We’ve just got back from the trip to the Czech Republic where the World BikeTrial Championship BIU 2019 took place over the week from August 12th 2019.
Yet again we followed the already established, and successful, formula “two races in one location” – on the 13th and 14th for categories of Group A (Junior, Senior and Elite) and Group B (Poussin, Benjamin, Minime, Femina and Major) , while the second round was on the 16th for Group B and 17th for Group A.
Automoto Klub Nepomuk (AMK), situated at the edge of the town of Kramolin (Plzen), with its facilities became the ideal location for this year’s WBC. Motocross and Sidecarcross races usually take place in this large area, but also Moto Trial and BikeTrial races are often organized there. Now it was our turn to animate a week of competitions. The camping area is large and located at various levels as it is carved into the hill side. There are two permanent structures with bathrooms and showers, two small swimming pools, two stages and two other structures for bar and race direction.
Sections were located in the wood that surrounds the area. Natural ground and large rocks without artificial obstacles fit perfectly to our sport. Group A competed in 10 sections x 2 laps and Group B in 8 sections x 2 laps. As for the technical side, zones were long “up and down” on these big rocks. One of them looked like wall of rocks and soil reminding us of a quarry. Riders had very little time to rest and concentrate in order to complete the sections. Very typical for a Czech race. The difficulty of the zones was perfect for a competition of this level except perhaps for the "reds" (Junior and Senior categories) in the first race. They were technically excellent, but all really long. Except the first section, riders were short of time. If two or three sections were a bit shorter, or with one gate less, leaving the others unchanged, we would have had perfect crescendo of difficulty. But, that’s life and one must face also this in a race.
Regarding weather conditions, let’s say it wasn’t exactly summer. It was very variable with clouds moving, alternating with rain and sun. Consequently, the temperature range changed a lot.
THE RESULTS
As for results, in Poussin category Michal Nagy (SK) won both races, second place for Alex Rodriguez (CAT) who got two second places. Third place for Mikolaj Wozniak (PL).
Also in Benjamin category the winner dominated both races. Vojtech Veprek (CZ) won the title. Vojtech Hribek (CZ) got the second place and Marek Nagy (SK) was third.
In Minime category positions were incredibly tight instead. In the first race Marti Esquerda (CAT) and Nil Benitez (CAT) closed the race with just one penalty, but the first won the race thanks to time. On third place Rene Vymetal (CZ). In the second race the Czech rider won the race with 5 penalties, Nil Benitez was second with 8 penalties (a “5” on fourth section in the second lap was crucial for him) and Marti Esquerda was fourth. So, Rene Vymetal got the title as he did no “5” in the whole competition which turned out to be the key for the victory. Nil Benitez was second and Marti Esquerda was third. Anyway, we saw incredibly talented riders in this category. We’ll hear about them in the future.
In the Femina category Eliska Hribkova (CZ) finally won the title after two consecutive second places in 2017 and 2018. Iva Antlova (CZ) was second and Julia Mallen Hernandez (CAT) was third.
In Major category (over 35 y.o.) Juan Pedro Garcia (ES) won the title. Thomas Francisco (FR) was second and Christian Nicolae Bursuc (ES) was third. These three riders got the same positions in both races.
In Junior category the title goes to Tomas Veprek (CZ). Second place for Alain Rovira (CAT). Third place for Ondrej Krupcik (CZ). This is the second title for Tomas since his success in Benjamin category in 2015.
In Senior category Raul Gutierrez (ES) won easily both races and the title. Note that it is his first title in an incredible and long career. The second place goes to Sergio Fernandez (ES) and the third place to Morgan Remy (FR).
In the Elite category Vaclav “Vashek” Kolar did a great first race dominating both laps (21 penalties). The second place went to Arvis Dermaks (LT) with 34 penalties and the third place to Nicolas Valée (FR) with 37 penalties. This first race was really one of the most technically difficult we’ve seen. All group A categories had really tough and long sections. Moreover, the ground and the rocks were not completely dried after nightfall rain. In these conditions Vashek is almost unbeatable.
