Vesterinen rolls back the years
By TMX Archives on 1st Jun 07
THREE-times World Trials Champion (1976, '77, '78) Yrjo Vesterinen rolled back the years when he accepted an invitation to be Guest of Honour at the Robregordo International Two Day Classic Trial which took place near Madrid in Spain - and competed in a trial for the first time in some 20 years!
Vesty was provided with a really nice 340 Bultaco to ride prepped by Spain's master trial mechanic El Puma! The eventual podium in his class read like a 1970s World Round reading: 1 Mick Andrews (James), 2 Miguel Cirera (Montesa), 3 Yrjo Vesterinen (Bultaco).
Vesty and Mick were joined by Nigel Greenwood and Paul Beswick and Scot John Moffat for this excellent event. Robregordo, a small village in the mountains north of Madrid is the home of the Sotobike Motoclub and where you can travel back in time once a year to a World Championship of the 70s, and even ride in it!
The first day saw the full-house of 180 pilots, compete over a tough 30 km route with 20 long and varied sections with rocks, sand, mud and rivers with five and a half hours to complete the course. The mountains were very green and some parts of the route were full of mud due to recent strong rains. The following day saw an even harder 20K route, again of 20 sections.
There were four different categories with different routes including Master (Red) route, the most difficult and won by teenager Alfredo Gomez, leader of the 125cc 2007 World Youth Championshi, riding a 200 TLR Honda!
The Expert (Blue) route was won by Carles Casas, well-known to British trials fans, on a Montesa 330. Trialeros (Green) route, is the most popular, and Clasicos (Yellow) route the easy one.
The main results were as follows:
Master: 1 Alfredo Gomez (200 Honda), 2 Victor Beltrn (240 Fantic), 3 Francisco Rico (200 Honda).
Expert: 1 Carlos Casas (330 Montesa), 2 Armando Ugarte (Merln).
Trialeros: 1 Mick Andrews (250 James), 2 Miguel Cirera (348 Montesa), 3 Yrjo Vesterinen (340 Bultaco).