Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

THE EUROPEA the wo rd. The course led us over hi lls with pictu req ue views over the rolling co untryside to the lim it s t he smog wo uld allow. Down past the vineyards an d through the ancient villages. Peo ple watched u s alo ng the way and warmly responded to our smiles. The sections that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere had no shortage of spectators that were ready to cheer the good rides and help when you fiascoed. After the finish the results were soon completed and the awards were given with much speechmaking, most of which we co uld not understand. Special mention was made of the 'A m erican team since the French were quite amazed that riders from America would show up. Then the proud people o f Sancerre uncorked the wine and poured generously and passed out two free bottles to each contestant. Then we pror' __d to the "C;'ve" for the balance of the Iestiviues. This is a giant hole in a hil l where the wi ne is sto red. There. mo re wi ne flowed and a blare of medieval trumpe ts heralded a parade of chefs and waitresses carrying three ro ast pigs. The foo d was ser ved a nd a live b and p layed. T he huge crowd included th e land owners wh ose land had b een used for t he T ria l. The promoter s h ad estab lished th e feast as a tribute to these genero us pe ople. It was an eve nt we wer e in no wa y expec ting, as no parallel ca n b e found in Am eri ca. It wa s impressive. Si x , Mond ay morning, saw us on the ro ad t o Barcelona. T he w eek at Barcelona was eventful with visits to the fac tories and practice sessio ns with the European star riders. Montesa and Bultaco were generous in providing luxurious lunches and d inners for us. Numerous facto ry people from m an y departments were friendly and helpful b eyond expectatio n. Pedro Pi hosted a fmc d inn er in his home, prepared b y h is charming wife. He did much philosophizin g about English Trials that was fascinating to us. I hope to report this in a later article. Senor Bulto entertained and captivated us at a dinner in our honor. There we were excited to find Lane Leavitt fro m Northern California jo inin g our ranks, by special invitation of Bultaco. All of the factory people were wannly hospitable to all of us with no regard to the brand we rode. We were very aware of the fierceness of the co mp eti t io n between these factories but apparently underl ying this is the love of th e sport th at creates a co m mo n bond. Senor 'The sections were set with impressive imagination anddespite their toughness they were colorful. Have you everclimbeda waterfal!?" Perrnanyer, the President of Montesa, h ost ed an elaborate lu nch eo n on the waterfront. F rom the restaurant we could view the building in wh ich Columbus' ships were b uilt that discove red America. That is something to ponder. O f interest to us, the factory rid ers rode surprisingly stock mot o rcycles. The changes were confined to some allo y goodies such as handlebars. which are available to anyone. Surprisingly, some of the bikes looked quite run down although I am sure it was only superficial. Actually, after seeing what these machines are expected to do, it is amazing they survive at all. The 6th Trial of Sant Llorence Del Munt or as we more easil y identify it, the Spanish round of the European ch am pio nsh ip , carries an established reputation as a tough eve nt. It was presented to us as a tough event, particularly if there is rain, but tim e would not be a problem as eight hours was allowed b efore d isqualification. Th e to wn o f Tarrasa, th e site of th e event, is ab ou t 45 minutes travel in land fro m Barcelona. The countryside is r ugged lo w mount ain s with heavy foli age. Th e course lo o ped through th e countryside varyi ng in elevati o n abo u t 1000 feet. Th e weath er d id not help as it rai n ed Saturday and agai n du rin g the event. At t h e h igh er ele vati ons it turned to so ft hail. Th e ground was well lu bricated and th e ro cks became mudd y. As th e co urse threaded it s way al ong we rode o n scenic rock y trails th at would gladden th e h eart o f any Colorado t rai l rid er. Un fo rt unately we we re goi ng too fast to properly enj o y th em. T he T ria l was in no wa y a rerun o f the French eve nt. The Fr en ch round was co nsidered to b e easy and after th e Spanish event, "easy" and "hard" have new defi nitions. Not only was the event to ugh beyond belief but a new dimension appeared; the ugly dog-eat-dog professionalism. That Ossa man, Mick Andrews did it to -the boys again, Mick finished with a mere 80 point loss . That average less than a two point loss per section for the 48 sections. That sounds unimpressive until you consider his nearest rival was 26 away. The first eight places went to Englishmen except for thi rd. Ignacio Bulto, son of the owner of the Bultaco factory, brought pride to Spain. Leading him by two points on another Bultaco was second placer Martin Lampkin. Fourth on a Montesa was Rob Edwards. I Allan Lampkin of Great Britain. Malcolm Rathrnell, the h ero of the previous week was down to fif th. Montesa 's Bob Shepherd was sixth; Allan Lampkin Bu ltaco ed to seventh; David Thorpe Ossaed t o eighth . Alf Karlsson, a Swedish Montesa rider, was ninth. Remarkably , second t o ninth places were separated by only 13 points , much less than Andrews' lead over second. Andrews dropped but 25 points on the ' seco nd lap, which was 19 points better than David Thorpe's 44 point rid e, the next best on the second lap. Andrews is truly a supennan . Only one rid er finished w ithin the seven hours allowed. Andrews was but one mi nute late. T he rid ers were given a one hour grace period in which they lost one tenth of a point per minute for being late. The Bradford team of Lampkin, Rathmell and Lampkin took the team award. The American riders were headed by