News Archive
British Enduro Championship Rounds 4 & 5
The weekend started at 6am Friday morning when the Team left for the 4 hour drive to the Dyfi forest in Wales for rounds 4 & 5 of the BEC. On arrival at the paddock the team vehicle managed to make it into the gateway before getting stuck, the farmer was quickly on hand and towed us into the parking area. The weather forecast was to rain heavily during the night and not to disappoint the tradition of always raining in Wales the heavens opened and we awoke Saturday morning to wet mud everywhere. A-team riders Tom Sagar & Ollie Moyce were not at all phased by the conditions knowing this extra rain would sort out the men from the boys & B-team rider, Tyson Maytom-Jones, was also looking forward to more difficult conditions as his very long legs would be ideal for the hard work ahead.
First team rider away was Ollie who was on the same minute as Husqvarna mounted Si Wakely but when Ollie arrived at the end of the first of three 50 km laps he was on his own as Wakely had retired complaining of blurred vision & feeling un-well following a reaction to anti-flu & anti-histamine medication. The special test was awesome combining grassy fields, off cambered corners, stream crossings and wooded sections resulting in a 10 minute circuit. Knowing the long lap was going to be tough Ollie concentrated on cleaning the checks and setting steady test times, this plan resulted in finishing 8th overall and 5th in class on day one and was only one of 6 riders to not loose any penalty points on the time checks. A minute behind Ollie was team mate Tom who set off with multi-World & British enduro champion David Knight. Tom was looking to put behind him a run of injuries and bad luck, to get back to his winning ways, he completed the going all day without loosing any time, Tom’s plan was to go all out in the special tests and try his best to regain his British Enduro Championship title. His valiant efforts proved to pay off as he set the second fastest times overall with only Knight beating him at the end of a gruelling day 1. With moral high, joint team owner Simon Molter & Kurt Pringle (Ollie’s mechanic) went back to nearby Newtown with Tom and washed the bikes off. Following a stop at the local chippy for nourishment other joint team owner Graham Ward set about preparing the bikes for Sunday’s event.
A dry day dawned Sunday morning and with a forecast of no rain everybody looked forward to another good event. Championship contender Tom was in a determined mood looking to continue his previous days good result and with the course drying out pushed hard eventually finishing 3rd overall and again 2nd in class. A little disappointed he fell in the second test which allowed E1 rider Daryl Bolter to claim 2nd overall, Tom was still pleased that his championship hopes were still alive, he remain`s positive with his results and is looking forward to the final round in September. Ollie found that his efforts from Saturday took there toll on him and felt a little “off the pace†but he persevered and finished 12th overall and 6th in class, but the team put this down to the fact that he lost his favourite pink fluorescent goggles the previous day and spent too much time looking for them whilst riding during day 2!
The teams next event is the GBXC on August 9th where Tom hopes to wrap up the championship with one round to go. Thank you to all team members and sponsors for there help. Photographs by Martin Harding
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