NEOTT Goes To France - Sep 2023
** WORK IN PROGRESS **
Summary:
In September 2023 Ron and Mike, the self-appointed international NEOTT club ambassadors, traveled to France to watch up close and in-person the world's best trials riders compete in the final rounds of the FIM TrialGP series and the Trial des Nations on back-to-back weekends. September is perfect timing since the vacation season is over so the travel rates and crowds are down and the weather conditions are still good. Two weeks in mostly small communities in the Southern Alps was a primo vacation.
As a special bonus and thanks to Ron's industry connections we were also able to tour both the EM (Electric Motion) and Sherco factories. Super BIG shout-out to 1996 World Champion Marc Colomer and Jean Pena at EM and Valerio Pastorino at Sherco for taking the time to show us around. It was all very educational and interesting taking a small peak behind the scenes of what it takes to deliver high quality products to the marketplace.
In September 2023 Ron and Mike, the self-appointed international NEOTT club ambassadors, traveled to France to watch up close and in-person the world's best trials riders compete in the final rounds of the FIM TrialGP series and the Trial des Nations on back-to-back weekends. September is perfect timing since the vacation season is over so the travel rates and crowds are down and the weather conditions are still good. Two weeks in mostly small communities in the Southern Alps was a primo vacation.
As a special bonus and thanks to Ron's industry connections we were also able to tour both the EM (Electric Motion) and Sherco factories. Super BIG shout-out to 1996 World Champion Marc Colomer and Jean Pena at EM and Valerio Pastorino at Sherco for taking the time to show us around. It was all very educational and interesting taking a small peak behind the scenes of what it takes to deliver high quality products to the marketplace.
EM Factory Tour
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Sherco Factory Tour
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In short, if you've ever thought about heading to Europe for a similar trip we'd say just start packing and make it happen you won't be sorry. While there are plenty of sites on the internet to read about the events, the scores and watch all the highlight videos but there is no substitute for being there in person and taking in the entire experience.
What follows is a Travelog of the stories we can share with the public for your general entertainment and our long-term memory storage.
Le voyage d'aventure de Mike et Ron en France (Mike and Ron's adventure trip to France)
The seed was planted on a cool winter’s day while we were setting up the Northeastern Oklahoma Trials Team (NEOTT) January event. “Hey Ron, did you know that in September on back-to-back weekends there is the Final of the World Rounds followed by the TdN in France?” Continuing the thought – “We are both retired and not getting any younger, this may be the last chance to see Toni Bou and Adam Raga ride in person as they start to age out of the sport AND if not now - when? The usually verbose Ron Lee was unusually short in his response – “I’m in!”
Of course, a lot of life can happen in between the January idea and the September execution but at 30 days from take-off life’s decks were cleared, the commitments were made and plane tickets purchased – the adventure was ON.
So just who are your intrepid travelers? Ron Lee, is well known the trials community as rider, minder, mechanic, coach and largely affiliated with Sherco since 1999. Then we have the largely reclusive and somewhat unknown Mike Cramsey who in his spare time does most of the behind the scenes wizardry on the NATC mototrials.com website and a few other trials related sites.
Being a ‘military brat’ Mike had lived in Europe on and off for 13 years as well as making several business trips across the pond during his career so he had some insight and experience to the challenges of traveling abroad. Ron on the other hand has followed the NATC trials circuit all around the United States for 30+ years but he had never been out of the US and was in for a treat.
Opposites in many ways but both sharing a passion for the sport of trials we were pretty confident that we could handle traveling together for 2 weeks since we’ve traveled together before to a couple of Ute Cups and we’ve known each other for 20 years.
Word of advice when traveling to Europe – pack a big bag of patience, you’ll need a lot of it each and every day to battle through the various challenges that seem to randomly pop up. It really took both of us to work through all the various issues that came up. Sometimes we were like Laurel and Hardy, sometimes Felix and Oscar and other times Batman and Robin. In the end all the challenges were conquered and the trip was highly successful despite all the stresses.
Of course, a lot of life can happen in between the January idea and the September execution but at 30 days from take-off life’s decks were cleared, the commitments were made and plane tickets purchased – the adventure was ON.
So just who are your intrepid travelers? Ron Lee, is well known the trials community as rider, minder, mechanic, coach and largely affiliated with Sherco since 1999. Then we have the largely reclusive and somewhat unknown Mike Cramsey who in his spare time does most of the behind the scenes wizardry on the NATC mototrials.com website and a few other trials related sites.
