Trials Torque: That’s Brit of a result
By John Dickinson on 26th Apr 17
THE opening round of the 2017 FIM European Trials Championship took place last weekend, centred on the village of Zelhelm, near Arnhem, Holland, and the British contenders were flying high.
Women's and Youth classes competed on Saturday with the main Championship and supporting classes on Sunday.
The venue was a man-made trials park, similar to the North Berks club's Seymours Arena.
Stu Robinson, custodian of Seymours, dad of Alicia who rode the Ladies class and minder of Dan Peace – wearing just three of his hats – was most interested in this and said it was a cracking trial.
Toby Martyn led a British rout in the European Men's class, Emma Bristow topped the Women's contest and Oliver Smith won the Youth round with a host of other riders.
Vertigo factory star Martyn was locked in battle with Gas Gas riding brothers Dan and Jack Peace, the Brits being pushed by another Gas Gas runner Arnau Farre who actually led the event initially.
Jack Peace had edged ahead by the end of the opening lap's 15 sections, the eighth hazard proving crucial with only Jack and Toby managing to clean on the opening circuit.
So first time round Jack led from Toby, Farre and Dan with only two marks separating all four.
Scores were, as usual, much lower on the second lap and it was Dan Peace who made a strong pitch for the podium top spot dropping just three marks on his second lap. Martyn was going even better though and stayed clean until his unlucky thirteenth section where he dropped his only marks of the lap with a big five.
This left both young Brits tied on 19 marks but Toby got the jump and maximum points on the most cleans tie-break, 24 cleans to Dan's 22. Third place went to Farre leaving Jack to settle for fourth.
Beta-mounted Iwan Roberts finished a disappointing seventh overall, his lap scores of 34 and six telling the whole story.
The previous day also saw the Women involved in the opening round of their Championship and no-one was surprised that reigning British and World Champion, Emma Bristow on the factory Sherco scored a convincing win, dropping just a single mark.
Germany's Beta-mounted Theresa Bauml eventually finished runner-up followed by Norwegian girl Ingveig Hakonsen (Beta) completing the podium.
In a 20-strong field, Alicia Robinson and Victoria Payne finished close together in twelfth and 13th claiming good points and Gabby Whitham came in 16th.
Britain boasted a third winner when Gas Gas mounted Oliver Smith took a convincing win in the Youth class dropping 43 marks which proved 13 better than runner-up, Swede Linus Almthen with German Florian Ruedi in third.
Gus Oblein and Brett Harbud made their trips to Holland worthwhile by bagging points for seventh and 14th places respectively.
Oli then went on to score a fine ninth place in the Junior class on Sunday.
The Men's European series continues with round two in Bilstain, Belgium, this weekend, April 29/30 while the Women take a break until the end of May when they travel to Liepaja, Latvia.
