The third round of the Tyke Trial club championship took place on Sunday 15th March at Lee Mill Quarry, near Bacup in Lancashire. This purpose-built venue features a mixture of man-made and natural sections, with obstacles such as cable reels, logs, concrete sleepers and lots and lots of rocks dotted about the quarry. Despite the sunny weather leading up to the trial, as soon as people started arriving at the venue the rain began to fall, turning the ground to mud and adding to the difficulty of the already challenging sections. The turnout was still high however, and very few riders were put off by the miserable weather. There was a wide range of scores, with most riders suffering in the conditions and racking up the points and a select few seeming unfazed by the slippery, wet sections and managing to keep their scores relatively low.

Elite

Despite the weather and the treacherous conditions, Tribal Rider Jack Carthy (Tarty Bikes/Koxx) still managed to get round the two laps of eight sections with only ten points on his card to take yet another spectacular win! British Vice-Champion Dave Kerr had a difficult first lap, picking up several fives in the muddy conditions. He learned from these mistakes however and had a much better second lap of just 12 points to finish on 33 and take second place. Rob Poyser attacked the sections with an all or nothing attitude, giving a good display and either fiving or cleaning the majority of sections as a result. He couldn’t match Jack or Dave though, and finished in third place. Tribal Rider Jamie Bew finished in fifth place on 77, his first Elite trial on his new 26” Monty XXV; not a bad result! Elite class also saw a couple of older riders make the return to trials competition – Matt Arkwright and Andrew ‘Cap’ Willan finished in fourth and seventh place respectively; will they be back next round?

Elite Podium

Expert

Expert class saw a surprise entry from Scottish motorbike trials champion Gary MacDonald. Gary recently competed in the legendary Scottish Six Days trial at Fort William, finishing in fifth place. Gary, who has only been riding biketrials for a few months, competed in Expert class in his first national competition. His performance belied his short time riding as he stormed round the sections, dropping just five dabs on his first lap and four on his second to finish on nine points and take the win. It seems that it doesn’t matter what sort of bike he’s on, Gary is obvioulsy a very talented trials rider! Chris Rider finished in second place on 33 points; his first and second laps almost mirror images of each other, apart from a five in the final section – tiredness and the conditions had obviously taken their toll! Paul Wood, in his first competition of the season, was just eight points behind him in third place. Tribal Rider Ben Swales unfortunately had to cancel his entry following a bad fall in training the week before, resulting in an injured rib cage.

Expert Podium

Cadet

Owen Gawthorpe put in another great ride at Lee Mill to take the win with 34 points; faring better in some sections than others with mostly fives or cleans on his card. Chris Bland finished in second place on 62 after a difficult day in which the conditions got the better of him for the most part. Neil Robinson, who has been plugging away at these competitions for a long time finally made it onto the podium, to the delight of the whole club, as he finished in third place on 78.

Cadet Podium

Intermediate

Tribal Rider Charlie Rolls put in an excellent performance, getting through every single section (his highest single score being a four on section 1) to take the win with just ten points on his card. He was followed by Craig Patrick on 22 and Adam Morewood (Tarty Bikes/MRS in third place on 23. Tribal Rider Sam Rolls finished in fifth place on 38 points.

Intermediate class saw the return of yet another older rider as Matthew Holdsworth came back from a year of injuries to finish in 6th place on 44. Welcome back Matthew!

Intermediate Podium

Novice

The Seymour family did well in Novice class, with Jordan Seymour finishing on just 13 point to take the win and his brother Reece finishing in third place on 18. They were joined on the podium by Aden Firth-Corner who took second place with 15 points on his card.

Novice Podium

Primary

Simon Duke, who had travelled down from Scotland especially for the competition, took the win in Primary class with just eight points on his card. He was joined by Lewis Bracewell in second place who scored 50 points in his first ever trial. Great work guys!

Primary Podium

Full Results:

Click below to see the full results for all classes:

The next Tyke Trial event is the annual two-dayer at High Wood Farm, near Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire. This is a great event and proves popular with club members every year. This year it will be slightly different as the event has been made open to non-members and while Saturday will follow a similar format to last year’s event, with several fun sections set out for riders, competitions, etc., the competition on Sunday will be a team trial, with teams of four riders (one from each class; Primary/Novice, Intermediate, Cadet/Expert, Elite) competing for the overall title. Entries are not yet open, but will soon be made available following a committee meeting on Thursday 19th May to finalise some details.

Keep checking the Biketrial Federation events page or contact Ben Swales at membership@biketrialuk.co.uk for more information as and when it is made available. We will, of course, let you know on here as well.

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