Being a ‘military brat’ Mike had lived in Europe on and off for 13 years as well as making several business trips across the pond during his career so he had some insight and experience to the challenges of traveling abroad. Ron on the other hand has followed the NATC trials circuit all around the United States for 30+ years but he had never been out of the US and was in for a treat.
Opposites in many ways but both sharing a passion for the sport of trials we were pretty confident that we could handle traveling together for 2 weeks since we’ve traveled together before to a couple of Ute Cups and we’ve known each other for 20 years.
Word of advice when traveling to Europe – pack a big bag of patience, you’ll need a lot of it each and every day to battle through the various challenges that seem to randomly pop up. It really took both of us to work through all the various issues that came up. Sometimes we were like Laurel and Hardy, sometimes Felix and Oscar and other times Batman and Robin. In the end all the challenges were conquered and the trip was highly successful despite all the stresses.
The plan was to arrive at the Lyon Airport on Thursday and make the short drive to Sauvain, a very small (300 people) farming community, which was where our AirBnb house was. Spend Fri, Sat and Sun at the World Rounds in Vertolaye. Following that we’d have Mon, Tues, Weds as free days to do whatever. Then Thur, Fri, Sat and Sun hang in the ski village of Auron for the Trial des Nations (TDN). We allowed time in the schedule to visit the Sherco and EM factories even though early on we weren’t sure if those activities were going to happen. If those desires fell through, we’d have 3-days to explore France as there is no shortage of things to do and see along the way. On Weds we’d head back to Lyon airport and fly back to Tulsa on Thursday morning wrapping up 2 weeks in Southern France. Roughly 1,000 miles of driving and most of the time was spent on slow winding Alpine roads.
Wednesday afternoon - Fly: Tulsa -> Atlanta -> Paris -> Lyon
We arrive in Paris on Thursday morning. I had been warned about the complex maze that is Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport and to allow plenty of time to find our way to our connecting flight to Lyon. As luck would have it on the Atlanta -> Paris flight Ron was sitting in the same row as Frenchman Martial Trigeaud, the co-owner of Time Bicycles, who was returning home from a few weeks in Arkansas. By chance Ron subscribes to their newsletter and has some Time goodies so they had several hours to talk about bicycles and what not. This was the first of many of Ron’s contacts that opened doors and created opportunities for us during this trip. When we got off the plane, we hustled up next to Martial who was rapidly making his way down the hall because he knew the way. Taking pity on us he offered to personally guide us through the maze. Fittingly Martial became the Tête de la Course and Ron and I fell into the peloton to draft off of Martial. As we traversed the many ups, downs, hidden corners, dark hallways and secret routes that only a local would know we whizzed past at least a hundred dazed and confused ‘tourists’. Boom we quickly arrive at Immigration and Customs checkpoint. I sail through the automated facial recognition process with no issue but Ron gets flagged for something or other and has to visit the Gendarme for an in-person review. All-in-all it only took about 15 minutes to go from plane to crossing the border.
With our extra ‘free time’ we had a quick breakfast with our guide to show our appreciation then we were off to find our connecting gate to Lyon. While that sounds simple enough on the surface even that was a challenge due to some gate changes. We arrived at the check-in gate only to have the Air France gate attendants tell us we are in the wrong place and repeatedly saying "read the board - read the board" when I was trying to ask what was up. I was pretty sure we were in the right place and after some hand waving with the gate attendants it took a few minutes for them to realize they were in the wrong place and they scurried off to where ever they were supposed to be. BIENVENUE EN FRANCE! Little things like this popped up every.single.day.
We arrive in Paris on Thursday morning. I had been warned about the complex maze that is Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport and to allow plenty of time to find our way to our connecting flight to Lyon. As luck would have it on the Atlanta -> Paris flight Ron was sitting in the same row as Frenchman Martial Trigeaud, the co-owner of Time Bicycles, who was returning home from a few weeks in Arkansas. By chance Ron subscribes to their newsletter and has some Time goodies so they had several hours to talk about bicycles and what not. This was the first of many of Ron’s contacts that opened doors and created opportunities for us during this trip. When we got off the plane, we hustled up next to Martial who was rapidly making his way down the hall because he knew the way. Taking pity on us he offered to personally guide us through the maze. Fittingly Martial became the Tête de la Course and Ron and I fell into the peloton to draft off of Martial. As we traversed the many ups, downs, hidden corners, dark hallways and secret routes that only a local would know we whizzed past at least a hundred dazed and confused ‘tourists’. Boom we quickly arrive at Immigration and Customs checkpoint. I sail through the automated facial recognition process with no issue but Ron gets flagged for something or other and has to visit the Gendarme for an in-person review. All-in-all it only took about 15 minutes to go from plane to crossing the border.
