In the deep mid-winter
By TMX Archives on 3rd Mar 10
Frosty winds may moan...and as we stagger from cold spell to cold spell editor JD wonders at the merits of staging major championship races in winter's icy grip...
WELL, as the hardest winter we have seen in years dragged itself out of February and crept into March, the ACU had TWO major British Championship promotions last weekend, the opening rounds of the national adult motocross and enduro series with both events taking huge risks with the weather both, thankfuly, getting away with it.
I don't really know the reasons for such desperately early starts for either series apart from the obvious which is an ever more crammed calendar of events. Still, you wouldn't think that two of the most prestigious domestic series would have to risk postponement because they kicked-off in the dead of winter.
Traditionally, the motocross season didn't kick-off until Easter, which is usually late March/ early April and even then I can remember plenty of cold, wet, even snowy Easter events oop in my home, northern centre. It wasn't considered worth taking the risk of all the weeks and weeks of organisation coming to nothing with a high risk of a late cancellation.
Those of us in the north with long memories will always remember the Bootle Scrambles Club having to cancel their Easter British Championship MX round at Barfield after moving heaven and earth in order to make it happen as incessant rain struck . And the catastrophic monetary losses the club suffered finished them for good on the national motocross front.
Sure, Bootle were unlucky and bad weather can strike at any time but it is still a bone of contention that they were left to face their losses alone and a superb track and event was lost forever. Common sense tells you that the earlier in the season you run, especially pre-Easter, the more risk you run weather-wise. Is it a risk worth taking? Obviously when you get away with it, it is. But what if both last weekend's events had gone down, and they easily could have done, I know that the Muntjac enduro was on a knife's edge at one point, what would be the feeling then?
As motocross is traditionally' a summer sport so trials used to be the focus in winter. The Lakes Two Day Trial was originally run in January and through the late 1970s and 1980s the trial suffered some epic encounters with snow, ice, rain and wind. Yet through some truly heroic deeds by the organisers they always somehow managed to stage both days. Whether the riders wished to punish themselves on the bleak ice-bound fells or through snow storms was up to them. Personally, I wouldn't have missed them for the world and some of my most vivid (and painful) trials memories are reserved for those epic, early Lakes. There's actually a perverse kind of pleasure in dragging your bike across an impossible bone-hard ice-field, negotiating a flooded river or ploughing through deep snow before disappearing in a hidden ditch.
Eventually, even the Lakes hardy organisers called time' on the January date and moved to a safer option in October. The Lakes remains quite rightly as one of the best and most popular events in the trials calendar, but unless you rode it in those early years you can only guess at what the original trial asked of you - as a rider or official!
Would I do it again? Sod off!
Those adventures are reserved for when you are young and daft. And our young riders ought to be encouraged to do something similar. And it is brilliant to see them getting stuck into the new breed of extreme enduros. The sense of adventure is still very much in evidence, the lads just need the events to bring it out of them.
On the trials front, as with all other aspects of the sport, (have you checked-out all the old, bald heads in the MX paddocks lately?) one of the challenges facing modern organisers is the sheer number of older riders on the scene. Once upon a time competitors used to retire in their 30s, never to ride again. These days it is common to see riders in their 60s and 70s competing regularly.
It just goes to show how things change over time, or rather it just goes to show how things DON'T change over time! One of the most exciting things to happen on the trials front recently is the re-birth of the Spanish Ossa marque. While the younger riders love the idea of something new there is a massive amount of interest from riders of a certain age who grew-up with Ossa and Bultaco and Montesa and are keen to re-live the experience.
They are still young enough to ride competitively and in many cases are lucky enough to have the wonga to allow them to live the dream. It is interesting to pick-up on the excitement the Ossa has caused whereas the re-born Greeves hasn't grabbed the same attention. Is it because the name applies to a slightly older generation - the 1970s and 1980s boys and girls are still going as hard and strong as ever...and the Ossa captures the moment.