In the second race the battle was really tight among five riders. After the first lap Vashek and Nicolas had 11 penalties, Arvis had 13, Amand Mollà (ES) had 15 and Adam Morewood (UK) had 16. The race and the title were still in contention! In the second lap Arvis did an incredible performance getting 0 (zero!) penalties in the first seven sections! His riding and his speed in the zones were amazing. Finally, he did just “3” in the 8th and 10th section closing the race with 19 penalties. Vashek did also a great race getting just one penalty in the section 5, but a silly “5” in the section 6, with a small injury on his right leg, put his race in danger. He managed to stay concentrated and he got just one penalty in section 8 and 10. In the end he got 19 penalties as Arvis.
Nicolas had 12 penalties and was third with 23 penalties. Armand got 12 and he closed his race at 27, while Adam got 11 closing his race at 27. This time Arvis won the race for more “0” and Vashek won the title for less overall penalties. Nicolas got the third place. Armand forth and Adam fifth.
This is the 6th title in the Elite category for Vashek and the 11th in total, as another legend: Cesar Canas.
Arvis did an incredible second race and he had the true chance to win the title. His unique style “take it all or go home” and his attitude in the sections was really impressive.
Nicolas Vallée got the third place in his first experience in BIU and, we think, this is a great result as he is not used to riding in our type of sections and race format. We hope he enjoyed our “old style” and we hope to see him in the future in our competitions.
We want to mention here also the other Elite riders who showed their incredible skills.
Jonas Friedrich (DE) got the final sixth place. Hannes Herrmann (DE) was seventh. Luca Tombini (IT) got the eighth place and Martin Kakac (CZ) the ninth.
COMMENTS
This year’s WBC was in a perfect location as for the structure and the sections, however, it could have been organised better in terms of collateral facilities and activities such as restaurant/food truck in place, program during the opening ceremony or on the days when no race was happening. All these things make the WBC a nice event to live. As we always say, BIU is not just about the competition itself.
The actual number of participants was 92. We improved in Major category. We introduced this category in 2016. We were sure that it had a great potential. Lots of “old riders” still want to compete and this year we had 13 riders in this category. Really good! We’re also happy about the participation of really strong Elite riders. Arvis Dermaks and Armand Mollà came back after one year of absence and we had two riders from Germany after many years (Hannes Herrmann and Jonas Friedrich). We had also the pleasure to have Nicolas Valée who usually doesn’t ride in our competitions. In other categories we had more or less the same number of riders except for Senior category and female riders. Unfortunately, we are missing interest in our competitions from riders of middle-high level and from girls. We wish this could change in the future.
We had a constructive General Assembly where we discussed our future and how to be more attractive without losing our identity. We hope to put all the new proposals into practice as soon as possible.
Regarding categories, we can anticipate that the names will change in 2020. The age split will be every two years (and not every three years as at present). We’ll inform you about the new categories in detail as soon as possible. Moreover, there are new people in the Presidium. Mr. Jordi Casablanca from Catalunya, Mr. Ralf Hesse from Germany, and Mr. Tomas Herka from the Czech Republic. Welcome to all of them! Thanks to them and their associates we have new ideas and new energy for the future. Thanks also to Jonas Friedrich for attending the GA as a guest and for sharing his suggestions. It’s important to receive feedback from riders and it’s always great to hear those who want to help our sport.
As for the 2020 calendar, we have already two candidates – one for European Championship in La Tour de Scay (FR) and one for WBC in Reinosa (ES).
We’ll let you know all the details as soon as they become official.
CREDITS
Our first thanks go, as usual, to all the volunteers and observers without whom such an event would not take place.
Thank you to the organizer, Ceska Motocyklova Federace. The director of the competition, Mr. Vladimir Pavlik and his collaborators David Cep, Jirka Barvenicek and Josef Herka.
Thanks to Giuliano Gualeni (General Secretary of BIU) for all his efforts to "keep the ship afloat". As usual.
Thanks to Trial Section (Lukas & Lucka) and Biketrial Kyjov for all the pictures and video from this WBC.
Last, but not least thanks to sponsors who have supported BIU this year: Liko-s, Calibra and Algo.
That’s all for the moment, but stay tuned. We will have some news in the upcoming months.
In the meantime don't forget to check the WBC 2019 video (here below). See you!
Fedoushek for BikeTrial International