With our extra ‘free time’ we had a quick breakfast with our guide to show our appreciation then we were off to find our connecting gate to Lyon. While that sounds simple enough on the surface even that was a challenge due to some gate changes. We arrived at the check-in gate only to have the Air France gate attendants tell us we are in the wrong place and repeatedly saying "read the board - read the board" when I was trying to ask what was up. I was pretty sure we were in the right place and after some hand waving with the gate attendants it took a few minutes for them to realize they were in the wrong place and they scurried off to where ever they were supposed to be. BIENVENUE EN FRANCE! Little things like this popped up every.single.day.
Thursday Drive: Lyon Airport -> Montbrison -> Sauvain
We spoiled ourselves a little bit by getting a rent car from the ‘Luxury Premium’ category and picked up a 4-door sedan twin-turbo diesel BMW M Series – a sweet ride indeed. It was supposed to take about 2 and half hours to get to the AirBnb rental in Sauvain. Supposed to… 😊
We spoiled ourselves a little bit by getting a rent car from the ‘Luxury Premium’ category and picked up a 4-door sedan twin-turbo diesel BMW M Series – a sweet ride indeed. It was supposed to take about 2 and half hours to get to the AirBnb rental in Sauvain. Supposed to… 😊
Stopping in Montbrison for some groceries and lunch the TPMS lights come on for the passenger side front tire and sure enough we’ve got a screw in the tire and it has a slow leak. There was supposed to be a tire inflator in the trunk but when we went to get it out the bag was there but no inflator (there is no spare tire). Since we are tired and hungry, we gamble that the tire will hold for a little bit and we grab a quick lunch at a café. Fortunately, our server speaks enough English to guide us to a nearby tire shop. While the car is in the shop, we stroll over to nearby bicycle shop to browse around and we grab a snack at the bakery across the street (so many bakeries!!).
After a 2-hour delay, we are fixed up and back on the road. So, after 30+ hours and with just a few cat naps along the way we get to Sauvain and ready for some dinner. Well, the local ‘restaurant’ and bar in Sauvain turned out to be more bar than restaurant because for some reason or another they aren’t serving any food. 'Discussions' with the owner weren't going anywhere but I know there is a grocery store a short walk up the street so we head up there and load up on some more snacks to tide us over until the morning and enjoy some beverages on the tables outside. Once again, BIENVENUE EN FRANCE!
After a 2-hour delay, we are fixed up and back on the road. So, after 30+ hours and with just a few cat naps along the way we get to Sauvain and ready for some dinner. Well, the local ‘restaurant’ and bar in Sauvain turned out to be more bar than restaurant because for some reason or another they aren’t serving any food. 'Discussions' with the owner weren't going anywhere but I know there is a grocery store a short walk up the street so we head up there and load up on some more snacks to tide us over until the morning and enjoy some beverages on the tables outside. Once again, BIENVENUE EN FRANCE!
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Friday Morning : Sauvain
Friday morning we roll out and walk around the corner only to discover the local cheese shop is doing a demo on their cheese making process which was quite interesting. Also discover that on Friday's the meat truck comes to town so folks can stock on their meat needs for the week. We spot an open air toilette just in case you gotta go whilst doing your morning shopping :-)
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Walking back to the AirBnB one of the locals starts talking to us in perfect English. Turns out he was from Sauvain, lived in California for 18 years and is now back living in his hometown. He tells us his granddad bought the house he is now living in back in the 1920's and that granddad was the former Chief of Police in Paris during WWI. Pretty cool.
There is also a large 15th\16th century church in town that we take a self-guided tour of. Lots of pics on here on Google Maps. Did you notice all the buildings here are solid stone fortresses?
In short, we enjoyed a lot of experiences in this farm community of 300 people and just a short walk from the AirBnb.
Lastly, I'm wishing I had a video of the two happy but drunk Frenchmen tearing the plastic cowling off the front of their van whilst backing out of the grocery store parking lot. Realizing they might have a problem, they get out, look at it, hop back in and continue backing up so the entire cowling is now hanging by a thread, they get out again, pull the cowling off throw it in the van and continue on down the road. It all happened in a kind of slow motion way just 20 feet in front of us, pretty funny in a way but glad we weren't on the same road as those guys.
