TMX SAYS: Brits abroad do Blighty proud
By TMX Archives on 13th Apr 16
Kicking this column off in a Pathe news style, Id like to say bally well done to our Tommies on tour who collectively kicked arse last weekend and brought back to Blighty a bulging pile of sparkling silverware by making multiple podium appearances across the spectrum of very different disciplines.
The deep, dark sands of Oss in Holland hosted the opening round of the world sidecarcross series but they couldn't grind down ‘cough' young ‘cough' Stuart Brown and his trusty sidekick Josh Chamberlain who ran 3-3 to get their 2016 title hunt off to an exceptional start.
Meanwhile, down in sunny Spain the opening round of the FIM Trial World Championship took place at Cal Rosal.
In the newly-named TrialGP class British champ James Dabill took a stunning third place on the second day of competition. While this is the second time that Dibsta has stood on the TWC podium, it's a first for new kids on the bike manufacturing block Vertigo.
Good work chaps!
In Trial2 – what does Trial2 even mean? Anyone? – Iwan Roberts topped the podium on day two while Jack Price finished a fine third.
Meanwhile, in Trial125 Jack Peace stuck it to the Johnny Foreigners by taking an awesome double win on his Gas Gas.
Over in Agadir our Morocco mole reports that the English entourage were in fine fettle.
In the E1 category Jamie McCanney and Nathan Watson ended day one in second and third while in E3 Steve Holcombe claimed second overall after setting the early pace. Jack Edmondson aced the Youth Class on his KTM.
Day two saw Watson take another third in E1 while Holcombe beat off all-comers in the E3 class to take a stunning victory – his first win at this level!
A detuned Jack Eddy hung tough to take second in the Youth division and sits
tied atop the series standings with
Jean-Baptiste Nicolot headed into the next round.
So that's sidecars, trials and enduro covered but what about our MXers on the world scene?
Well, our MXGP and MX2 elite followed the fight to Argentina where Shaun Simpson ran 8-9 for eighth overall as Tommy Searle faceplanted to a disappointing 10-DNF scorecard.
Max Anstie managed 2-DNF in MX2 but it was bad news for Nathan's brother Ben who took a digger in warm-up and will miss Mexico – and possibly the next round of the British championship – with a bust up foot. So no podiums there is the message we can take from that – naughty motocrossers...
Moving back to Morocco for a moment and despite how much emphasis the FIM and the series promoters have put on the new EnduroGP class, I can't help but think that the riders don't actually give a monkey's about it.
I'm sure they'll happily take the plaudits and additional title at the end of the year but the riders seem way more focussed on the people in their actual class rather than what's going on in the bigger picture. You can pretty much see it in the results n'all...
Had Alain Blanchard stuck to his guns then, yeah, we'd have found the quickest rider regardless of bike size on any given day. But with E1, E2 and E3 championships still the main concern for the riders in them, the winner of the EnduroGP division is always likely to be determined by how hard the second-placed guy is pushing in each class.
And that's a bit of a shame...
