World Round No.1

[gizza5]

trials going the same way at the top as rallying did 10 - 15 years ago. when i was rallying ( slowly not competatively what i called participating) anyone could enter the top events given the qualifying regs meant all you had to do was complete a dozen or so lower std rallies to be able to drive in a world championship round. the point been i drove the same route as Tony Pond , hannu Mikkola, Ari vatenan etc etc and the rallies were FULL 180- 200 each year.

then it went all PRO and now only 20 - 30 people qualify to drive fewer people spectate everybody manufacturers etc fans etc all lose out

world and national level trials were equally open to most and had decent numbers riding on long ish rtoad based multi group trials people turned out 100 rode everybody won, now we have 18 lads and the best in gb are maxing every section.. is that progress?? no

make trials easier get mr bou to drop 1 or go clean and more folk will ride more will watch and you have a vibrqant sport again.. why cant events like the ssdt be a world round? there would be a winner at the end of the week and lads from all over would ride just to ride the same route as the stars.. or have the stars / manufacturers/ FIM not got the bottle..

Tony Bou winning the SSdt would garner Honda/ montesa 00 times more publicity than losing 48 at a spansish seaside resort that no ones ever heard of..

Good post and some valid points, all you got to do now is get the FIM to listen?

It will be interseting to see how a certain Mr Cabestany will cope in a few days time in the SSDT, my bet is still with Doug, on paper you would say Cabby would win as he is the better rider, throw in Dibs, Browny, Wiggy, Gary Mac, Dan Thorpe and a few others and it will be an interesting Top 10, a good traditional trial brings a lot of riders closer together and you could have a different winner.

Bou is amazing, but barring a complete disater he will win every World Round on current form, does that make the Championship interesting?

[ishy]

turned out 100 rode everybody won, now we have 18 lads and the best in gb are maxing every section.. is that progress?? no

make trials easier get mr bou to drop 1 or go clean and more folk will ride more will watch and you have a vibrqant sport again.. why cant events like the ssdt be a world round?

No way!!! they buggered the world championship, don't let them do the same to the SSDT.

[gizza5]

No way!!! they buggered the world championship, don't let them do the same to the SSDT.

I agree that the SSDT should ''NOT'' become a World Round, but it would be good if the factories made their riders ride it to maybe boost bike sales? and the club don't make the sections any harder!!

It was good in the 80's when all the Factory riders were there, silly sections in the 90's and then the factories pulled their riders out?

Think the sections will be a good test for the WTC riders up there with Mart and Jake at the helm, hopefully more flowing than stop, hop and leap.

Edited April 21, 2010 by GIZZA5

[dabber]

Looking at the videos on Todotrial I think that the shorter time limit has spiced things up in that is is better to watch - more action/less farting about! They clearly got the severity wrong though. The fact that the riders aren't spending ages lining up must make more mistakes creep in so in turn more marks are lost which in turn makes it possible to ease the sections back a bit.

[perce]

Looking at the videos on Todotrial I think that the shorter time limit has spiced things up in that is is better to watch - more action/less farting about! They clearly got the severity wrong though. The fact that the riders aren't spending ages lining up must make more mistakes creep in so in turn more marks are lost which in turn makes it possible to ease the sections back a bit.

Whilst the time limit has had the effect of making things more dynamic I don't think it's really going to change things. Yes, the sections can be smaller but the good lads will adapt & move on, whilst the ones at the bottom will still struggle in their wake. I don't think sat watching videos from afar quite conveys they physical challenge it all is.

[nigel dabster]

The void between the winners and also ran riders is getting larger so it seems.

To take 48 of Bou says it's too hard.

Sadly riders as good as Wiggy and Browny look poor in the results (and we know they can ride!)

If they don't have one then the FIM needs to wise up and get a professional section advisor to travel the series (I'm talking an ex top world level rider) ... It will cost money (but if they can't afford such costs then they may as well pull the plug), but so what...

Still how can they take marks of the best without killing the others it remains a challenge!

