Ventoux Trial Classic 2018

Saturday 13 octobre

Nice and warm weater greeted us on Saturday morning. Our team Only Honda had a late starting time 9.45hm but there was a delay of about 30 minutes. So on the road with boucle bleue. Zone 7 in the woods was the first to attack. Not easy as we were not yet trained and a bit nervous. A zero seemed possibel, but could also result in a 3 or if you slipped from a rock even a 5. I passed with a 2, not happy, but ok. Then zone 8 seemed easeier, I estimated 1 or zero, but my Honda behaved strangely instable. Was it that slippery? I got a 3. Edy passed with 1 foot. Ups, my back tyre was flat, no air. We tried a pump and also my repair spray, but nothing hapened. Merde! So I had to continue, because going back was not allowed and too far. After about 20 min with slow speed and some pushing across some steps I finally arrived on a little road and then zone 9. So another 15 min back on the road to Malaucene. My 2 friends continued the boucle. Luckily there was Toutrial with a pile of tires and air chambers. In 30 min I changed, put some soap water at the tire and with my foot pump managed to get the new IRC nicely in the rim. I continued the next boucle yellow zone 1-6 with my team. There were some sandy rocks to climb, ab bit scary, but with some good power of the Honda it all went well. It was now 14.30h and I decided to finish boucle one as at 16h the would no more let riders on the last boucle. 9 and 10 was a zero and 11 with 2 dabs. I then attacked the last boucle rouge and reached Edy Adam. He missed zone 14, the left turn from the road and had to search it. So Edy and I finished the last zones. Number 14 was an impressive climb on a sandy rock, but after a tight turn, position and throttle to attack a straigth line, I passed with 1 dab. Zone 16 also was a nasty one in the wood, but I passed with zero. At about 17h we arrived at zone 18, the last show zone with rocks and logs at the park with many spectators. I already started to getting dark. I had to set 1 dab and it summed up to 12 points lost for day one. It was ok with my old 1975 Honda and after the adventure with the puncture. Now a beeeeeer! Yeah, we all deserved it and many happy faces after 7 hours on the moto. Diner was with the Alsace clan til 23h, then I finally fell asleep in my car and dreamed about zones and riding.

Team Ossa with Mick Andrews	338 is Mick. He lost 21 dabs in 2 days class blue. Bravo, with 70+ on the bones!
Mick getting his Ossa on Saturday morning	Mick Andrews in the morning sun
Pat's special Honda TL 250	at a tank stop in the car park
almost original Honda TL 250	Francois Guyard on his BSA. His team with Guy Totems got 3rd position in blue class. Bravo!
ups, a rare 5, last zone 18 near the finish	A special Bultaco M10 1965/66 or is it a Sherpa N 200 ?
Nice weather, almost clean motos	parc fermé Saturday, have to enter til 19h
some Hondas	John Bull's DOT
Honda RTLR 250	My Honda, the only 4 valves in the park fermé
heavy metal Ariel	Fred's BSA
1979 SWM red/white

Video clips Saturday linked to my youtube page. As I was mostly riding within about 5-8 teams, late starter, I never saw the heros of the red lines nor Mick or Charles.

how to kick an Ariel 500cc	Christian Weibel on Honda TLR 250
	Edy Adam Honda 250
Christian Weibel TLR 250	Fantic
Edy Adam	Edy
Bultaco	in trouble
Edy Adam in the last zone 18

Here 4 fotos from Jean Caillou. Merc bien Jean!

4 stroke on sandy rock
zone 10	zone 10 hill climbing, ready for twisting full throttle

Next page Link to Sunday