantage of co nsistently drie r sections. S till, the wi nner and the runner -up were very close in the start order : Colley was number gO and Bilbao was 89. By M A RIO Though he was cha ll e n g ed, St e v e Colley l e d t he historic a l Scottish Six Days T rial from day one. CANDELLON E PH OT O S BY I A N J O HNST O N E AND C A N D ELLO N E FORT WIlliAM, SCOTLAND, MAY 1-6 t's an anom aly bo rdering on scand al : F o r the p a s t t wo y e a rs , the Scott is h Six- Da ys, infa m o us for its m is e rabl e U. K. we ather , h as b e e n b le s s e d (cursed? ) b y co n d itio n s m ore su itabl e fo r a day a t th e bea ch tha n an ol d -fash ion e d, bu tt -k icki ng tria ls, Brit Steve Coll e y d idn 't m ind th e lack of tra d itio nal ra in a nd snow, a s ev idenced by h is win at the hist oric al co m p et itio n . Aft er all , s ix d a ys o f gru e lin g (al be it b eautiful ) S c ott is h te rra in a re tax ing e no ug h in the best o f condit ion s , but Co lley le d from th e g et-go . He cle aned both of the firs t two day s (Mon da y a nd Tu es da y ) a nd g ain ed a co ns iste nt a dva ntage on fi ve- t ime w in n e r S t ev e Saund er s , s e c o n d a fte r Tu e sda y w ith four ma rks. But af ter fivin g o ne section on the third da y, Colle y began to fe e l a bit of pr essu re . He lo s t a tota l of five o n that da y, a nd young Eng lish- I 30 MAY 24 , 2000' c ue I e Three year s ago . orga nizers initiated the no·stop rule. which meant that any co mplete halt . even with the feet on the pegs · result ed in a five . M issing a section garnered a w hopping 50 point s. w hile excee ding the time limit brought a point per minute. Riders over one hour late we re disqualif ied . m e n Sam Connor and Sam Ludgate were nipping at his he al s with sev en apiece . Saunders al so had se ven , hav ing lost five on Wednesday . Th e si tuatio n was s t ill u ncertain aft er Thursday, thank s to the s uperb, course-clea ning performanc e of Con no r. He s tayed at seven , wh ile Co lley's s ing le dab pu t h im at six, setting things up for a clos e finish. The best no n -E ng lis h rid e r at t h is po int wa s Spaniard Amos Bilba o - ve ry consis tent in his passag es th rough the sec tion s - c atc hing up to Sau nders with 10 po ints for a th ird-pla c e tie . Conn o r s lipp ed a b it on Fri d ay. los ing four points and re la xi ng th e pre s su re on Co lle y . wh o had o n ly dabbed onc e. He ha d 11 - tie d with Bilba o for second . Th e fina l, difficult da y saw Colle y ret a in the lea d a nd the take th e win. a n d Bilba o bro k e th e U.K. dorn inance by tak ing th e se c ond step o n The 2000 edition was even more presti gious than usual. with fonmer W orld Champions Jordi T a rri s and Thierry Michau d competing. The heroes were not in good enough fonm to cornpete for the overall wi n. th ough l arres did take seventh wi th an impressive 3D-poi nt sco re . M ichaud was 21 st with 54 . n e _ s The military handled mid-cou rse refue ling for all the ride rs. Soldiers acc esse d nearly every part of the co urse in their military machines. and in the seven hou rs (average) of riding per day. eac h competito r refueled at least five times . An unofficial jou rnalist class was running at the Six-Days . and the auth or o f this story was the win ner . finishing 214th with 594 points . Finishing second was fellow Italian Giulio Mau ri in 244 th. with a French wri ter taking third . Our Cycle News corres pondent was fatigued after the comp eti· tion , but strongly recommende d it to die-hard trials ent husiasts · young and old alike . The loops were fairly easy on Wednesday and Friday . giving com pe ti to rs t he op po rt uni ty to a d mire the scenery. O n Tuesday , Thursd ay and Saturday. things we re different. as the course ran on the moo rland , and things we re much more difficult for the lesse r-ski lled riders (journalists included), C a n a d i a n R yan Bell finished 31 st wi t h 88 points. There were tw o mor e Canadians (both Ga s Gas -mounted) : J effery Sites in 137th and Guy Smee th in 23 4th (pictured) . O n e lad y contes ted the event. Japanese Yuriko Kobasyashi too k part for the seco nd-straight year, finishing 22 5th with 660 points. The pre·1965 class rode two ext ra days. so British legends Mick Andrews and Dave Thor· p e rode for over a week. De spite their age s. Andrew s finished 75th and Thorpe was 98th.