Friday drive : Sauvain to Vertolaye
We fueled up on some baguettes and local cheese for breakfast then made the drive from Sauvain to Vertolaye to scout out the roads and the event site. Now we are only about 18 miles from the event site but the roads are of the slow rolling French Alps variety. (Noting that Tour de France passes through here as well). Frankly we didn't care about how long the drive took as the roads and scenery were great fun.
Along the way we make several important discoveries:
We fueled up on some baguettes and local cheese for breakfast then made the drive from Sauvain to Vertolaye to scout out the roads and the event site. Now we are only about 18 miles from the event site but the roads are of the slow rolling French Alps variety. (Noting that Tour de France passes through here as well). Frankly we didn't care about how long the drive took as the roads and scenery were great fun.
Along the way we make several important discoveries:
- The quality of the roads, even the ones seemingly in the middle of nowhere, is freaking awesome. Narrow yes but no potholes, cracks or real undulations to speak of. Perfect for some spirited driving if a person is into that sort of thing :-)
- The respect given to bicycle riders is top notch (these roads are part of the Tour de France). By law cars are required to give bike riders 1.5 meters (5 feet) clearance when passing.
- There are signs for the bicycle riders every kilometer telling them the distance to the peak and average grade for the next kilometer.
- As we get near Vertolaye we see some detour signs and have to pause to sort that out. A local farmer stopped to give us directions which I'm sure they were perfectly accurate except we didn't understand a single word he said so we deferred to Apple Maps and and we continued down an ever narrowing road (as in barely single lane wide) only to find some barricades, loop markers and some of the event workers preparing for the weekend. We were on part of the event loop! After some discussion with the workers we learn that the road will be closed during the event so we need to plan to come into town from the South instead of from the East. Very glad we learned that on Friday instead of Saturday.
- Under the right safe conditions, a person can rapidly circumnavigate a roundabout multiple times at a hair raising speed. Not that that actually happened mind you but it could happen ;-)
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Ron came to France well prepared in his role as NEOTT's plenipotentiary ambassador toting these custom made NEOTT key fobs and beanies as giveaways to various people we met along the way. They were all surprised and appreciative of the gesture. The first beneficiaries were the two cheerful and hard working guys at the front gate. Result: we've got a place to stay next time we are in France! Spoiler alert - YES there will be a next time!!
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Pretty quickly we are out of the car and cruising the pit area like kids in a candy store. Straight away we are at the Sherco pits and Trial2 rider Spaniard Arnau Farre recognizes Ron and they start chatting away. Arnau had a tough day on Saturday finishing 12th out of 45 but easily WON the Trial2 class on Sunday despite having 10 penalty points.
Click here for a fun short video clip of Arnau doing a backflip at a local trial just because he can. Bright future for this young man. |
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Saturday : World Round Day 1
Some Youtube Video Links:
Saturday Results:
- The official TrialGP highlight video is here. Of course the highlights are what "they" want you to see. However this fine piece of writing (I think we can all agree this is a piece of something) will bring you some of the insights and behind the scenes action that you won't find anywhere else.
- Many more related videos can be found here.
Saturday Results:
- TrialGP Class: Bou (30), Busto (47), Marcelli (48)
- Trial2 Class: Suarez (20), Rabino (25), Hemingway H. (26) - USA Rider: Roper 32nd (68)
- Trial3 Class: Hemingway G. (11), Galloway (28), Sandvik (32)
- TrialGP Women: Bristow (17), Abellan (22), Monnier (52) - USA Riders: Hoover 8th (73), Sweeten 14th (109)
- Trial2 Women: Soyer (10), Bacchetta (19), Meling (21)
Before getting into what we saw on Saturday allow me a few minutes for a side journey or two. This is mostly for friends and family I've coerced into reading this entire article without full knowledge of the nature of our wacky sport (there will be a test :-)
Intro: Because FIM events are organized as a Professional Sporting Competition, every section is like a “Pro Shootout” we would have in the US. Let’s face it, we traveled 5,000 miles to see the best of the best compete head-to-head in person and since the top 5 ride the loop and sections largely as a group it was a perfect way to see the big boys battle it out. Strategy wise, we’d arrive at group of sections and let them come to us. While waiting we’d politely golf clap-clap-clap at the valiant attempts by the riders in the other classes. Whenever the top-5 in the TrialGP class started showing up there was noticeable increase in crowd noise, energy and excitement. More cameras pop out, more people roll in to watch and everyone is settling in for their best viewing position possible...
