Representing my country is something I am very proud of, and on the 18th September I was fortunate to be a part of the 2011 Trial of Nations held in Italy. Tolmezzo is only 20 Kilometres from the Austrian Border and for those unfamiliar with the event, it is the Olympics of trials. 22 countries in the men’s category attended this year.
Motorcycling Australia’s criteria for 2011 included the requirement that any rider applying for a position on the team must be able to take a self funded minder, so on Monday the 12th my father and I flew out of Sydney to Milan, with a quick stop off in Dubai meeting up with the other riders and minders. Landing at Milan, we all piled into a people mover and headed straight up to Tolmezzo!
The team was based at Hotel Trieste for the next week and were greeted by our team manager Phil Whittle and his assistant Paul Sense, both returning from organising a training area for us to prepare ourselves and our bikes, for the battle of the nations in 6 days time.
Tuesday we rode our bikes a couple of kilometres up the road to our private training area where we were delighted to see a large open creek area and some nice terrain under the trees nearby. Both contained lots of moisture and very slippery rocks! This is where we trained for the next two days.
Global Racing Oils (one of my major sponsors) had been kind enough to sponsor the Australian TdN team this year, as they have previously done in 2009, allowing us to change all of our fluids after running our bikes in and have them running the best we could for the weekend ahead.
The next step was to head to the Paddock a few kilometres back down the mountains and familiarise ourselves with the area and set-up. When a big event like the TdN comes to town in Europe, it usually takes over the whole town, and that’s exactly what happened here. The main streets were blocked off and the paddock was right in the middle of town!
Training was allowed in the Official Training Area’s set out by the organisers and we began to gain confidence seeing we were riding at a level right up there with the best in our division.
Kristie rode the final round of the Women’s World Championships on Friday as it was being held in the same area as the TdN. Her event was followed by the Opening Ceremony for the TdN. This is always an exciting show with a parade of all the countries teams in their uniforms, and is usually themed on the culture of the local area. This year included a marching band and baton twirlers.
Saturday held the Women’s TdN and Kristie bravely headed off on her own, as unfortunately no other Aussie girls were able to make it to this year’s event. She came in with an impressive 8th place. Quite incredible considering she was given 140 points as a result of not having any other team members. Hopefully this problem can re rectified for future years, as our girls are really up there with many of the other countries.
Saturday holds technical control and section inspection for the men’s teams. The new FIM rules mean that the riders (and the minders most of the time!) are not allowed within the section on the day of competition and nor does the time restrictions allow much either so it is extremely important to make sure you walk them well.
Sunday morning (our big day) we warmed up and headed to the start and finish ramp for our 9:32 start, all hyped up and keen to get into it, but just on our way there it began to pour with rain! We headed off at 9:32 still confident in our abilities and we had a good start too, taking no penalties from the first couple of sections. We continued on with some great riding only taking small points for the first half of the monstrous 18-section lap. The second half of the lap was where we began to run into trouble with extremely slippery rocks and loose dirt hill-climbs coming our way, and we began to see our very tidy score take some serious hits.
We finished lap one a bit off the winning pace but we were certainly still close to where we wanted to be. By this time the sections were becoming wetter, more slippery and certainly more difficult but we were all determined to fight on and were actually beginning to come to ‘grips’ with the strange terrain. We saw ourselves riding better section-by-section and pushed on hard as we fought off teams trying to overtake us and put us behind time. We finished our day just as it started, in pouring rain but more importantly, under our 7-hour time limit.
Riding for Australia is a great opportunity I am very grateful for, and every time I am lucky enough to attend a Trial des Nations it reminds me of the great country we live in and the opportunities available to every Australian, and this was certainly no different. This year there was a great team spirit and atmosphere. I certainly felt part of something and felt as though the other riders were as passionate about the event as me. I am really optimistic about the future of the Australians effort at the TdN and for the first time this year I could see that the win in our category was more than achievable if our riders keep pushing hard to improve our level, and I could even see us moving up into the World category.
It was a real credit to the team for all putting their hands deep into their pockets to bring minders and it certainly had an effect on our result. I hope that with our improving results we can see more ongoing support from MA and the trials community and hopefully see the funding heading back in the right direction
A huge thanks must go to Motorcycling Australia, The Australian Sports Commission, the Trials Commissioners, Global Racing Oils, Gas Gas Motos Australia, The Hell Team, Phil Whittle, Paul Sense, my Dad Ross Middleton, Mike Wilcocks, Simon Price, Lachy Andrews and all who were involved in making the event possible for our country to attend. It really is a big effort and it is really appreciated.
Here is a link to a short video produced by german team Immerspitz Racing team. Although more focused on the german team, it still gives a good overview of the event. http://www.vimeo.com/30154158