Reigning Spain!
By John Dickinson on 17th Sep 14
WITH their four-man team comprising the top four riders in the world namely Toni Bou, Adam Raga, Albert Cabestany and Jeroni Fajardo nothing short of a disaster was going to stop the Spanish squad romping to the 2014 Trial des Nations title when it was staged on Sunday in the hills above St Julia de Loria, Andorra.
Needless to say, that disaster never happened and the winning margin over the second-placed British squad was a stunning 82 marks.
With the best three of the four riders' scores to count in each section, the Spanish squad's total over two laps of 18 sections was a mere 11 marks, made up of laps of eight and three.
Team GB, comprising our world championship regulars in 2014 – James Dabill, Michael Brown, Alexz Wigg and Jack Sheppard – compiled lap scores of 51 and 42.
They were kept busy fending-off a determined French quartet, made up of world championship runners Loris Gubian and Alex Ferrer plus youngsters Steven Coquelin and Quentin Carles de Caudemberg.
The French dug-in really well and gave the Brits a real run for their runner-up berth, almost matching the lap-by-lap scores and only finishing the day 11 marks adrift.
As with the ladies WTC and TdN events, the men's TdN was staged under clear skies and in very dry, dusty conditions on the steep rocky slopes of the mountains behind St Julia.
Joining the leading three countries in the WTC group were Italy and Norway. The Italian teamsters were surprisingly off the pace this year as they normally battle with the French for a podium finish but 2014 was not their year.
The Norwegians battled manfully with sections that in all honesty were beyond their skills but they certainly have ambitions.
The men's contest is split into two groups – the World Championship, which comprised just five countries and the International Trophy group consisting of no fewer than 16 countries and keenly contested over simpler sections.
As in the women's event, there was a huge spread of abilities and experience with the winning German squad dropping just 33 marks as they successfully defended the title they won last year in France.
Led by young Franz Kadlec, who gave the much-vaunted Spanish teenager Jaime Busto a run for his money in the world Junior championship this year, the Germans were given a real scare by the Swedish squad.
Led by young Eddie Karlsson they actually led on the opening lap – 22 against Germany's 24 – and although the Swedes lowered their lap total to 18 second time round the Germans finished even stronger, dropping just nine marks on lap two to bag the win.
The United States team, including Patrick Smage who has some WTC experience in Europe, claimed third from another
far-travelled team, Australia. And the Aussies only just claimed fourth on a tie-break with Ireland as Michael Burton, Jonny Lunney, Sean Doyle and Stuart McClurg did the Irish proud.
Both teams dropped 71 marks with USA getting the verdict 102 cleans to 97.
Unlike the World Trials Championship, which is purely for the trials elite, the Trial des Nations has to cater for a huge range of rider abilities so hats off to Slovenia and Brazil who finished 15th and 16th on scores of 375 and 380 respectively.
It is a long way from Brazil to compete against regular international competitors and to finish last but that's the spirit of international competition.
Andorra staged a really successful TdN which represented the 30th birthday of the competition, first run in Poland back in 1984.
Three days of competition comprising the final round of the women's WTC, women's TdN and men's TdN was a fitting celebration.