FIRST: The premier TrialGP Class is stacked with the best 12 trials riders in the world. In reality there is only one rider at the pinnacle (Toni Bou with seven freaking teen (17) world outdoor titles!) while riders 2-5 on any given weekend can flip flop around then 6 through 12 do what they can to live and learn trying to break into the top half of the group. The premier class course is largely set to GO BIG OR GO HOME - meaning you either make it or you don't as Mr. Casales demonstrates...
Intro: Because FIM events are organized as a Professional Sporting Competition, every section is like a “Pro Shootout” we would have in the US. Let’s face it, we traveled 5,000 miles to see the best of the best compete head-to-head in person and since the top 5 ride the loop and sections largely as a group it was a perfect way to see the big boys battle it out. Strategy wise, we’d arrive at group of sections and let them come to us. While waiting we’d politely golf clap-clap-clap at the valiant attempts by the riders in the other classes. Whenever the top-5 in the TrialGP class started showing up there was noticeable increase in crowd noise, energy and excitement. More cameras pop out, more people roll in to watch and everyone is settling in for their best viewing position possible...
FIRST: The premier TrialGP Class is stacked with the best 12 trials riders in the world. In reality there is only one rider at the pinnacle (Toni Bou with seven freaking teen (17) world outdoor titles!) while riders 2-5 on any given weekend can flip flop around then 6 through 12 do what they can to live and learn trying to break into the top half of the group. The premier class course is largely set to GO BIG OR GO HOME - meaning you either make it or you don't as Mr. Casales demonstrates...
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As further evidence of the 'make it' (aka a Clean or Zero points) or 'not' (aka Five Points \ Failure \ Fiasco) nature of the Premier class we can dive deeper into the numbers (and if you know me you know I can't stop myself from digging deeper into the numbers (as evidence of the disturbed mind refer to the rabbit hole known as natstats.com covering the US Nationals)):
Breaking Saturday down we have:
Breaking Saturday down we have:
- 47% of the scores for the class were 5's (Fiasco!)
- 45% of the scores were zero's
- 6% of the scores were one's
- 1% of the scores were two's
- 1% of the scores were three's
SECOND: Still awake? When talking about 5's we also HAVE to talk about the most hated rule in TrialGP - "No Stop". In the US (and most other countries) riders are allowed to stop, gather themselves and continue on without penalty as long as they can complete the section in the allotted time limit. In TrialGP riders are penalized 5 points for "stopping" within the section. We definitely saw how "stopping" is largely a subjective call and different judges call it different ways but the overall objective is "...to encourage riders to maintain their balance and control while tackling challenging obstacles without using brute force. The rider must rely on skill, finesse, and technique to navigate the sections successfully."
Unfortunately, there is no way to tell from the score sheet how many 5's were a result of an actual riding failure or a 'stop' but at the end of the day a 5 is a 5 and a rule is a rule so we move on...
Unfortunately, there is no way to tell from the score sheet how many 5's were a result of an actual riding failure or a 'stop' but at the end of the day a 5 is a 5 and a rule is a rule so we move on...
THIRD: Connecting the dots (I'll come back to "No Stop" in a minute - patience!)
- Several months prior to heading to France I did a little bit of French language studies using an app called 'Speakly', made in Estonia. <<ok>>
- Cruising the pits checking out all the rigs, I spot a pretty fancy van and notice the license plate is from Estonia. <<interesting...>>
- Reading the program I see the only rider from Estonia is Keity Meier riding the TrialGP Women's class. <<duly noted...>>
- While watching section 12 on Saturday we see an unknown rider crash and lay on the ground for a very very long time but they eventually get up and move on. The rider was laying on the side of the course so the event was able to continue so we focused on 'the show' more than the medical team. <<More food and drink s'il vous plaît monsieur...>>
- Fast forward to Sunday and we are riding the shuttle up the mountain to see sections 5-10. During the ride we start talking to Kristal who, it turns out is Keity's social media coordinator and going up the hill to shoot some video. She tells us it was Keity that crashed the day before that she is pretty sore today but powering through it. And yes, Kristel's English was WAY BETTER than our Estonian! <<why does a trials rider from Estonia need a social media coordinator?>>
- Fast forward a couple of weeks after the event and THIS video drops on YouTube - Kristel and Keity's quirky video recap of the event. A good rider's recap of a tough weekend, fortunately it has English sub-titles...<<thank goodness but I'll work on my Estonian for next time>>
- FINALLY connecting this series of dots --- I almost fell out of my chair laughing at this <<Tahan veel kord öelda, et nonstop on läbi aegade suurim jama mootorrattakatsete maailmas.>>
Turns out Keity is much more than a trials rider, she is also a stunt rider, which I guess explains why she has her own social media coordinator. More interesting stuff and her daredevil stunts here on her website.
