The Island’s top motorcycle trials riders, Chris Stay and George Gosden, competed in the famous Scott trial in North Yorkshire last weekend – 1 of the toughest motorcycle competitions in the world.
With over 80 miles of off-road riding – consisting mainly of moorland and rocky streams – the riders also have to negotiate over 70 special test sections along the way where they can lose valuable points.
With over 200 riders lining up at the start, it’s quite normal that less than half will ever reach the finish line, such is the difficulty of this event. Only a handful of riders from the Island have ever taken part in this trial – and even fewer have made it to the end – so the goal is just to finish within 2 hours of the fastest man home.
Both Island lads were going well until about halfway around when Chris Stay hit a rock and smashed his footrest off. By the time he had found his support van and fitted a new one, he had lost about 15 minutes but was on his way again.
Worse was to happen to George Gosden who – despite falling back slightly – was still going well until his chain came off about 5 miles from the finish line. It took some 20 minutes to repair the bike, but he managed to finish some 7 hours after he started.
At the awards later that evening, George was delighted to find that he had indeed finished well inside the time, and Chris was even happier to find he had won a highly prized silver Scott spoon for finishing in 21st place, which is the best ever ride in this event by an Island rider.
Really well done lads.
Brilliant effort.
You must be buzzzin !