British Championship - Hook Woods

[KOXX-UK]

The final round of the British championships, run by EBTC at Hook Woods, was probably the hardest National competition ever held in the U.K.

Those responsible for plotting the sections took the brave decision to lay out a varied selection of sections that were both long and hard. In my opinion, backed up by the marks lost, U.K. National riders were treated to an event of World round proportions.

I would like to congratulate EBTC on having the confidence to set out a truly testing course. If there was ever any doubt as to who the best riders are in any particular category, Sunday’s event put proved it.

I would like to offer congratulations to my supported riders;

Robbie Peacock, Poussin.

James Sheridan, Senior.

Duncan Shaw, Elite.

James Hyland, Elite.

Wayne Mahomet, Master.

Ben Savage, Master.

All the above have ridden extremely well during the 2006 season, I consider myself very lucky to associated with all of them.

Special congratulations to;

Robbie Peacock, 1st in the Poussin category.

I am convinced that Robbie will continue to enjoy success as he progresses through the Trials ranks.

James Hyland, 1st in the Elite category.

Ben Savage, 1st in the Master category.

Ben has completed a dream double this year, both U.K and World Champion. As I’m sure those that followed him round at Sunday’s competition will admit, he put in a ride that was well worth watching. Ben’s final score over two laps was less than the first lap of his closest rival.

Well done to all that contested the Championship series, especially those that survived Sunday’s event!

Fred Savage.

[Waynio]

was a great day, weather was tremendous.

sections were good, really liked them, may not have got through many, felt ill as a dog all day, nearly threw up on section 2 on my 1st lap, so after the 1st lap went to get 5's on the sections i really couldnt be bothered doing and making myself feel worse than i was.

2minute sections were pretty much 2 minute sections it really did put everyone to the test. alot of people were having 5's due to them having to rush the majority of the section and have more time at the harder part's, i think getting through all the sections was deffinatly possible and showed in Ben Savage pair of laps. after i had finished i went round watching a few of the riders through the sections and it was good to see so much battleing with the 2minute time limit. well done to all.

was good to see Martin Hawyes there too, he made an appearance and had a bit of a ride at the end too. was good to see him having a good time and enjoying a bit of practising.

Waynio.............................

[IOLO]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!

im very happy with how it went !

well done 2 everyone who entered any of the brits this year !

was a good year. the sections at this event were particulaly good !

massive thanks to EBT !!

and everyone else for organising observing ect.. GOOD JOB !

iolo.

[Sameer]

was good to see Martin Hawyes there too, he made an appearance and had a bit of a ride at the end too. was good to see him having a good time and enjoying a bit of practising.

That's awesome, I didn't realise he was still with the scene.

Sounded like a good event

[grantham]

The sections were brilliant i thought, only problem was it was like a month or two to late, Them sections would have been excellent to prepare the riders for the worlds, I deffinatly wouldn't moan if all the British were set that hard next year, Some of the Elite/Masters stuff was looking crazy and even longer! Setting the sections this hard can only lead to us getting Better results at the worlds and catching up with them Spaniards!

I had a bad day on the riding front and i didn't see that many people ride on the day but of the people I did see ride the person who impressed me most was miss Morgan. Went round the sections at the same time as her, when she got to her mums section her and her dad were looking at the drop at the end of the section, bigger than anything she's done before, Gary wasn't too confident in her trying it I don't think but she got there with 7 seconds left and did it very impressed, lets hope she gives the Abants a run for there title next year.

[Ali C]

yes more like that please

They were very tough and like pat said it would have been cool if they were like that before the worlds, it was real good practice.

If anybody saw me they might have seen me in a bit of a stress, I had some stupid 5s and I find it hard to calm down again. But if all comps are like this then they will make me iron out my stupid mistakes hopfully. Harder comps really do make the better riders I think.

Its a shame they didnt include sections 5 on the 2nd lap, it was one of the few sections I actually got though.

Well dont to ben, aran, lois and others on being british champions!

Thanks to the organisers and mr scriven for the trophies

[Sam Oliver]

Quote Ali c

Harder comps really do make the better riders I think.

