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From Kevin Pinfold
On the eve of my second trip to Aussie in two weeks I thought I better let you all know how the International Super Trial in Bendigo went. Bloody well actually.
I could leave it at that but you probably want a few more details.
As most of you will know Warren Laugesen was invited to ride the event along with the top 9 Aussie riders and 10 top European riders. Warren thought it would be good to organise a supporters trip and did so.
So at 2:00 am on thursday 3rd Nov I dragged myself out of bed and drove into Palmy Nth to Murray Cottles house. We jumped into his van and headed towards Wellington airport picking Warren and his kit bag up from Levin on the way. Arrived at the airport bleary eyed about 4:15 am and found more bleary eyed trials riders. Josh Casserly, Pat and Jake Whitaker, Peter Dunn (not the politician one) Brent Cottle and Alister King.
Meanwhile at Auckland airport more (I assume) bleary eyed trials riders and a couple of partners were gathering. Matthew Kershaw, Clive Harmon, Nigel and Pauline Shilton, Baz Cane and partner Karen (hope I didn't miss anyone).
Move on to 8:30 am Aus time and we all rendvouze at the baggage carosel at Melbourne airport. Through customs etc and meet up with another supporter, Mark Sidbotham. Sidey had been in Melb' a week doing tango dancing etc. Warren sorts out the two pre-booked Hiace rental mini buses and off we head in the direction of Melbourne city centre to find the last two team members, Graeme and Jason Hibbs who had flown in earlier in the week. Find them ok and it's all off for a wander thru the Victoria Market for a couple of hours.
Then off to Bendigo about 1 1/2 hours Nth/West of Melbourne where we find our home for the next four nights. Self contained cabins at the local motor camp. Good little units with up to four per unit. We all went off to the nearby supermarket where we purchased breakfast and other supplies to see us thru the four days.
We briefly caught up with the Scorpa team at their digs where 11 times Finnish Champ, Joachim Hindren, was busy fitting a special ported and polished barrel head and piston to his borrowed Scorpa.
Off to the pub across the street for tea and an early night. Some of us were feeling very sleep deprived by now.
Warren was keen to get to the venue for the trial by about 10:00 am where he needed to sort his borrowed Scorpa and get some practice. So van 1 with half the crew headed out to the venue about 20 min's from town while the others went into town for shopping and tourist things.
When we arrived at the venue Warren headed off to sort his bike while some of us walked around the 10 sections, two man made and the rest amongst the large dry rocks. And some of them believe me were bloody huge. Three lines were set in each section just like our trials, red, yellow and blue arrows. Only this time Warren (and the nine okers) would be riding the easy (yea right) blue lines. Like the blue lines were generaly more difficult than NZ Expert A. And the sections were long with many obstacles and tight and technical in places as well. (Your sections on the last day of the NZ Champs were good long hard ones Barnsey but were piss fart things alongside these). Except these Aussie rocks are mega grippy. Closest things in NZ are the Alex rocks.
Meanwhile a number of riders were practicing (including a number of Aussies not actually riding the event) so we turned our attention to them. There was former world no'3 Joan Pons from Spain on a 290 Sherco and he might be 30+ now but is still good to watch - very smooth. The young German champ Christian Kregeloh also on a Sherco 290 wasn't that good, no better than Warren. Then the Poms arrived and started performing and they looked pretty hot. European Champ Sean Morris (GG 280), World Junior Champ James Dabill (Beta) Michael Brown (Beta) Ben Hemingway (Montesa 4 struggler) and Dan Clark (Scorpa). Morris and Dabill were the best of the Poms and believe me they are good. Jordi Pascuet riding a 300 Gasser is the current world no'10 and he put in a brief appearance too as did 3 times Italian Champ Fabio Lenzi on another Mont 4T.
Some of the Aussie riders looked quite sharp and then Warren was into some practice. Not looking so sharp either for the first 1/2 hour or so. However being the professional that he is he soon came to grips with the unfamiliar grippy rocks, a different bike and overcame the nerveness of riding with equal or better riders. Something he hasn't had to do for a couple of years now. In rocks of that size and grippy nature the riding style seems to be everything is done on the back wheel, just hopping from rock to rock with the front wheel always in the air.
So we were treated to some good riding displays for a couple of hours from all these show offs and I was quite glad I didn't have a bike there. I was starting to feel 30 years out of date.
