| This is the second year running that myself and Luke have rode
the isle of wight 2 day trial,except this year we mananged to drag
along the Gary roberts clan. The best thing that we have found is
to find yourself a reasonably priced hotel somewhere in the Shanklin
area which has a sercure lockup facilitys for the bikes. Some people
do leave there bikes overnight in the back of there vans which personly
i dont think is worth taking a chance on,i know that you are on
an island not much bigger than a nats nacker,,But i love my bike
to much to chance losing it!!!Monteagle Hotel was the one we all
stayed in for the past 2 years running,quite old victorian house
with a bar swimming pool and snooker room,food is delicious and
staff are helpfull and friendly.. Details for the hotel can be found
on www.monteaglehotel.com
or phone 01983-862854,if you
book get the hotel to sort out your ferry tickets as they get a
discount from Red Funnel ferrys which run out of Southampton docks...........
The Saturday trial starts at 10.30 and the Sunday trial starts
at 9.30 both on two different pieces of land.Knighton sand pit
is saturdays venue which consists of about 8 sections in the sandpit
and 7 sections in the woods.Mass start so everyone can get round
in the allocated two and a half hours they give you to finish
the first lap then they close the sections at one for an hour
for alterations and to give the marshals a break.Mostly flags
are used for route marking so that takes a little getting used
to so be warned take your time looking at the route it easy to
go the wrong way and get a five,best thing to do is ask the marshal
before riding the section where the route goes!!!.We found that
the sections were a little tricky to start off with,with some
awkward logs and banks to negoiate and the sand takes some getting
use to riding on But one lap down we was flying with the marks
coming right down and me finishing third overall on the first
day.Gary close behind me and lukey last...
Sundays event starts at 9.30 so we had to be out of the hotel
and loaded by 7.30 giving us plenty of time to cruise to the ground
via the coastal senic route which was very pretty.Cheverton Chalkpit
is very much like Peters pit which gravesend use to use many years
ago,for those of you who remember Peters pit will know that it
was a fantastic piece of land in a massive quarry with great banks
and chalky rock slabs.Cheverton is very simler with masive bulders
and chalky banks which we were running up and down,rocky sections
with massive slabs of chalk about six foot high.. 15 Fantastic
sections were laid out around the ground with the same mass start
as saturday so the sections could be shut at twelve for any modifications.Again
we all started off pretty badley with a few silly marks lost but
wasnt long before we were cutting down the competition to shreds...NOT!!
I did notice that the iow boys were winning on both days which
didnt surprise me as it is there local land and they are use to
riding the rocks and chalk,but we are narrowing the gap every
time we return.Hopefully next year we will return with a few southeast
boys to woop there sorry arses and show them a lesson or two in
the masters of trials
Very good 2 day trial well run on two fantastic pieces of
land..thanks to all at the Isle of Wight club who make this event
possible...many thanks
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