Brits are brilliant!
By G2F on 5th Oct 07
BRITAIN'S female trio of Maria Conway, Donna Fox and Becky Cook put the Union Jack firmly back at the top of Ladies World Trials as they captured the Women's Trial Des Nations trophy for the second year in a row. With Cook, Fox and Conway having finished third, fourth and fifth in the final round of the Women's World championship just 24 hours earlier at the same venue on the Isle of Man, the British team started as firm favourites but with increased pressure.
However, despite the added attention and focus,the Brit girls responded brilliantly and most importantly they workedas a solid team unit to control Saturday's event from start to finish.As predicted, Germany, led by their newly-crowned World champion IrisKramer, offered the most resistance, but with her two team mates notbeing able to operate on a similar level, a real threat to Britain'soverall supremacy never emerged.
It was a very similar story for the Spanish squad,whose attack was headed-up by multi Women's World champion Laia Sanz.Whilst Sanz did her absolute best to make amends for her defeat in theindividual championship, she again lacked comparable support from herother two squad members. Laia's trip to the road race capital of theWorld was not a good one, as Spain narrowly lost out to France for thefinal podium place to end two miserable days for the factory Montesarider.
As expected, the Isle of Man provided a greatsetting for the two days of female competition, with the small woodedglens and dramatic coast line around the towns of Douglas and Onchanhosting a great variety of sections for both of these World statusevents. The opening five hazards gave the British team few problems,but still allowed them to edge-out an early lead over Germany, with thehome girls showing no signs of nerves at all.
LADIES TRIAL des NATIONS
Douglas, ISLE OF MAN (Peveril MCC)
1 GREAT BRITAIN - Total 16 (Maria CONWAY (Beta), Becky COOK (Gas Gas), Donna FOX (Sherco)).
2 GERMANY - Total 29 (Iris Kramer (Scorpa), Rosita Leotta (Beta), Ina Wilde (Sherco)).
3 FRANCE - Total 40 (Claire Bertrand (Montesa), Maryline Journet (Gas Gas), Sandrine Juffet (Gas Gas)).
4 SPAIN - Total 44 (Maddalen Aizpurua (Gas Gas), Carla Calderer (Montesa), Laia Sanz (Montesa)).
5 NORWAY - Total 99 (Connie Ludvigsen (Sherco), Emilie Westbye (Gas Gas)).
6 UNITED STATES - Total 115 (Sarah Duke (Gas Gas), Louise Forsley (Sherco)).
7 CANADA - Total 125 (Christy Williams (Gas Gas), Kerry Williams (Gas Gas)).
8 ITALY - Total 150 (Martina Balducchi (Beta), Sara Rivera (Beta), Alessandra Sbrana (Montesa)).
9 PORTUGAL - Total 209 (Ligia Matos (Gas Gas), Fatima Silva (Sherco)).
10 HOLLAND - Total 225 (Valerie Rooke (Gas Gas)).
For full story and pictures, see T+MX NEWS, Friday, October 5, 2007.