Young Jake got to have a bit of a play on a Scorpa as he was invited to ride in the pre trial demo by a bunch of juniors and classics etc.
And yes it was a warm day in the low to mid 20's.Sun block required.
The other van turned up for a while before they shot off to play tourist looking thru an old goldmine. Apparently they are still mining the hell out of the ground kilometers under Bendigo. Guess you could say they are sitting on a gold mine.
Fridy night saw some having tea down the street at another pub while some went into town for a meal after which some stayed to check out a few bars and others went back to the digs for a night cap.
Saturday was a hot one in the mid to high 20's with the trial underway at 11:30 after all the riders were officially welcomed and introduced. Spectators were rolling in and the riders were sent off to sections in groups of four. Two Aussies (Warren in this lot) and two Euros' in each group of 4. They had to ride the sections when instructed and in a certain order which changed at each section and only had 90 seconds to complete each section. All designed like this to keep things ticking along and look good for the spectators. A few riders struggled for a while to get the sections completed in 90 seconds. And the riding was spectacular too. Nothing was too hard for the top Euro's. Pascuet, Morris, and Dabill were performing well and blasting the rocks. Warren was going ok on his first lap although he had a couple of fives and a few wobbly dabs and after lap one was 4th best of the "down unders". Two laps were ridden with a lunch break in the middle where we were treated to some demo riding by the pushbike trials guys. They were pretty bloody good too.
A second lap was completed after lunch and Warren improved his score but so did most of the others. In fact he dropped to 5th of the Aus group. Trevor Campbell was best Aus about 10 points clear of the next.
The whole venue was set up well with food available on site. All the trials importers had tents set up with new 06 bikes on display, plenty of porta-loos. The guy on the michrophone could have been better I thought. He didn't seem to know too much about trials, the bikes etc. Where was Ravo???
Murray and Brent spent as much time trying to get photos of chicks as they did bikes. Especialy Catherine the pro' photogragher with the big lens. She seemed to feature in the back ground and even forground of many trials shots when we played them back on the tv at night. She parked close to us on the Sunday and Clive chatted her up (Murray was too scared to) and payed her $50. I think the $50 was for a CD of photos. Well thats what Clive told us anyway. Not sure what the photos will be of though???
Some of the boys (and a few men who should know better) were out on the piss until 3:00am Sunday morning while those of us who know better had a few quiet ones at "home".
Sundays trial was another two laps of the same sections although a few were slightly modified. More spectators were there and it was all good. The riders seemed more relaxed and some brilliant riding performances were seen. Top Aus from Sat' Trevor Campbell must have been a bit nervous though as he took a dive off the top of one of the largest rocks, something like 2.5 metres and got carted off to hospital with a broken wrist. That stuffed the Beta team who had a good lead after day one. Despite suffering some hand and wrist cramps towards the end of the day Warren put in a good performance and was well pleased with his 3rd over two days out of the Aussie lot. Although the Aussies have some good riders with far more depth than we have I'm sure Warren is still as good as their best. I'd say that on our NZ venues apart from maybe the Alex rocks Warren would beat them every time. The youngest Aus riding, Kyle Middleton, is only 15, although looks more like 18+. We certainly don't have anyone of that age as good. Jakes' practicing hard so he could be there soon. We watched a couple of young 12 year olds practicing and being schooled on the Friday. They were splat attacking a 5 foot rock (with 3 catchers) and making it about 60% of the time. And they were on a 200 Sherco and a 125 Gasser.
Anyway back to the trial. Morris, Dibble, Pascuet and co were cleaning everything pretty effortlesly. And these sections were only about Euro Champ level. What are the World Round sections like and how good are Raga, Fuji & Dougie??? Certainly a ripper event and I'm sure some of you will be anoyed you didn't get there. If they run another and they seem keen too (if they made money from this one) get over there for a look.
If you go to www.trials.com.au you will find more reports and good photos. Check it out.
We had another good sleep and 6:00 am Monday bus no'1 with the Auckland lot and the Hibbs' headed to Melb airport to catch their flight home. Us Wellington flight lot headed out about 10:30. Had a nosey round Melb for a couple hours then to the airport and flew out at 6:15. Wellington at midnight and home in my bed about 3:15am Tues morning.
A full on 5 days and worth every $. Thanks Warren for organising the trip. There shouldn't be a lack of starters on the next one.
Kevin Pinfold.
Picture above of kiwi Warren Laugesen riding just one of the many challenging sections from over the weekend.
