worlez

For anybody who thinks Bou’s bike is what makes him so capable, I invite them to watch the video below.

On point one, I'd love to ask somebody like Dibs what he thinks. He's a very strong rider but is often up and down the results, but I don't get the impression he'd want to see sections eased so that he can be more competitive at the top. If anything that kind of thing just undermines the graft that they all put in to attain their level. The level isn't too hard, there's just a big difference between how good the riders are!

Absolutely agree! I really don't think there is the issue that a lot of people seem to think there is. The reality is Toni Bou has raised the standard of competition to an enormous level - I think this would have happened whatever rule changes were implemented. He's just an incredibly committed athlete. Note how the riders who were in Trial GP prior to Bou (Fuji, Raga, Fajardo) have continued to evolve their riding - they've adapted just fine to how the rules/sections have developed, and they're all more or less posting the same year end rankings underneath Bou. To the people who whinge that WTC isn't a reflection of domestic club trials - why is that a problem? If you want trials to continue to evolve and inspire young people, make it an aspirational sport with proportional reward, not limit it's ambition to being a Sunday morning hobby in the mud. The general standard of Sunday clubman is pretty crap and not something that a 15 year old me would be that inspired to emulate.

I'm worried this might be the case also, it would be a real shame to lose him.

I hope so, I thought he looked the strongest he has for ages when on the GG in 2017.

I can see this being a good way to work it too. However I think the main difficulty with any of these is identifying the difference between a stop and a pause. Personally I think it's reasonable to include provision for momentary pauses for composure, allow for body movement across the bike (even thought technically the bike may be stationary). In fact, I can think of lots of situations where the rider is lunging their weight backwards of forwards across the bike to assert direction, yet the bike may be stood still for a moment. Usually the no-stop police come crashing in that the bike is technically stationary, despite the rider positively engaging to move the bike. I think this is perfectly legitimate given the techniques of manipulating the bikes, but is still very different from an actual stop (the kind of thing where the rider has their heads up, is changing gears etc).

No, the sport has evolved naturally - the ‘average riders’ you refer to haven’t evolved.

If I was Bou I’d be p****d off that they doctored the sport to limit my potential and would be looking for another sport to challenge myself in.

I really find this talk of limiting bikes frustrating and ill thought out. If you limit innovation, you are handicapping riders whose ambition drives them to develop the skills that they are capable of. Why would you possibly want to do this?! Trials is a competitive sport. The argument that WTC level is too far beyond club level illustrates the difference between a professional career athlete and somebody who rides as a hobby. There is nothing wrong with the latter, but to limit the ambition of riders who are capable/willing/committed enough to push what's possible on a bike is ludicrous. There is a reason 'the average' (what does that even mean anyway!?) rider can't attempt WTC sections, the same way that Toni Bou wouldn't attempt to achieve what the Sunday league riders achieve in their respective careers'. At some point everybody is a clubman - it's the ambition of each rider that determines the way they progress. If you begrudge not being able to have a go at WTC sections, put the effort in until your ride well enough to attempt them. So let's please drop this ludicrous desire to hinder the progression of trials.

This is such a ridiculous concept. I’d rather have a good tire and choose whether to attempt something or not than have a worse tire and face the same decision.

Correct, but nor were any of the riders in today’s WTC field and certainly not the future generations who will influence how the sport evolves. So it might as well be dropped as a line of suggestion as it will never, and should never happen, lest the sport become archaic and lose any hope of attracting young riders to pursue a career in competitive trials.

Sorry but some of the comments on this are absolute pish. What on earth would limiting or regressing bike ability accomplish?? Do you think old heavy twin shocks inspire the next generation of trials riders? I don’t think so, they certainly didn’t inspire me at that age. And the point about modern bikes exacerbating the difference in riders’ level is not the bikes fault, it’s the riders. I agree there are obvious issues with WTC and X-Trial at the moment, but I think these are primarily commercial issues borne from the sport being undervalued as a progressive extreme sport. Trials needs to take direction from the likes of Red Bull and create a vision of the sport as challenging, accessible and ultimately alluring. Riding fifty year old technology does nothing towards this.

What’s wrong with that? Certainly more pleasant for spectators!

Yep, and very promising start from Toby! In the vids I've seen of him he looked very comfortable in that environment.