SSDT 2011 Monday from John (Bigfoot) Hird on Vimeo.
These sections are merciless, even in the current dry conditions, and riders do this for six days in succession!
They're either heroes, or mad - or both!
All the best, Jim.
SSDT 2011 Monday from John (Bigfoot) Hird on Vimeo.
Makes me wonder how much the sections have changed from Gordon Jackson's day?
ReplyDeletePeter
Peter -- The sections occupy the same general routes but the following quote from Gordon Jackson says it all: -
ReplyDelete"This year’s Scottish Six Days Trial (SSDT) will be special for many of its visitors. However, for one man the 2011 event will be significant for more than just its centenary celebrations. That man is Gordon Jackson, who, fifty years ago won the SSDT in remarkable fashion, dropping just one single mark over the multi-day marathon. It is a record that still stands to this day and looks unlikely ever to be repeated.
Jackson, who is the only person to have won the British Trial Championship on both two and four wheels, had triumphed in Scotland three times prior to his single dab victory in 1961. In fact, during the eleven times that he rode at the SSDT between 1952 and 1962 he only finished out of the top three once.
“It was an event that suited my style of riding,” said Jackson, who is now seventy-nine-years-old. “I love it, too. There is something magical about the SSDT that is missing at other Trials. Perhaps it is the landscape, the grandeur of the Highlands, but whatever it is I only have fond memories of riding there. It was very good to me.”
“I am proud that my record still stands,” continued Jackson. “I know the course has changed over the years and they have added to its severity, but the bikes are much better these days too. We did not have sticky tyres and other advances in technology that are around now. It was a different style of riding back then and, as I said, the SSDT suited the way I rode, so it was a combination of things that contributed to my success there.”
But just navigating between sections is taxing enough for most of us mere mortals.
All the best, Jim.