Thursday Update
With three tough days behind them, the young guns of the British junior team are proving they are still fired up with all the enthusiasm of their youth. On T1 Alex Rockwell was less than a second off a top twenty time. Jonny Walker and Danny McCanney weren't far behind in 29th and 33rd. In fact all 7 remaining Trophy/Juniors finished in the top 80.
At T2 Jonny was 31st, Rocky was 32nd and Danny was 40th - a place behind Tom Sagar and a place in front of Paul Edmondson. Simon Wakely had a better test in 55th. The Welsh team had a good start with Lee Edmondson 10th, Jon Hinam 12th and Gethin Price 22nd. Army riders Gareth Davies has crashed. He is OK but it has aggravated his existing left knee injury and he has been forced to retire.
All 7 Trophy/Junior riders safely negotiated the 3rd test and the Clubman were on a charge. Ricky Mair set the 8th fastest time, Lee Ed was 9th, Norrie Fraser 11th and Neil Chatham 14th. French rider and honourary Brit Arnaud Didey is currently circulating in 125th.
Jonny Walker got faster. On the 4th test he was 16th and on the 6th test he was 14th. He finished the day leading the Brits in 34th. One place ahead of Rocky in 35th. Ashley Wood was 2nd fastest Brit on his 6th test in 28th. Tom Sagar was 31st, Danny McCanney 41st, Eddy 44th, Rocky 48th, Simon Wakely 75th. The Welsh team had another cracking day but Ricky Mair had a bad final test.
In the evening the competition continued in the Jury meeting where there was long discussion on the time lost due to the intervention of the Police on the last check.
Wednesday Update
An early finish today as today was only one lap, although still quite a long ride for the boys, some more than others, unfortunately young Jack Rowland has had a machine failure and is out of the event, however the remaining Juniors all rode well. Jack is gutted but he can hold his head high, he has had a difficult 3 days and has done exceptional well to get this far and has posted some really good times.
Jordon Rose also had troubles as well, he had bike troubles but managed to push about a mile before fixing it, he then finished tonight in the work area, although he made it back in tonight on time he did use his hour on the road, therefore he will not start tomorrow. He is obviously very disappointed, however he should be proud of the performance he put in, he has been professional, dedicated, determined, fast and has gained a great deal of respect from his team mates as a result, the round of applause he got when he returned to the team paddock this evening was very fitting for his achievements. The weather has been terrible, really thundery with very heavy rain shower, making most of the course very difficult; there is talk of one of the tests being scrubbed.
The Trophy team finished day 3 in 13th place and will be looking to improve on their position over the final three days, but the loss of a second rider will make this take much harder. The loss of Jack Rowland to the Junior squad will add pressure on the rest of the team as they look to maintain their current third place.
Tuesday Update
The day started as usual at 7 am leave from the hotel having had breakfast, all the riders left quite a bright morning in the Parc Ferme, all were feeling the first days aches and pains, after a 15km ride out to the first test, but soon loosened up on the first test of the day all went through ok, as the riders have to do this first test twice in the day every day it has naturally got cut up quite bad already, it will end like a cobbled street by the end of the week there is one section approx 2 km long that is just a boulder field . Then the heavens opened up on the way to the second Test and we were all now in heavy rain, this went on for quite a while and riding on the road was miserable soaked right through arriving at a service check, Dusty had transparent rain coats for all the lads then its was onto the next tests and checks all the boys had to cover another 330km today, and the prospect of doing this in torrential rain wasn’t very appealing, however the rain went away and the sun came out for most of the afternoon, I ended up staying at the Motocross test most of the afternoon and saw them all through on both of their visits some of the course was so badly cut up the organisers had changed a few of the deep mud sections so it was decided that a few of us would stay and do some “Line” pointing. Tom Sagar took a huge tumble here and hurt his leg, not seriously thank goodness. Everyone else went through all ok nice and steady but at a good pace but still a long way to go!! Danny McCanney arrived and set off only to break another footrest but finished the test ok, with the footrest repaired he charged on.