Lane L eavitt in 24th place. Richard Bledsoe finished 33rd, Mark Eggar 36th, Martin Belair 57th, George Smith 6 5th and I was a DNF . After playing submarine, too m uch time was lo st on the first lap. Leavitt was in serious tro u ble righ t' off, fiascoing in nine o f the first 12 sec tions. If you have watched Lane ride then you might slightly co m preh end how severe the sections were for this fine rider to look so bad. . But Lane pulled through like a trouper to finish with the most im p ressive ride of all the Americans with six cleans, four ones, 20 threes and 18 fives. Bledso e had but two cleans but held his fiasc os down while Eggar sh owed great promise with seven cleans but 25 fives also showed less co nsistency . This was the first ever Trials where the results were handled by compute r, an d a co m p let e printing of results sh o wing what ea ch rider had scored in each section and a com plete tab ulat io n , section by section was handed out b efore seven o'clo ck. The route marking was th e b est I have ever seen. The genera l organization was at a level so advanced t h at assuredly this will b ecome th e yardstick event. T he sectio ns were se t with im pressive: imaginati on and de spi te their toughness t hey were colorful. Ha ve yo u eve r climb ed a wat erfall? But, all t o o often th e h u ma n elemen t rears its d isorganized h ead, and th is was no exc ep t io n. T he sections were set with th e idea of it bei ng a t O U ~ : 1 Trial if it were d ry, but it was no t dry and it was evide nt t hat no attem pt was made for any alt er at ions in cas e of rain. Fou r o f th e sections h ad an ave rage poin t loss of ove r four and a hal f p o ints per ride. Wh en you consider th er e we re only 107 entries and th a t in cluded all o f t he world's b est rid ers , yo u can see what I m ean. When yo u conside r the vast numb er of fiasco s, th en you can imagine ho w lo ng it to o k to run riders t hrough the sections. But the organizers chose to du mp riders onto the course at the ra t e of two per minute with the promise that if you didn' t make it in eight hours you would be disqualified. One ravine with two sections end to end that had to be cleared of a rider before another could go, was so unforgiving that I had to be helped four times before I was out of it. All of this evidently brought on a twinge of conscience on the part of the promoters and a decision that flabbergasted me . Without a word to anyone they credited riders who finished out of the time limit with a finish and falsified the time to make it appear that they had made it on time. I am sure that this had no effect in the results o f the to p LS SCE E twenty, w hich was w hat was read to the member s of the international jury, and met with no opposition or question. Incidentally, Fred Belair was ho nored by - being appointed to t he international jury as the USA representative. Nine countries were represented. [ have learned the hard way that rules that effect how a competitor judges to ride an event must not be changed after the event. No statement can be made as to which riders were effected by this change since it would be inco mplete and therefore unfair. Possibly the popular opinion is that if the important riders are not effected then it is not important. This brings us to an explanation of the ugliness I saw at Tarrasa that I just was not mentally prepared for. The law of the jungle prevailed and was accepted by all it appeared. Since a section could handle riders only so fast, the only way a rid er could be assured of not lo sing out on time was to choose between not walking the sec tio ns or bugging into line. The latter was the accep te d method. T he m ost successful method I observe d was to simply rid e to, or near, the fro nt o f t he lin e fr om t he side. If this meant to ph y sicall y haul your bike over rocks, th ro ugh b ushes , o ver o ther motorcy cles, that is the way . One Englishman who was slightly beh ind me lo o ked friendly and I queri ed him if thi ngs were m or e gen tlema n ly in En gland. He smiled a nd said that t o be sure th ey we re bu t th at it was a b lo od t o ugh Trial and if t here were no time lim it we could be there all day. With t hat h e put his bike in gear and shot a ways up th e dirt bank I was parked against and slithered down on top of another competi tor seve ral places ahead of me, thus picking up about t en pl aces and that many minutes while I found m yself yet an other minute 'Without a word to anyone they (the promoters) creditedriders who finished outof the time limit with a finish and falsified the time to make it appear that they had made it on time. II back. Some of it is luck as well. When you are in a group of 20 or so , all jammed tightly together as possible, y o u simply do not all move forward at the same rate . As a rider who has dreamed of competing in Europe or England for the last 20 years, I must say, the dream wa s better than the reality. I am no t sorry nor disappointed. As a sports rider, I simply was not prepared for the total professionalism of th e b ig time. I can readily u nderstand why there were o nly 10 0 entries from Europe when Europe is the hot bed of Trials. For the futu re I must advise that w e do not encourage ' a team of sportsman co mp et ing in the world of the professionals. Leave that for the riders who have reached the top and are looking for other worlds to co nq uer. The good local riders of Barcelona rival our better riders. In Spanish and English local events we could gain experience and gre at enjoyment and find valuable competition. As a footnote, the Spanish are still remembering Southern California's Bob Nicholsen and spoke often of how im p ressed they were o f his riding in Spain last year. England 's M alcolm Davi s. " '" " 0.. N .... en :;; ::; ~ w Z W ..J U ~ U

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