Most definitely

If all British rounds were like this then i think the standard of British riders would increase & would

be top practice for the worlds. Especially the long sections imo they were great, if you shagged something

up you would be lucky to get out of the section in 2mins. Good stamina builders.

I have heard people talk in the past about not wanting to frighten riders away from the British rounds but i think most of the riders who enter the Brits are pretty competent anyway.

Thankyou to all at EBTC & BIKETRIAL UK for a excellent trial.

[Waynio]

well done to you young man sam!!!! finished on 7!!! christ. you must have been riding extremly well.

i had one good section all day Section6 i cleaned and had a 1 on 2nd lap. but the trial overall was spot on. not enough preparation on my behalf, but i have had my good riding for the year at the worlds, i have been nakerd ever since i got back. but the standard will raise with competitions like these.

Putting the tactical dabs in was ok, but i would like to see it risk it for a biscuit style, still possible but with a hint of danger, makes a trial more exciting and makes it so that an under dog could upset the odd's if he/she is willing to put everything on the line, some tactical dabs are ok. but thats only my view on it. i still enjoyed myself

Waynio..........................

[joe b]

Quote Ali c

Harder comps really do make the better riders I think.

Most definitely

If all British rounds were like this then i think the standard of British riders would increase & would

be top practice for the worlds. Especially the long sections imo they were great, if you shagged something

up you would be lucky to get out of the section in 2mins. Good stamina builders.

I have heard people talk in the past about not wanting to frighten riders away from the British rounds but i think most of the riders who enter the Brits are pretty competent anyway.

Thankyou to all at EBTC & BIKETRIAL UK for a excellent trial.

More like good hyper-ventilation inducers! Hehe... Sounds like everyone enjoyed it, and now i wish i had have gone. Even though it sounds like i would of fived nearly all of the sections. But, like Fred mentioned, well done to EBTC for being brave enough to set really challenging sections.

Cheers,

Joe.

[Jonny Jones]

Embarrased to say that was the first comp ive ever been to and made me realise how much learning in terms of riding I need to do haha! So so so much balance is involved.. Street, well, thats childs-play (not literally but hopefully you know what I mean).

I got about two tapes of footage including some stacks, some really annoying 5's where riders didnt get much further than the start tape, and some of the likes of Savage, Waynio, Goddard, Danny Butler, Porter, Dave Marshall (he was riding really well!) and others. Looking forward to putting it all together.

I too want to thank all the organisers, a lot of work had clearly gone into everything and it turned out to be a challenging but really fun day!

Jonny.

[cleanbikes]

Brilliant trial - great sections - good fun!

Well done to all of the cleanbikes supported riders ...

Chris Walker - Elite class 1st place

Chris Boyes - Cadet class 1st place

Sam Oliver - Minime class 1st place

Tom Oliver - Benjamin class 1st place

Brilliant rides!

In fact well done to everyone, it was a very tough trial!

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

Dave Marshall (he was riding really well!)

...not too sure about that Jonny! You obviously didn't see me on the 5 sections in a row that I 5'd each lap!! Managed to get few a good few sections though and did a lot better than I'd expected to. As has been said, sections were all very good, if a little long for my unfit ass!! Arm pump big time! A big thanks to all the organisers and well done to all the riders who made a very good day, as always!

Dave

edit: Any idea what Chris Ratcliff was planning to do with the photo's he was taking?

Edited September 11, 2006 by monkeyseemonkeydo

[F-Stop Junkie]

Arm pump big time!

Any idea what Chris Ratcliff was planning to do with the photo's he was taking?

Ah, I was wondering why your arms were so big...

Photos - Calendar

Some have made it onto my photo site but I'm a couple of events behind. Hopefully I should have some free time coming up, and I hope to be all caught up by the end of the month...

[Scotty Evil1]

Like the others have said, thats what we need all British rounds to be like! There meant to be just one level below world standerd

Its a shame i didnt make the most of yesterday, i rode terrible, must of been the worst ride of my life haha. i just didnt have any motivation to actually try all day haha

bit disapointed with 3rd, as i have been riding well over the last few weeks, but im still really happy because i won the overall championship.

