League Against Cruel Sports...
By John Dickinson on 31st Jan 14
MY attention was drawn to a football blog last week, where the blogger was commenting on a Man City superstar striker skipping effortlessly past a hapless West Ham defender for the umpteenth time and came up with the gem: This is the sort of clash that the League Against Cruel Sports should rightly get involved with.
I was reminded of this while checking-out the results of last weekend's World X-Trial Champs from Marseille.
For the benefit of those that don't know, the FIM has come up with a new Qualifying system based on a head-to-head format.
And to ensure that the top seeds don't take one another out early in the contest they are always drawn against the unseeded riders, with the
winner to advance to the semi finals.
Doesn't really sound fair does it? And I think that French first-timer Steven Coquelin would agree after he was drawn against 14-times World Champ Toni Bou in the Qualifier.
The result was that over the seven sections Coquelin dropped 28 marks against the five of Bou. If ever a quick call needed to be made to the LACS to save Steven from what was nothing more than a ritual slaughter I think this was a case in point.
Okay, you can argue that in the case of a ‘normal' Qualifier, where all 10 riders take turnabout, the outcome would be exactly the same. But would it?
Coquelin would have been relatively anonymous just taking his turn at each section.
But up against Bou in a relentless head-to-head with no hiding place I would argue that the
head-to-head is a pretty cruel format.
Think how you would feel having to ride head-to-head against Bou for seven sections in front of a crowd of thousands. My head would have gone before the first...
This week you may have noticed that all the headline events have taken place indoors.
Such is the way of the modern world. But it made me stop and wonder where all the headline National trials have gone.
Time was when trials was most prominent in winter with a National virtually every weekend and World Champs featuring snowy, icy, or wet and slippery venues were not uncommon.
Now of course all the Championships have been crammed into the summer and everyone hopes for dusty dry venues and sunny days – then wonder why the events border on the dangerous as clerks of the course seek out their biggest, most vertical steps.
If some of the events reverted to winter dates they may find it much easier to put on suitable sections as grip-seeking, rather than simply blasting at bigger and bigger steps, would become a necessary skill once again.
If you still think that it is, then why do our riders with World Championship aspirations head to bone-dry Spain for their winter practice..?