I was looking forward to going to Baiona, but the volcanic ash put a stop to that... Hey the sections may have been laid out easy, but the volcanic ash could have greased them up!!!.... Tricky was there any volcanic activity before the Scarborough trial?

Diego Bosis is the section advisor.

[nigel dabster]

trials going the same way at the top as rallying did 10 - 15 years ago. when i was rallying ( slowly not competatively what i called participating) anyone could enter the top events given the qualifying regs meant all you had to do was complete a dozen or so lower std rallies to be able to drive in a world championship round. the point been i drove the same route as Tony Pond , hannu Mikkola, Ari vatenan etc etc and the rallies were FULL 180- 200 each year.

then it went all PRO and now only 20 - 30 people qualify to drive fewer people spectate everybody manufacturers etc fans etc all lose out

world and national level trials were equally open to most and had decent numbers riding on long ish rtoad based multi group trials people turned out 100 rode everybody won, now we have 18 lads and the best in gb are maxing every section.. is that progress?? no

make trials easier get mr bou to drop 1 or go clean and more folk will ride more will watch and you have a vibrqant sport again.. why cant events like the ssdt be a world round? there would be a winner at the end of the week and lads from all over would ride just to ride the same route as the stars.. or have the stars / manufacturers/ FIM not got the bottle..

Tony Bou winning the SSdt would garner Honda/ montesa 00 times more publicity than losing 48 at a spansish seaside resort that no ones ever heard of..

Comparisons to golf and rallying whilst interesting are completely different sports and besides just detract from the point.

When will the luddites among us realise that the clock cannot be turned back 20 years and to think that the SSDT has an appeal as a wtc event is daft and as stated by others with much more knowledge of the event who think it could be easily spoiled were it ever possible.

If you think you know better than honda montesa I suggest you share your expertise with them, if they thought the SSDT were of any value at all then everyone of their team would be there.

I am not convinced that many more would ride if the sections were eased off even say 30%

It seems to me that we are getting off the point.

There were quite a few minor factors which put together made a disaster. From first hand these were;

sections almost all too long for 1 minute, and no looping meant they were ridden like last year.

severity too hard

mostly a do or die section if you couldn't do something it was a five (haven't compared stats but sure its true)

Bou decided to get off as sections would deteriorate so he had some advantage at the front.

The section inspection failed to moderate the clubs difficult sections.

Riders unable to walk the sections made it harder

Minders prohibited meant some riders would not chance crashing back without catchers.

The organisers clearly did not follow the rules and dish up the 30 30 30 hard medium and easy, in fact the stats will show there wasn't one easy section.

[rosey]

Golf!... golf isn't a sport (well not in the league of Trials)... but I suppose it's a sport if curling is

The main problem with most other 'things' (games sports, etc.) is that the course can be played/driven round/rode by people of all levels... but, as we all know, Trials isn't like that!

Blimey.. I was going to suggest Bosis as he rode at a decent level until last year! Looks like they were all a bit 'hard of thinking' if they laid out sections to suit previous rules.

Well if all the rounds are like that will they still attract 13 riders, or however many there were?... However, if there are no minders in the sections (is this true?), maybe it will make them all think about severity..................eventually!!! I just hope nobody gets smashed up before they realise.

[ishy]

Blimey.. I was going to suggest Bosis as he rode at a decent level until last year! Looks like they were all a bit 'hard of thinking' if they laid out sections to suit previous rules.

Well if all the rounds are like that will they still attract 13 riders, or however many there were?... However, if there are no minders in the sections (is this true?), maybe it will make them all think about severity..................eventually!!! I just hope nobody gets smashed up before they realise.

If a new man to the Job mebe he couldn't get them to change much, or didn't want to stirr the pot too much first time out.

Very good rider in his day, but it doesn't make him a great course inspector, if the advice falls on deaf ears then it also doesn't help

the job.