Now to maybe get back on track here... << no telling where this thing is going really >>
Still a little weary from traveling we get to the event just before Noon and hang out and watch the spectator friendly sections 1, 11 and 12 for the rest of the day. There were 3 other section areas up the hill that required taking a shuttle bus (navette) to get there and we decided we would do that on Sunday after a little more rest.
Section 1 was a man-made ‘indoor like’ section while the obstacles looked huge to us ‘foreigners’ the section was pretty much a ride through for all classes. Clearly Busto rides through with the most style treating the crowd to some bonus moves. Mental note : go where Busto goes for the best spectating experience!
Section 11 was set on the side of a very steep hill. Very cool to watch and most riders got through without any issue but by Sunday part of the hill got super slick and was causing some of the top TrialGP riders to take some 5’s.
Section 12 was right next to the food and souvenir tent. It was a man-made from concrete ‘lego’ blocks with a huge, I’m guessing 8’ tall wall as the deciding obstacle. In addition to the “you make it or you don’t” nature of the wall the judges were well positioned and also looking for ‘toe-dabs’ by the few riders that got to the top. There were more than a few complaints by the riders that got dinged for a toe dab but from where I was standing, they all looked like good calls. You can see Toni’s Bou’s clean ride starting here in the Official TrialGP Highlight video at the end claiming his 17th World Outdoor Title in a row.
After the event, we also spent some time in the pits watching the mechanics prep the bikes for the next day. They only have 35 minutes to service the bikes and get them to parc-ferme for overnight lockup. We also spent some time chatting with USA riders Josh Roper, Maddie Hoover and Kylee Sweeten about their day.
Section 1 was a man-made ‘indoor like’ section while the obstacles looked huge to us ‘foreigners’ the section was pretty much a ride through for all classes. Clearly Busto rides through with the most style treating the crowd to some bonus moves. Mental note : go where Busto goes for the best spectating experience!
Section 11 was set on the side of a very steep hill. Very cool to watch and most riders got through without any issue but by Sunday part of the hill got super slick and was causing some of the top TrialGP riders to take some 5’s.
Section 12 was right next to the food and souvenir tent. It was a man-made from concrete ‘lego’ blocks with a huge, I’m guessing 8’ tall wall as the deciding obstacle. In addition to the “you make it or you don’t” nature of the wall the judges were well positioned and also looking for ‘toe-dabs’ by the few riders that got to the top. There were more than a few complaints by the riders that got dinged for a toe dab but from where I was standing, they all looked like good calls. You can see Toni’s Bou’s clean ride starting here in the Official TrialGP Highlight video at the end claiming his 17th World Outdoor Title in a row.
After the event, we also spent some time in the pits watching the mechanics prep the bikes for the next day. They only have 35 minutes to service the bikes and get them to parc-ferme for overnight lockup. We also spent some time chatting with USA riders Josh Roper, Maddie Hoover and Kylee Sweeten about their day.
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Section 1
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Section 11
Maddie on Section 12
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*** From here on is still under construction ***
Sunday : World Round Day 2
Sunday : World Round Day 2
Navette
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Section 8
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Section 10
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Sunday, we roll in around 10:30 – 11:00 (hey we’re on vacation 😊) and catch the navette up to the top where Sections 8, 9 and 10 are located. There are plenty of shuttles running to get the fairly large crowd up the hill and we only had to wait a few minutes for one to show up. The organizers did a GREAT JOB of taking care of the spectators.
Section 8 provides the most drama. Every TrialGP rider took 5’s on this section on Saturday. On loop 1, again everyone gets a 5. On Loop 2 everyone from Caseles to Marcelli again took 5’s leaving just Busto and Bou. The short story is Busto cleans it in dramatic fashion and Bou again gets a 5. I’ve documented the longer behind the scenes story here on ADVRider.
