ACU Trailbike Championship 2009
Words byBen Falconer
and the 'Moor 2 Sea'
It takes a lot to get out of bed at 4.30am but that's what my support crew did to make sure we made it down to Newton Abbot for the Moor to Sea Trial on Sunday, October 11.
Run by the West of England club, it was the last round of the ACU Trailbike Championship. After a 5.30am rendevous at Whitminster, we reached the start at Buckland Athletic FC for 7.45am and by 8.30am I was off. One of some 180 riders who were all on a warning to be on their best behaviour, and it appeared to be observed too.
With my CHG riding buddies Dave Eeles, Steve Venn and Chris Harvey, and honorary CHGer Keith Wells, I was in great company, and I relied on their advice many times to find the right lines through some corking rocky sections in the heart of Dartmoor.
Before we'd reached most of that we saw the Worgan brothers sticking a new tube in the back wheel, after Martin's Pampera suffered a snakebite.
Bill Brown and Ian Wixon popped up throughout the day - will be at the right end of the results, and Hippo owner Ian most defnitely will be. I couldn't ride his bike round that course for the marks he lost, for sure.
A lot of sections made you think, as you had to either go around rocks, or choose a straight line and hop over them.
After seeing #55 Rob Pollard deftly hop his 300 KTM like a cycle trials bike over some tricky rockery, I decided these rocks needed to be ridden - not worried about!
2 sections at Ruby Rocks and four at Hound Tor passed all clean for me, which was in no small part due to some "expert" advice. All in streams, you had to go with the bike and lift the front wheel a bit - no need to look for markers, you just followed the stream. Ace.
The only disappointment was having three on some unnaturally slippery rocks near the end and only getting to two on the progressive hill - a 320 Pampera's built for that kind of thing.
I finished on around half a dozen, I think, and though there's no results yet available, according to the championship table, I came third to Jez Bray and Julian Page. That was also the top 3 of the championship, with Julian again making a Beta Alp do things they don't normally do to be a worthy champion. Second placed Jez is one of the neatest riders I've seen. Keith came fourth but he missed a round, while super consistent Paul Sargent came fifth. The rules of the championship mean you must drop your worst round, which really went against Paul, who picked up good points at every round. He would have been 3rd if that wasn't the case.
Rob Faulkner rode only 3 rounds but won one and came second in another, for sixth, while renowned Wyegate competitors Rob Pike and Gavin Moore followed on.
It wasn't Gavin's year as he and Graham Lavis started with a calendar mishap at the Ivor Morkot (enough said!).
After a bit of a wobble in the Fred Rist and OK Supreme, I picked up a 6th at the Leamington Victory's tour through Warwickshire's and Northamptonshire's endless byways, (Roy's inspired riding at the penultimate round kept me on my toes! ), then really found the rocks to my liking on Sunday at the Moor to Sea.
My CHG section advisers were not too far behind, as the results show. And Chris Harvey had some good rides - particularly on sections where the rest of us lost marks!
Ian Wixon went round for 13. Excellent ride. Unlike the majority of the entry, Bill Brown rode the hard route and averaged only 2 per section.
To put it all in to perspective though, Rob Wrayford lost six - on a RM 125. And there were 3 more in the class for enduro bikes on the championship route whose marks only just went in to double figures. Good job the West of England club run a separate class for them!
Thanks to the club for a great event, meticulously organised - and with a tasty stew thrown in to the entry price at the end.