Sadler's Travers but Thorpe's crown!
By TMX Archives on 14th Oct 11
Newcastle and DMC held the 81st Travers Trophy Trial on Sunday, incorporating the final round of the 2011 ACU S3 National Trials Championship.Starting from St Johns Chapel in Weardale riders faced 40 sections as usual. But they hadnt reckoned on facing horrendous weather with heavy mist and steady rain turning some sections into raging torrents, and riders unable to pick their lines resulting in much higher scores than anticipated.
With a 13 point lead going into this last round, Dan Thorpe only needed a decentfinish to take the title for the second successive year, and he duly beat his closest challenger Ricky Wiggins, by over 30 marks to claim the Championship. However both were upstaged by Richard Sadler who not only took the 20 points but also overall victory by a clear five marks from Thorpe, who was closely followed by Chris Pearson and Sam Haslam, the latter two riding out of the S3 class.
The severity of the sections was evident from the very first one in Cowshill, where only four riders escaped without loss, and only Over 40 class winner Darren Wasley matched Sadler's clean on the waterfall. The next section is normally flagged between two large rocks but this time they were sent up the right hand boulder and most failed to make the summit, the exceptions being Thorpe, Haslam and Guy Kendrew. Sadler stalled on the last in this group as most of the top runners cleaned the steps out of the pool in the old quarry.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX NEWS OCTOBER 14
ACU National S3 Clubman Trials Championship
Rd 9 (Final) – Travers Tophy Trial, Weardale (Newcastle & DMC)
S3 Championship Course: Richard Sadler (Sherco) 33, Dan Thorpe (Gas Gas) 38, Guy Kendrew (Ossa) 47, John Crinson (Beta) 48, Ricky Wiggins (Gas Gas) 70, Lewis Peart (Ossa) 73, John Charlton (Sherco) 89, John Battensby (Sherco) 93, Darren Wasley (Gas Gas) 93, Carl Hollis (Gas Gas) 96, Liam Walker (Gas Gas) 96, Will Reynolds (Gas Gas) 99, Tim Pearson (Sherco) 101, Stephen Larkin (Beta) 109, Michael Lee (Gas Gas) 117.
Non Championship Expert Class: Chris Pearson (Sherco) 38, Sam Haslam (Gas Gas) 42.
Clubman Course: Glen Quinn (Sherco) 63, Carl Shaw (Sherco) 65, Peter Grange (Gas Gas) 65, Gary Younghusband (Beta) 67, Phil Scott (Scorpa) 86, Tony Hodgson (Gas Gas) 91
