Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ Q.) ..c o ~ u o Lojak finished seven t h ove rall for the sole U.S . gold medal. day. "T h is will not be an easy run," said V. S. team manager John Morgan, " an d you can expect the Czech s to throw every thing at you al most fro m the sta rt." Actuall y, it was abou t 25 mi les from th e start when th ings star ted getting nasty. " T h e Hill." as many riders referr ed to th e section. was slimy, roc ky, knarl y an d seemed straigh t up. " It wa s one big traffic jam," said Mike Melton. T h e section cost Melton. befo re the day was over, nearly 40 mi n u tes with eac h minute lost adding 60 p oints onto h is score. " I tore some liga me n ts in m y right a n kle riding a n en duro just before we left for Czech oslovakia. It h ad seven days to heal befo re we sta rted Six Da ys. I knew if I didn' t ha ve to push th e bike for the fir st day or two I would be alright, but they sla p ped that h ill in right aw ay an d it was a real struggle for me. " . One rider wh ose problems started and ended on the hill was Barry H iggi ns. His ride in the ISDE go t no fart her and en ded in frustra tion. " If I ever start tal kin g about riding the ISDE again I hope somebody bea ts me in th e he ad until I get my senses," said Higgins. The section took time fr om a n u m ber of other riders on the first loop . Trophy ri der Hyde lost a bi t of time getting u p the hill and then had a tire go flat after th a t. The resu lt was 720 points for th e 12 minutes h e los t. Wally Wil son had problems wit h the hill which compounded themselves in later sections and eventually cost Wilson 600 points by th e end o f the da y. Melt o n, Hyde and Wilson ended th e da y on bronze. Trophy riders Lojak, Cunningham and H arden ended th e day on gold. Cunni n gham 's only problem was getting sick after a struggle up the hi ll. . " I go t sick to m y stomach afte r pushing up the hill and fin ally ha d ~C? ppJ1.qf! ~~~ ~r~ ~I .an d b~rf.,T?a ~ ~~~ Top American 175cc ri der Mark Hyde leaves the st art area. He took a silver. bad, bu t then I got th e dry heaves and really felt terrible." T he h ill too k points from a lot of riders or slowed the m up considerably so they made mi stak es and lost time trying to ca tch u p. "You don 't need a day like that to start you off ," sai d Harden afterwards. Larry Roeseler and Kevin Hines were two ri ders who crashed hard. Roeseler broke h is rear brake pedal and front brake lever in his crash, Hines aggravated a shoulder/neck injury from earlier this year. " On ly two hours to a cold beer and a back rub, " sai d KT M rider Kevin LaVoie at a check o n the second loop. La Voie was running strong on go ld and determine d th at this would be his best finish in ni ne years. The Czechoslovakians had accomplished what th ey set out to on day one-show everybody the event would be. no cake-walk. With eight gold, two si lver and 13 bronze medals plus two DNF thi ngs did not look LOO good. The Trophy and Vase 'sq uads were eigh th a nd seventh, respectiveIy. Things could have been worse. Italy, winner of the Wo rld Trophy the past three years . had already lost a Trophy Team rider. The hill clai med enough from riders that motions were made in the day one jury meetin g to ha ve the section thrown out. It stayed in . Day Two Da y two found the riders out on a new trail with a new special test and running on the B'sch edu le, If da y o ne had been a killer, then day .two gave most riders a breather. Minor problems cost KTM rider Glenn Hollingshead, Maico 's Alvin McCannon and Chuck Miller a few points each , but did not alter their medal status. Miller's 60 point loss was a " du m b mistake" caused b y following a rider into a check early. Bob by Pearce and Ra n dy Mastin, both on 504cc KTM fou r-stro kes, did not. have..an ... -= J. y. Pearce... almost .. _. _.. '. easy da , .. _• J '. 4. \,0 ; .1 had his da y come to an end with three successive flat tires a nd lost 52 minut es over th e two loops. Mastin fared somewha t bett er , losing a total of 26 minu tes wi th a variety of problems. On the p lus side, Yamaha rider Morrill Griffith a n d KTM rider Tom Buckl es turned in good en ough scores on th e two sp ecial tests to move from bronze to silver medal sta tus. No riders DNF an d, other than the two med al upgrad es, the re were no changes. The V. S. moved to sixth in th e Trophy sta n din gs as Sweden moved past da y one leader Czechoslovak ia and into the LOp spot. Czechoslovak ia conti n ued to lead the Vase competi tion with th e V. S. moving to sixth. Da y Three There was a small ch a n ge in the . Wednesda y trail with the schedule remaining on B, bu t' nearly seven minutes cut out along the way. The Czechs were tigh ten ing up the screws. Two hundred fifty-seven riders started da y three. Randy Ma stin. on bro nze with no chance LO upgrade his status, was going to ride th e final days to finish and make no mistakes. V nfortunately, his r ide came to an end anyway. " I was hustling down a blacktop road before turning back onto the trail," said Mastin of his tro ubles afterwards. " I threw it into th e turn. hit some gravel, straightened up and then hit th e bridge. That was bad enough, but my momentum carr ied me off the bridge into a six foot deep ditch . I trash ed th e whee l and front end so badl y they h ad to carry th e front end and roll it on the back wheel. " Bobby Pearce had a number of problems which eventua lly caused him to end his ride. "I got an oil leak near the sta rt of the seco nd loop," sa id Pear ce. "T he n th e en gine began to lose compressio n an d finally the cam belt broke so I had to park it and wait for someone to pick me up. It w~~ ~ /r~~lf~ t/~n~ dJ~y., ': J • • , • • , .. Dwight Rudder. troubled by knee problems, " sp ent a lo t of time looking a t the ground. " He still remained our top ri der in the 125cc class . KTM rider Kevin Davis, personable, quiet and determined. was the only other rider to lose time on the trail. " I had a good da y except for some small problems." said Davis. The Trophy Team was still in sixth. but things were loo kin g up as Hyde and Wilson moved to silver with Cunningham. Harden and Lojak remaining on gold. Melton. with his ankle feelin g better every da y, was ri ding stron g. " I' m feeling pretty good." said Melton. " As long as they don't throw another nasty hill in I'll be alright. I feel bad about racking up so many points on da y one because I don't think it will be possible to get off bronze." The Czechs had moved back into the lead. T he Vase squad moved to fifth with the Czechs still leading. Italian Husqvarna rider Gualtiero Brissoni continued h is strong' hold on the 250cc and overall standings which he had grabbed on day one. Ed Lojak, who had posted the best individual American rider score on days one and two, was still going strong on day three. Kevin Lavoie, Larry Roeseler and Terry Cunningham followed. Day Four Reports of rain in the area led the time schedule to be lowered to C. The reports proved to be correct and rain during the nigh t ta pered off to drizzle by the time the firs t riders were out. The weather never rea ll y cleared , but it did stop raining and th en it began again in time to make everyon e misera ble for the second loop. The tem perature was not as much a factor as it was in the infamous " day five" in the 1977 event and, conseq ue n tly , not as many riders dropped o u t. The Am erican efforts, alth ough we los t three riders , ac tually cont in ued t? ,ir1pro,Y:;' T h,e. ~91A ~~'3~~. t.9· ~i1tH . ... I !j

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