Pushing your ambitions out of the comfort zone
By TMX Archives on 21st Jun 07
THE fifth round of the Colin Appleyard British Solo Trials Champs, staged by the West of England club turned out to be a bit of a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde event. The Championship course proved to be a real stunner and you only need to study the results sheet to see that only five riders (from ten starters!) kept their scores under 100 - Sam Connor scraping in on 99!
The contrast was the Expert class where local aceand series leader Joe Baker won on a single figure (seven) includingone dab efforts on the second and third laps and the first four ridersto finish all lost under 20 marks.
While I certainly can't comment directly, as Iwasn't present at the West of England, I have had more than a few phonecalls this week from riders with, given the above facts, some fairlyobvious comments. Basically, the Championship course was too hard andthe Expert course too easy!
On the face of the evidence it is difficult not to agree.
But is it? I don't think it is actually that clear-cut.
The Championship class is now down to an almostdangerously low number of competitors - just ten on Sunday. Given thatthese riders are looking for a super-challenging ride (several areafter-all trying to make their mark in World Championship competitionand another couple are hoping to do so) it seems fair enough to me thatas long as the sections don't court danger, the clerk of the course cango for it.
When you are trying to stretch the top riders, the line between a section being possible and impossible is a very fine one.
For full story see T+MX NEWS, Friday, June 22, 2007.