Fred Rist Trial 17 Sep 2006
Words: Colin Jones - Photos: Tony & Ben Falconer
Another excellent event from Neath Motor Club, they were hard pushed to improve on last year's event, but they did make it much easier this year for the majority of riders by slackening the turns so even a KTM525 rider couldn't moan about the lock required. Good section layout meant every one of them looked cleanable to me on my CRM even though reality inevitably intervened.
The morning started off with light rain and many of us making wrong decisions about what to wear. The sections started off with a nice sensible climb then continued in the same sensible vein all morning. The morning route took a longer loop around the Afan Argoed valley beloved of some of our cycling digressers, before climbing back over the tops with misty views opening up and rain easing off.
I was riding around with Roy Breakwell who was using the CRF instead of his serow and somehow found ourselves as course openers. This was possibly due to me electing to take a 5 for those tractor rut crossings (pictured right) and avoiding a slight queue while Roy flew through when they were deeper and had sharp edges for a good 2. The rest of our rabble were nearer the back, no doubt enjoying the benefits of our rock scrubbing and line making. (What do you mean "he's looking for excuses to justify his 31 mark loss?") At the half hour lunch stop, which was back at the start, we noticed that Jack Pegler had had a DNF and Roy was beating me by at least 9.
We set of for what, the insider knowledge said, was going to be a tougher afternoon on the northern slopes of the Nedd valley. It was clear that the likes of the CHG guys would all be clean from the morning and some marks had to be taken.
Still at the front of the entry, we enjoyed a fabulous ride through some mountain top bogs that weren't soft enough to let me fill Roy in but later managed to catch Dave Harris out. Roy was spotting sections that he'd ridden years ago in the St David's and ones that his son Rob had been winning on only a few years back, obviously not concentrating on the job in hand. Last year we had Cliff Hannam to wind Roy up into a better performance, but I'd failed to put any pressure on him in the morning. Now the pressure was on as he lost a 5 when I was still clean and I was getting used to having a proper trials tyre on after years of rock hard aged rubber. I managed a few miraculous cleans (for me) that really wound Roy up but Roy was forgetting his morning advantage and he seemed to forget he was riding a worse bike than mine which was playing up with a broken clutch adjuster that was dragging and I won't even mention the 14 year age advantage I have. Why should I give him excuses? He's probably going to blow me into the weeds on the special test anyway!
It was good to see that most of the observers were modern day trials riders themselves and putting some effort back into the sport. And what a happy bunch they were too, and "don't spend all that bribe money in the pub now!"
We finished and by about 4:30 and were sat with a pint on a pub verandah watching the now much damper riders slowly rolling in as the rain had started seriously again.
Full marks to the club for a fabulous event and shame the club don't get a bigger entry to justify their work. Mind you, I do like the lack of queues so lets not tell everyone okay!
(How was it for you guys at the back?)
We're still waiting for the results but are pretty sure there are 4 club members in the top 5 but of course as Wyegate riders half the entry are. Our local guys include: Bill Brown, Stan Howitt, Dave Harris, Jack Pegler, Ben Falconer, Colin Jones and Roynon Breakwell
Glyn Moses, Steve Venn, Rob Trebble and Mike Husband were all clean with Ben dropping a miserly one but a steaming special test ensured he was top of the single dabbers.