Section 9 is pretty straight-forward and no issues for most of the riders.
Section 10 has a little bit of everything in it and great fun to watch.
Sections 5, 6 and 7 are, in European terms, a short-walk down the hill. Rather than wait for the navette we decide to walk it. For us it is a little further than we are used to walking 😊. Along the way we meet Ian Smith (the inventor of the OSET electric trials bike) and he is cruising around on an E-pedal assist mountain bike following his son around who is riding in the Trial2 class. His transport mode seemed like the absolutely the best way to get around. In retrospect, I wish I’d spent a little more time walking trails to get in a little better walking shape for the trip – next time!!
Set on the side of a very steep hill the sections were dry, dusty, slippery and getting pretty chewed up. The light breeze seemed to blow the dust on us wherever we stood so after about 20 riders of that we moved on down the hill back to the paddock and finished out the day at Sections 11 and 12. Kudos to the checkers who worked in that dust all day long though we did see a couple of them with face masks on to help a little bit.
Back to Section 11 and the big boys start coming around on their 2nd loop. As mentioned earlier, the hill side is getting very slick and in pretty quick order Raga, Grattarolla, Marcelli are spinning out at the bottom and not getting enough drive to get up the hill so end up sliding back down on their butts. Each of the riders also messed up the gate marker so it needed repair before the next rider could go. The organizers were well prepared for this scenario as the section worker was already hooked up in a mountain climbing harness and he rappelled down the slope, fixed the marker and then hoisted himself back up again.
Check the score sheet to get the details here
Next up was Busto who got a great drive up the hill and at the peak of the turn he did a wheelie and pivoted the bike on the back tire and rode back down the hill. It was a brilliant move witnessed by smaller crowd since it was near the end of the event most had started walking over to Section 12 and\or the food tent and\or their cars to beat the crowd out of town.
You can see Busto’s ride in this Youtube video by Sergio
Next up was Bou and all the aforementioned repair work caused a time delay which trickled down to put him behind on time. He got through section 11 in business like fashion and hurried off to Section 12. He rushed his way through Section 12 trying to beat the clock only to take a 5 at the big wall and then he rushed over to the checker to punch out and stop the clock, ending the day with a one minute time penalty point but also the overall win. Even at 36(?) years old, he's not showing any signs of aging out for a few more years.
At 40 years old and dealing with some injuries Adam Raga on the other hand.... (continue this story)
Monday – Drive : Sauvain to Lyon for lunch then on to Villard-de-Lans
Martial, our Time Bicycles guy, had told us that if we had time in Lyon to go and eat at the “Halles des Lyon Paul Bocuse” Their website says the place is “A mecca for taste buds, a legendary institution of good food, an essential crossroads of tastes and flavors, an international reference for gourmets, the Halles de Lyon – Paul Bocuse are emblematic of Lyon and French gastronomic excellence.”
Lacking any other concrete plan, we set the GPS’s to take us to the Halles des Lyon for lunch. I say GPS’s plural because we were running the car’s built-in nav system (TomTom) and Mike had an iPad running Apple Maps. The TomTom was easier for Ron to follow the visuals in the center of his dashboard and as the navigator Mike had an iPad mini running Apple Maps which allowed for looking ahead, zooming in and out and trusting but verifying the TomTom. Not surprisingly they sometimes conflicted in directions. More often than not Apple Maps gave the better directions so as the navigator I had to sometimes over rule the TomTom much to Ron’s distress since it didn’t match what he saw on screen whist trying to manage all the traffic conditions. Yeah, in 1,000 miles of driving we missed a few turns but not many.
Getting into Lyon was also our first real taste of big city driving in France. Definitely sensory overload, fast moving, close quarters, roundabouts everywhere. Even though we had GPS oftentimes the instructions were too late for the traffic situation. Sometimes the verbal instructions didn’t match the actual road signs etc etc. About a half mile from the Halles Ron spotted an easy access parking spot and dropped right into it without having to do any parallel parking or other fancy maneuvers so we took it and enjoyed a ½ mile walk through the city.
Like the sensory overload of driving, walking into the Halles was a food sensory overload with kiosks, cafes and restaurants everywhere you looked in a space about the size of two large Walmarts. We were in what seemed like the world's largest food mall! Of course we had to look at everything making it very difficult to make a choice, tired and hungry we finally landed at a place where the waiters spoke English and enjoyed a great lunch.
