Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

THE ~ ::;: ~ w Z w oJ o >- o A E ICA 5 By Bill Brokaw Photos by Monsalve T he Am erican Trials t eam came to Europ e for an education a nd got a he alth y dose at Sancerre, France, and a h ealthier o ne at Tarrasa, Sp ain. These two events count fo r p oints to determine the ch am pion of Eu rope. Top finis h ing American in France, Mark Eggar of San D iego, limped in on a flat to cl aim 28 th posit ion . This wr it er , as the only o ther Ameri can finis h ing within the time limit allowed , co uld do no b etter than 42nd. A fla t tire stopped Glen n Neigenfind of Denv er, at th e hal f-wa y point. Ri ch ard Bled so e, Sou thern Califo rnia '5 numb er o ne rider, did some great wo rk o n observat io n but was running late to the po int th at a th rown rear chain o n the last section ca use d his d isqualification o n time. Martin Belair , Jeff Koskie, and G eorge Smith , th e' teenage en tries fro m the Los Angeles area, wer e also fell ed b y th e timekeeper's axe. Eu ro pean Trials have developed into a tough , d emanding type o f c ompetit ion . T he est ab lish ed method o f arriving at the time schedule works , but puts demands on the riders tha t we Am ericans are no t ac custo med to coping with. Gone are th e d ays wh en Trials co u ld b e co nsid ered competitive trail riding. Now, in England and Europe, the rid er mu st attack obstacles that challenge the imagination. He must make cross cou n tr y runs at high sp eeds on spindly-looking motorcycles with two-p ly tires at low pressure, ye t avo id tire and bike failu re. He must make fast, ac cu ra te an aly sis of the non-stop zone s or lose precious marks. After six hours of fas t riding, running through th e sections to study th em b efore riding and the pure pressure of competition, the rider must still be sharp so that his final rides will be accurate, skillful attempts. At Sancerre, France, with the ground wet from a previous night's rain , abo ut 100 International class riders followed by about 100 National riders left the start at one minute intervals. Malcolm Rathmell of Great Britain brought pride to the Bultaco works with an astonishing 36 marks lost. Mick Andrews, obviously fighting a shifting p roblem with his Ossa, again proved his greatness with a 56 point second "We were veryaware' of the fierceness of the competition between these factories but apparently underlying this is the love of the sport that creates a common bond. " EXPERIENCE Bultaco provided a car and driver on many oc casio ns. The three factories provided transportation for th e bikes to France, a trip of 700 miles one-way. The Bultaco rid ers went with the factory team. The Montesa factory team riders took turns chau fferi ng th e others. Belair, holding an international d river 's licens e for cab and formula cars , instantly turned native and uncannily piloted o u r Seat (a Spanish car) into and out o f situations of certain disaste r. Fred even tightened his puckering string wh en th e Montesa b o ys too k Over and tried to see how many road sit uati ons co uld be handled a t 100 KPH or b e tter. Wow ! We mad e th e sign-in at Sanc erre, France in good. order. The pla ce was lousy with cops. It seems th at th e French p olice are th e main promoters of th e event and the sign-in was at the polic e h eadquarters. Yo u have prohably heard about the super-skilled BMW-riding French highway patrol. They wer e the o nes, and th eir h elpfulness and courtesy was j u st ou t o f sigh t! Sat urd ay e v e n i ng w e were fed a free horn e-cooked-type meal at the poli ce headquarters. The townspeople that were assisti ng m the organiza t io n were there as well and attempting to commu nic ate was a hilarious experien ce. Then after we w er e all briefed that the door marked "W .C. " was wher e th e h ead was, we h it th e sack in a quaint lo cal hotel. The next morning th e 200 com p etitors readied thems elves on one of the city stre ets . The no ise was severe. The riders over there do not attempt to silence the ir bik es the extra amount as is now commo n in the U.S., nor do the organizers and manufacturers seem to b e worrying much about it. Although at Montesa and Bultaco we found them dyno-testing some American spark arresters and silencers and some unusually quiet bikes we re running around the Montesa factory. England h as seen some recent events where failing a noise test bring extra points. When the time came I was out on the course and found th ose French police at all the many road crossings. There were riders grouped at most sections, o r "no n-sto p zones" as they are called in Europe. But in no case was there any extreme bottle necks. Next week in Spain we were to learn the true meaning of The Western US. Trails team and several dtgnitaries: (Left to right) Jordi Permanyer. Pedro Pi. Bro kaw. Rich Bledsoe. Jeff Koskie. Martin Belair. Mark Eggsr (hidden) and George Smith . Glenn Neigenfin d of thinking about. p lace. Montesa's Gordon Farley scored 60 points for third. The mind-b ending challenges at Sancerre included six vertical to near-vertical asce nts of from one-and-a-half to five feet; round. baseball size rocks that were even hazardous to walk on; a , couple of slippery root sections; a mud wallow that was a nifty mess alo ng with all the usual tricky rocky st uff as you mig ht imagine. The ro ck q uarry that had three rock faces to cli mb and a ravine with a near vertical face of rock strata exposed were the sce ne of many disastrous attempts. The Americans filtered in to Barcelona by train fro m Paris and air from New York. There they made t he Ho tel Barcelona th eir headquarters . Bledsoe, along wit h Ko skie and Sm ith, w er e line d up with their new Bultaco s. Eggar was lo aned an Ossa and Belair, Ne igenfi nd and I picked up our ne w Montesas. Th e three facto ries are near to downtown Barcel on a which made it quite co nvenient. Fre d Belair, w ho has been a tireless wo rker on the Spain trip from its ince ption. was along as coordina tor. leader , inte rpreter and arrange r. His terrific efforts kept the trip fair ly snag-free. Mo ntesa p u t a car at our disposal fo r th e entire ti me and

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