Wyegate Trial 2009 - A Veteran's View
Mike Rees's view
For those of you who haven't met Mike before, he is a veteran of both riding and organising more events than any of us and he still continues to organise a Charity event every year. Editor's response to Mikes comments are in []square brackets and are not the opinions of the club or Wyegate committee.
Thanks to everone involved for working so hard to give us all a great day out. Well organised as usual and plenty of happy marshals to give us encouragement along with our '5'. Even the weather stayed fine. The use of electronic mail is clearly the way to go even for us geriatrics. The results were a bit miniscule but when I find the lever on my computer to enlarge the print it will be fine. Maybe its the one marked 'viag??'. The wygate is still one of my favorite events and I hope to do many more. [Try 'ctrl' key and the plus sign to make bigger when using a browser. But for printed sheets you could try visiting ex-trailrider and wyegate marshal Penny Barton Opticians. ed]
A couple of minor points to help you make it even better.
1. Find a way of issueing numbers before they lock up our bikes after scrutineering. [They weren't locked up or out of bounds, it just looked tidy like an enduro and gave that impression.]
2. The route boxes were pretty good. The public notices were very helpful in confirming the right route. Now if you were to have a few more, and colour them red and blue --- [If we thought arrows etc. on public roads worked reliably we would have used them, but in our area public minded residents and kids/magpies collect them, so cannot be depended on. Plus we've said right from 1983 that this is a navigational trial too. But you did have your tongue in your cheek then didn't you!]
3. If you find it necessary to cut out a section on the day it would be great if you could put a notice up at the scrapped section to save us all looking for what ain't there. [No event is perfect and that was my mistake in not spotting last year's instruction was left in. Apologies. A quick check on the map ref would have confirmed you were in the correct place and there was nothing there. (Oops! did you spot the duff map ref? I think only Ian Wixon did.)]
4. We took 9 hours to ride the course without any real delays which was one, maybe two, hours too long, and this was in fine weather. It meant we and the marshals missed out on the socialising back at the finish which can often be the best part of the event. [This one is a decision taken by the CofC and I personally always try to persuade him to make it shorter. However, riders have not voted with their feet! And anyway everyone else had a long day too and came in about the same time so you weren't missing out. They were probably too tired to socialise like me. Also if the weather had changed, those sections would have been eased considerably.]
5. One or two lanes have now deteriorated into cravasses where it is impossible to ride with feet on the pegs. Footing on my knees is not fun! [Yes, my knees suffered too. but this is mother nature forming tougher sections and we should thank her for it or all of those lanes would be boring flat gravel. We don't really want to ask the council to improve them too much and in one instance, we actually improved the existing rut just to make passage possible but would need a JCB to do a better job!]
6. My only major concern is the trend to increasing severity of the section. These event started as a trail riding day out, with a few sections thrown in for fun. Novice riders with a hack bike could get around and at least get through most of the sections. But now the bikes are much more competitive, the riders are more expert which lead to the dreaded ability gap which all but killed off modern trials two decades ago. These types of trials should always be low scoring events aimed at average riders and not stiffened up in an attempt to sort out a winner. The results over the years will show that these trials are 'lost' by slack dabs on moderate sections rather than 'won' on super tough sections. The experts know it and that's the price they pay for being expert. This year's results bear it out. Julian lost the trial with a slack dab on a section cleaned by many. The inclusion of harder sections just adds bruises and breaks bikes. Those new sections had no place in a trial of this nature. Mother nature is making the old favorites hard enough anyway. Decades ago it was quite possible to drive a sidecar up Pant Glas Steps. Last Sunday most solos (me included) failed the first step.
So lets not fall into the trap of including a tough section to sort out a winner - that's what the special test is for.
Finally the really bad news. I survived and my well be back next year ! [So, you are coming back, yet you know what you are in for! good for you. Seriously Mike, we do take note of all the rider's comments and yours do help balance those that want a killer Wyegate, so never be afraid to say them. As to the new sections at Wixon Rocks, when we set them out we used 3 wallies and a good rider on a Pre65 to test them and all of us were able to get through for a 3 without damaging anything but we realised these would take marks. Matt took the decision to include them as the top 10% would feel they had achieved something if they did clean them and the rest of us would all get 3s and 5s. I'm sure at this point that Matt said he would ease the last groups of sections to compensate but that wasn't what it felt like to me, but then again I did finish in the last 10% of the entry!]
Thanks again for all the hard work which, despite my comments, is really appreciated.
The Welsh Beggar.