[tricky dicky]

I know we cant turn back the clock with the world rounds but I have been watching some world round videos from the 80's and early 90's and for some reason the sections now are all so technical its become a minority sport. Whats wrong with having a nice hillclimb every now and again that everybody could at least have a go at? The way the trials are layed out now is an indoor trial held outside and they allegedly are for spectators but hardly get any. Surely if there were sections that people could relate to rather than the stuff they have now then it would get more people interested or am I missing the point? I just hope that the round in Scotland is layed out more to display some good old fashioned riding rather than the circus sport it appears to be now! I know trials has evolved but its funny that in the SSDT nobody has ever gone clean and we ride the same sections now that were ridden 20 years ago. I would have gladly had a go at a world round 10 years ago but I couldnt as I was too young but now, not a chance.

[sectiononecleaner]

Why oh why do we have to make everything easy, why do we have to look back to the 80's as a measure of what we should be doing in 2010 ?. That was then, this is now. Bikes have moved on, riders have gotten fitter, stronger. Tv has gotten involved which requires a dynamic/exciting approach to maintain viewers. Riding up a straight hillclimb would certainly not do it for me. Is it not the organising clubs through national and international delegation that set these trials up according to what riders want/can achieve. Perhpaps the manufactures have made bikes too good for us all. Come on guys this is modern day trials, its a science now in terms of physical fitness and riding style. Gone are the days of traditional riding at international level. Trick riding on light bikes are here to stay so we gotta put up with that whether we like it or not. If i was given a heavy bike a traditional sections i would ride them and enjoy the for sure, but thats not what im given.

Just enjoy your sport for what is i today not what it should be like from 30 years go.

[ishy]

Why oh why do we have to make everything easy,

Easy, looks like one man could three a few sections and win the trial, while the rest just crashed all day, they can't follow their own gudelines for section difficulty, Bou is well ahead at this time, should all the sections be made for one man ?.

[sectiononecleaner]

which is why my interest is in who's finishing second this year, maybe next year and the year after that, but this is how it is and we have to accept that organising clubs have this man bou as a major headache when laying out a section due to his amazing abilities.

Imagine you set out a trial section for WTC and you plot for majority knowing you expect a dab or two, then you think bou will take the mickey on it. WHAT DO YOU DO? Naturally you think lets make it harder to take marks off him which then makes the majority field struggle to keep feet up? Thats gotta be a hard decision for anyone to make for sure is it not?

Imagine this and im not even sure what i would do, but do you go to a world round to see the top rider clear what others have failed and go away a happy spectator knowing the world champion is amazing etc?

Or do you go to a round that has toni bou spend the entire championship drop only a few marks all year as the trial is setout for the rest of field but are more entertained by seeing more riders get through sections ? I m really not sure what i would do and to be honest i just wanna watch trials and enjoy whats put in front of me and thats what i do. The fans will vote with there feet so if the gates are big then the FIM are doing something right are they?

lookin at last trial scores from WTC i suspect toni bou actually enjoyed it havin a big challenge im not sure does anyone? Rest of field im not sure.

Its a really difficult one and everyone has there views which is great.

[nigel dabster]

Easy, looks like one man could three a few sections and win the trial, while the rest just crashed all day, they can't follow their own gudelines for section difficulty, Bou is well ahead at this time, should all the sections be made for one man ?.

This is part of the problem, even when Dougie was at his best he didn't win all the rounds he had close competitors, that really isn't the case at the moment and therein lies a problem.

[tricky dicky]

Obviously Bou is a major headache for the organisers but surely if the trials were layed out differently so they weren't effectively an indoor outdoors then it may close the gap. As I mentioned before they are allegedly set out for spectators but the world rounds in the 90's and even a bit later when it was stop for a 1 were attracting larger numbers and larger entries. Unfortunately due to the way the FIM has pushed trials it has fallen right into the hands of Toni Bou and its not his fault he's a lot better than anybody else. Surely if it returned to stop for a 1 and the observers policed it properly like they did when it first came out in 1998 then the sections could be made more rideable and it would attract the riders in the calibre of Oliveras etc and it would bring the results closer as if the riders were off line they could stop and just take a 1 instead of a 5. Whats wrong with having a world round in the southern mud in autumn/winter time with some big climbs?! That would be far more of a spectacle than the circus that it is and we could all relate a bit better to that.