The BMW was a wonderful car and certainly capable but, in the end, we decided it was too low to the ground for two very tall and “distinguished” (i.e., not so young anymore) gentlemen to crawl in and out of multiple times a day. Since we were in Lyon for lunch and only about 15 miles from the airport car rental we decided to drive over there and see if we could swap the car out for something else. No problem they said. We stayed in the same Luxury Premium category to keep things simple and selected the French made DS7 Crossback SUV. Much easier to get in and out of and roomier in the foot wells. All around a better fit and feel to it and it was our rig for the next 9 days.
Still lacking concrete plan we decided to head to Grenoble, see what’s up there and decide where to get a hotel at that point. Sounds easy enough until we got there and realized Grenoble city driving was a lot like Lyon and we’d had enough of that so we set course to the mountains and the Grand Hotel of Paris operated by Best Western in the ski village of Villard-de-Lans a town of about 4,200 people.
Martial, our Time Bicycles guy, had told us that if we had time in Lyon to go and eat at the “Halles des Lyon Paul Bocuse” Their website says the place is “A mecca for taste buds, a legendary institution of good food, an essential crossroads of tastes and flavors, an international reference for gourmets, the Halles de Lyon – Paul Bocuse are emblematic of Lyon and French gastronomic excellence.”
Lacking any other concrete plan, we set the GPS’s to take us to the Halles des Lyon for lunch. I say GPS’s plural because we were running the car’s built-in nav system (TomTom) and Mike had an iPad running Apple Maps. The TomTom was easier for Ron to follow the visuals in the center of his dashboard and as the navigator Mike had an iPad mini running Apple Maps which allowed for looking ahead, zooming in and out and trusting but verifying the TomTom. Not surprisingly they sometimes conflicted in directions. More often than not Apple Maps gave the better directions so as the navigator I had to sometimes over rule the TomTom much to Ron’s distress since it didn’t match what he saw on screen whist trying to manage all the traffic conditions. Yeah, in 1,000 miles of driving we missed a few turns but not many.
Getting into Lyon was also our first real taste of big city driving in France. Definitely sensory overload, fast moving, close quarters, roundabouts everywhere. Even though we had GPS oftentimes the instructions were too late for the traffic situation. Sometimes the verbal instructions didn’t match the actual road signs etc etc. About a half mile from the Halles Ron spotted an easy access parking spot and dropped right into it without having to do any parallel parking or other fancy maneuvers so we took it and enjoyed a ½ mile walk through the city.
Like the sensory overload of driving, walking into the Halles was a food sensory overload with kiosks, cafes and restaurants everywhere you looked in a space about the size of two large Walmarts. We were in what seemed like the world's largest food mall! Of course we had to look at everything making it very difficult to make a choice, tired and hungry we finally landed at a place where the waiters spoke English and enjoyed a great lunch.
The BMW was a wonderful car and certainly capable but, in the end, we decided it was too low to the ground for two very tall and “distinguished” (i.e., not so young anymore) gentlemen to crawl in and out of multiple times a day. Since we were in Lyon for lunch and only about 15 miles from the airport car rental we decided to drive over there and see if we could swap the car out for something else. No problem they said. We stayed in the same Luxury Premium category to keep things simple and selected the French made DS7 Crossback SUV. Much easier to get in and out of and roomier in the foot wells. All around a better fit and feel to it and it was our rig for the next 9 days.
Still lacking concrete plan we decided to head to Grenoble, see what’s up there and decide where to get a hotel at that point. Sounds easy enough until we got there and realized Grenoble city driving was a lot like Lyon and we’d had enough of that so we set course to the mountains and the Grand Hotel of Paris operated by Best Western in the ski village of Villard-de-Lans a town of about 4,200 people.
Still to go:
- TDN
- Nimes
- Sherco Factory Tour
- EM Factory Tour
- Airport Hotel in Lyon - as we turned the car in very jealous of the American woman who had just arrived picking up her van and heading out for a bicycling vacation.
- Wrap Up
Links:
- Time Bicycles
- Sherco France
- EM – Electric Motion
- TrialGP World Round Results
- TrialGP World Round – Busto highlight film.
- Katie Meier highlight film
- TDN Results
- Youtube Road from Jausiers to Col de la Bonette: 22 min On board a KTM 1290
- Youtube Road from Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée to Col de la Bonette: 7 min version - 90 min version