Well done to Chris boyes and Joe oakley for having a good ride yesterday, and all season

Also a big thank you to Simon Rogers, rob parsons and stuart matthews for setting out a really good trial, and actually having banners so people knew what was happening there!!!!

See you all next year

Scott

[James_Porter]

everyone seemed to have a real bad first lap and then a couple woke up for second.... i didnt, all day.

im same as scott, been pretty into it last few weeks, was thinking i had it in me to do better... but i was just gash... sigh. oh well.

sections were real good though. thanks to those who made it happen:)

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

Photos - Calendar

Some have made it onto my photo site but I'm a couple of events behind. Hopefully I should have some free time coming up, and I hope to be all caught up by the end of the month...

Sorry Chris, I didn't realise you were no longer Section 7 on here. Good to see you again at the weekend, maybe I'll make a couple more next year...

All the best,

Dave

[Savage]

Sundays sections were very hard, they were World round standard. Every section needed max effort to complete it, there were no “gifts”, it made for a very tiring day. I lost a few slack dabs on my second lap through being knackered, I’d not ridden my bike since Japan, I hoped that Sunday’s Trial would be a roll round – big mistake.

Those that rode Expert at the Worlds could use Sunday’s scores to calculate what they might lose riding as a Master.

Big thanks to the EBTC for setting out a very challenging Trial, I enjoyed it. The trophies were better than previous years, the observing was spot on.

Ben.

[oakley]

facking loved it boys! best british i have ever rode! was mint!

infact, it was nearly as good as ymsa!

[KOXX-UK]

Final British Championship positions and the results for every round may be found HERE

[Waynio]

haha cant believe that, i come 4th and ended up missing a round and did total crap at the last one. deary me. there is a big gap though, as with all 5 rounds counting it does make a big difference. am pretty chuffed at that.

lets see how next year goes. some underground Trial Noir 2 filming going down over the winter, see how many more bones we can break.

Waynio..........................

[Phatmike]

Damn, if it wasn't for that silly gear/frame rule I would've finished 7th!

What're the chances of them dropping those rules for next year?

[F-Stop Junkie]

Damn, if it wasn't for that silly gear/frame rule I would've finished 7th!

What're the chances of them dropping those rules for next year?

Slim to none. Stock bikes having gears is a pretty fundamental rule, and there's no good reason to drop it.

"But there's loads of riders who only run one gear and a tensioner"

There's 'loads' of riders who ride 24", but don't complain about not having a proper class to ride in at comps. (arn't they technically classed as mod bikes?)

The the gears rule was dropped, then people would start demanding bashplates on stock bikes, and it'd end up with both 26" and 20" bikes being damn near identical except for the wheelsize.

The other knock on effect would be to make trials bikes even less like standard mountain bikes, and alienating the rest of the cycling world even more. We're marginal enough as it is, we don't need to be more so!

[trialsguru]

well i heard a certain some say at koxx days earlier this year that it might be dropped at national level next year, personally i cant see a reason not to get rid of it. its almost as bad as "the shoe rule!"

its been scrapped in uci trials i believe and those comps seem to generate a lot of public interest, so a bike not having gears will alienate the public is rubbish

[grantham]

Fairly disapointed with my riding this year

As for the gears thing, just drop it, UCI have got rid of it already and in my opinion its safer, the amount of times ive ridden a section and the gears have changer halfway through, or a mechs been mashed up.

Also all the hassle of scrutineering (bad spelling) at worlds and brits. It just makes life so much easier. If all the riders wanted it gone surely it wouldn't be that hard for the riders to get the organisers to change it if everyone turned up with singlespeed they would have no option! (not saying do it just an idea)

[Barbara]

The annual trials-forum gear debate starts again!

Every year I post on here in response to "why don't they change it" posts. Every year I say "if you don't like it write to the committee asking for change".

NOT ONE LETTER HAS EVER BEEN RECEIVED FROM ANY RIDER ASKING FOR CHANGE.

If you're not prepared to do something about it by sitting down and writing a letter, then stop complaining.

The committee aren't mind-readers and very few even look at this forum.

Sorry for the moan!

Barbara