Scotland part 7
Early Wednesday morning about Tuesday.
Perhaps I should have proof read part 6, there were some glaring spelling errors caused mostly by the hated spell checker on my I-pad, so apologies the typing was not up to scratch.
Its Swedish rider Per Berggren with 36 rides including this week to answer my quiz question for yesterday.
The trial started at Witches Burn for the riders on the morning of day 2 but the interest for me was the brand new group of sections at Altnalea followed by just 2 sections at Inversanda which are always hard. There have been some grizzles from various folks saying the daily reduction in sections, which has always been 30 per day since God was a lad, to between 26 or 28 through the week with just 22 on Saturday, the comment being that the trial is being degraded from its past history which together with its reduced mileage since Covid is said to be detrimental to the event’s status.
Does this actually matter and why has it been done. I haven’t had the opportunity to speak with David Dignan the clerk of the course, so I will leave any comment until I manage to catch up with him as the week progresses.
I spent much of the day at the new section having driven from Witches Burn along the winding road the other side of the Loch from Fort Bill, and it was a tough hazard with the second section the worst. Just off the main road from Corran to Strontian, forestry work had opened up the hillside to provide excellent parking with easy access to spectate and a good place to take pictures.
Early arrivals had an absolute mare of a section, but inevitably some good lads pioneered a line and once somebody managed a clean, others did so too but it was never a given as Billy Green found out as his trial went from bad to worse.
The live results on ssdt.org enable the fans to keep an eye on the leaderboard and through the day the top three spots swapped between the Peace brothers and Jack Price with Dougie threatening all the time.
Any newcomer to the trial can be overawed and can make a mistake. Jackson Edwards did just that by missing a whole group alongside Loch Sheil. He had been riding with Jimmy Johnson and it was their early day, and when he learned that he had missed the group, he had to rush back and ride them which made him late for the rest of the trial. It’s a steep learning curve for any newcomer.
Two days in, the Northern Centre riders were all faring well, if looking tired, Drew Morten blatted himself on Monday, hurting his knee and cutting his eye lid in a tumble but he and Steve Stamper are looking out for each other as are the two Dixon and Gaskell pairings.
Dan Peace has sneaked into the lead on 3 from the two Jacks, Price and Peace just a mark adrift, but only 3 riders remain in single figures, Doug and Gary Mac on 7. There’ s still loads to play for as the week progresses. Tom Swin in his first SSDT is having a cracker of a ride so far in 39th.
Lead pic is Steve Stamper and Drew Morten waiting to tackle Inversanda.