Bishop is Top Centurion at Corinium 2004
Report by Ben Falconer. Photos Colin Jones
Results and some pics on Swindon Club's Website.
DAN Bishop was in a class of his own at the Corinium Enduro, running away with victory by such a massive margin that no gold or silver awards were made.
In his first attempt at this unique multi-lapper, just outside Cirencester, it was quite clear he was riding on another level, even without consulting a stopwatch.
Despite starting on the third minute he was first man round by the third lap and turned up the wick on the KTM 200 against the other experts including Glen Foxwell and Dave Hammond.
Dan was probably the only rider who could have claimed to have really enjoyed his day throughout as all the others, some experts included, struggled to come to terms with the thin layer of slick mud on top of hard packed ground.
There's only two types of conditions for the Corinium Enduro - hard and fast or soft and horrid. Sunday's event fell in to the latter category, taking its toll on the majority of the club members who battled to stay within their hour.
The regal surroundings of the Cirencester Park Estate don't immediately conjure up thoughts of a typical Enduro course but the 18 miles plotted by Swindon and District MCC gave the 140-plus entry plenty of grief.
Heavy rain and even a hailstorm on top of hard ground didn't mix well with Enduro bikes shod with rear trials tyres.
We found a pretty snotty spot to spectate, at the start of the mini-bomb holes next to the A419. An innocuous enough climb really took it out of those who had fallen in to the vicious downward spiral of "drop bike - pick up bike - get tired - drop bike - repeat until knackered" and so on. Others took our advice and gunned it in a straight line up a route to the right, while others like our Dan simply rode it like he was on tarmac.
"How'd he do that then?" remarked one stuck rider whose bike I was picking up, as Dan glided by.
"He's from the Forest," I replied. Another part of the mystery was revealed when I showed him where the throttle was and explained that twisting it back really did help.
Although the other club members didn't finish, they didn't disgrace themselves, completing a respectable number of laps in the clubman class, which was cut from 5 laps to 4.
Anthony Moore (CCM 404) and Ian Vessey (KTM 200) latched on to each other, as did Gavin Bailey and Pete Neale (KTM 525) - Gav did manage to throw the KTM 200 away while trying to catch Pete on the second lap, luckily right in front of us.
Still, this gave him the impetus to catch Pete, who seemed to speed up until he called time on his day out at 3 laps, as did Anthony.
Dan's dad Julian completed 2 laps on the Husaberg 400 before sensibly packing it in.
While he and fellow retirees Mike Allen (KTM 525), Dave Smailes (KTM 450) and Matt Neale (CCM 404) licked their wounds in parc ferme, club chairman Ian Vessey went in and out of the pits and on to his fourth lap - sadly he re-fashioned the KTM 200's bars to chopper style in an argument with a tree and recorded an ill-deserved DNF.
The tough nature of this year's Corinium couldn't have been made more apparent with the retirement of every trailbike class rider - when it's muddy on the Bathhurst Estate, it's not a bad idea to trundle round on a machine low on power but easy to control.
But this year not even one trailbike rider could manage it!
Three riders who did make it round were Sam Wilson and namesakes Steve and Shaun Venn, who took the team award for the Cheltenham Home Guard.
Thanks to S&DMCC for putting on such an excellent event.