A great chance to meet and greet the stars of World Motorcycle Trials is being offered to the public of the Isle of Man and visiting enthusiasts to the Trial Of Nations.
All the top riders from the men’s and women’s World Championships will be present at a Trials des Nations welcome function at the Villa Marina in Douglas on Friday September 28th. No tickets are needed and admission is free.
Spain’s newly-crowned World Champion Tony Bou will be there, along with outgoing champion Adam Raga and past champions Dougie Lampkin and Takahisha Fujinami.
They will be acclaimed as part of the Spanish, British and Japanese Trials des Nations teams ready to do battle two days later. Joining them will be their team-mates and competitors from 16 other countries.
The Royal Hall opens at 7.30pm and the ceremony will begin with the presentation of the Women’s World Championship which will have been fought to a conclusion earlier that day. Favourite to retain the championship is Spain’s Laia Sanz, but her lead is only three points over Germany’s Iris Kramer, with Britain’s Rebekah Cook still well in contention.
On the local front, Saskia Baxter will have flown the Manx flag, having competed in the only other round of the championship in the Czech Republic in July, where she finished 24th.
Celebrations for the leading women are likely to be slightly restrained, however, as they will be turning out only a few short hours later for their own Trial des Nations competition won by Great Britain in France last year.
Cook, Donna Fox and Maria Conway were the winners then and stay together to try to retain the title. They face a tough task against the Spanish, who have Sanz, Maddalen Aizpurua and Carla Calderer. There are nine other countries competing. As it is an international event, the Isle of Man is not entitled to enter a separate team, though Island riders are, of course, eligible for selection as part of the British line-up.
Indeed, at the last Trial des Nations in the Isle of Man ten years ago, Manxman Steve Colley was the best individual of all the men’s teams and helped Britain to fend off the Spanish. He has since retired from world competition.