Champs are two a penny!
By John Dickinson on 9th Sep 11
With a swathe of off-road Champions having been crowned last weekend editor JD says they cant all have the limelight...
Champions are like buses - you wait ages for one and then three come along at once. Or in the case of off-road champions you've no chance of just one, they actually come along in busloads - and this year they have brilliantly managed to steal one another's glory on a scale previously never seen before.
How many champions do you want this week? Antonio Cairoli and Ken Roczen managed to fix things so they stitched-up the World MX1 and MX2 titles on the very same weekend in Gaildorf, Germany - thus stealing each other's thunder while doing KTM out of the double-dose of publicity they would have had if they had pulled-off their titles on separate weekends! I blame the team manager!
Meanwhile Toni Bou was busy making hard work of nailing his fifth consecutive SPEA FIM trials title as former champ Adam Raga took him right to the last day's action. In a normal year Toni would have tied the title up weeks ago while the MX crew were still battling it out.
And over the pond our Scottish/ Canadian/ American-based Brit Dean Wilson raced (eventually) to his first AMA outdoor title - which is great news for our MX des Nations chances if nothing else as Wilson is a phenomenal 250 rider. I know this from my position as England's number one armchair AMA fan.
So that's four major titles off the top of my head that were all concluded last Saturday/Sunday. I do know that there were many more titles settled over the weekend and heads duly crowned so if you are missing out on that front page pic for finishing as your Saturday night club Twin-shock champ (Over 40 class, White route) you know who to blame. All those above mentioned champs. I feel your pain, I never did get the recognition I deserved for that Wednesday Evening Twin-shock (Over 40) series win. Although the winner's cheque for £20 did elevate me (in my mind) to professional rider status and I wouldn't mind
betting that that £20 was £20 more than some genuine ‘professional' riders banked that year!
Yes I am joking, but most of the above points are actually true. We at TMX would love the many and various champs to be sorted on a weekly basis so that each gets his deserved moment of glory. When they are all settled in a bunch obviously they can't all be top of the pile, all feature on front, all be star for a day. Of course it is simply Sod's Law doing exactly what it does best. Cairoli and Roczen's double crowning even steals from Tommy Searle's excellent MX2 overall win in Gaildrof - although I'm sure Tommy will see the momentous win as a sign of things to come! With Roczen due to set-up shop in America as fast as he can catch a flight there's going to be a new World MX2 champ next year and that's a fact.
Meanwhile, back in the land of trials the hot topic continues to be the World and British series where both Championships limp along on minimal numbers. True, the final round of the World series managed to draw a dozen riders - but when the Championship points go down to 15th it does rather make a mockery of it. We keep coming back to the old joke about entering on a moped and as long as you can drag yourself through the Ins cards you could score British Championship points!
Contrast this with last weekend's Manx Classic Two Day Trial which boasted a record entry of 215 riders. Now, some of you will say, "Don't be ridiculous, you can't compare the two events.” That actually depends on what you are trying to prove.
The question I need answering is, "What does the World Trials Championship stand for?” Does it exist to sell bikes? Can't see how it does that for a second. No-one I know has ever watched a WTC and said, "I want to take up trials!” On the other hand I do know several people who have taken up trials after visiting a Wednesday evening series.
I still feel that many organisers still don't realise how easy the majority of riders want their trials to be. As a rule of thumb the easier the event the more entries you attract. Say what you like about the Classic Manx, 215 entries is not to be sneezed at. Worryingly, I'd say, the Classic now draws more Solo entries than the long-standing Manx Two Day for modern bikes.
Which from the point of view of anyone with an interest in modern trials really ought to be something of a concern. Should Pre-65s and Twin-shocks really be overshadowing modern trials in 2011? There's clearly something needs addressing here.
FInally, thanks to all of you who contacted me regarding last week's column in which I mentioned my night out at the Tractor Pull. Clearly many of you are much more knowledgeable on the subject than me and equally clearly some of you just think you are! I can tell the difference between a triple-turbo diesel and a methanol burning V8. Either way it's not important as I've since moved on to competitive ploughing...NOT!