All the Trophy and Junior teams finished the day on time and no casualties, so well done lads keep it up. Back at the Parc Ferme at the end of the day all the lads had their usual 15 min work period on the bikes most had changed Front and Rear Tyres, and an Air filter in the time, some will require the 10 mins in the morning!! It’s great to observe from afar and watch them work like Computer driven machine’s with all the tyre levers flying around, and tyre’s being discarded and their helpers running after the rolling tyres across the paddock. Then to watch Jenny with her clip board is an education in itself with all their time allowances’ on keeping a watchful eye of anything up to 6 to 8 riders, when they should leave and go and check in for the day she is so good at doing this job, but she has had some good training this will be her 40th ISDE looking after various teams a sterling effort Jenny. A Quick note:- Full Live results can be seen on the official ISDE web site www.isde2011 and follow the link in the results section and not www.live-times.co.uk stated yesterday. Evening ended with a heavy downfall of rain, tomorrow is a new course not so long only 230 km!! Good luck all.
Monday Update
The day Started at 6-30am with a brisk breakfast, and then down to the parc Ferme for a 8am start our first Trophy rider “Grandad “ Paul Edmondson started at 8:09am followed on 20 mins later by Si Wakley, Tom Sagar and Ash Wood all within a minute of each other. Greg Evans a few minutes later, and following up in the rear Jordan Rose. Within 40 mins all our Trophy squad had started. All arriving at the first test around 20 mins from the start. Paul Edmondson was first in Si, Ash, and Tom arrived all together around 15 mins later.
They quickly disgorged their Bum Bags to us and got on with the job, all completed the test ok and left. Greg turned up, had a quick drink, and roared off from the start we waited for him to come round and nothing something had happened. Then we get a message that he had fallen so Phil (Gregs dad) and I shot off to find him, we found him approx 1km into the test with the medics surrounding him.
Nursing a broken collar bone, it appears that he had a small tumble on a right hand corner landing funny on his shoulder, So approx 20mins into the 2011 ISDE Great Britain had lost one of their Trophy Team top riders, a real blow to us all. However Chin up in true Brit Form all the rest of the squad charged on to complete the 330km course and 8 tests clean on time.
The Junior squad all got off to a good start with all completing the first lap ok, all the lads Alex Rockwell, Danny McCanney, Johnny Walker, Jack Rowland all putting in sterling performances even rivalling some of the trophy boys. Then disaster struck in the form of a slight mistake from Danny “SNORKEL” McCanney crossing a small wooded bridge ended up pirouetting on the bridge slid of and disappeared into water with not much more than his Handlebars showing, “Jacque Cousteau” came to the rescue from the depths and Danny finally dragged and pumped the Gasser out, and was on his way again, shaken but not stirred, then in the next test a broken footrest was the next on the list with this repaired he finished the day with a 26 min time penalty, well done to all for finishing the first day .
On the second lap all the tests got really cut up and more difficult to ride Time was tight on the going with most riders only have a couple of minutes at the checks and tests. The 1st test that was visited twice got so bad some of it was feet down and paddle for it. All have had a tough first day and have to repeat it all again tomorrow, (Course will remain the same) Full results of for today are on www.live-times.co.uk.
“Team Grub”
Were all fired up getting the afternoon Pasta banquette ready for the boys when they all returned, they all come back starving, no time to eat during the day led to ravenous riders gorging themselves on plates of pasta and meat, portion after portion was consumed well done to all.
St George Club Team Deb Harvey reported
Tyson-maton-Jones James Jackman ,and James Giddings, all finished on time with no major dramas, apart from James Giddings doing the same Pirouette on the same bridge as Danny McCanney, but came out unscathed and didn’t have to hold his breath! Day ended with some nice bright sunshine, and we all left the Parc Ferme with Dave May doing what Dave does best sorting things out and it all belongs to other people, Well done Dave.