| The event will be staged tomorrow and Saturday (13-14 September) at Ripoll in the Catalan region of Spain, close to the border with France, with riders competing for two impressive pieces of silverware – the FIM Trial Vintage Trophy and the FIM Trial Vintage Motorcycle Trophy.
Run under ‘non-stop’ rules with scores over both days combined to decide the final positions and results moderated according to a rider’s age, once again there will be two adapted lines. The Blue line will be for competitors in the 2024 FIM Trial Vintage Trophy – open to all period-correct twin-shock machines – as well as for competitors in the FIM Trial Vintage Motorcycle Trophy, reserved for twin-shock machines of unmodified origins, while the Green ‘support’ line will offer easier alternative routes.
Defending FIM Trial Vintage Trophy champion Jean-Philippe Lerda will be aiming to repeat his 2023 victory at Auron in France, although this year the Frenchman has opted to ride a 1982 240cc Fantic rather than the Yamaha he took the title on.
Among the riders he will need to defeat to retain the crown are the French pairing of Philippe Berlatier and Gilles Burgat who were both superstars of the sport in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Berlatier, a five-time FIM Trial des Nations winner, won both the FIM Trial Vintage Trophy and FIM Trial Vintage Motorcycle Trophy at the inaugural event in 2022 at Monza in Italy and retained the FIM Trial Vintage Motorcycle Trophy last year. With his sixtieth birthday just two months away he remains a fierce competitor and armed with his immaculate 1981 350cc Bultaco would dearly like to win both trophies again.
Burgat, who celebrates his sixty-third birthday in November, was second behind his old TdN team-mate at Monza and the 1981 FIM Trial World Champion – who, forty-three years later remains the youngest rider ever to win the title – will be aiming to go one better this time around on a 1982 280cc SWM.
Master of Ceremony will be three-time FIM Trial World Champion Yrjo Vesterinen who will watch the action unfold alongside other notable spectators including former gold medallists Jordi Tarres, Tommi Ahvala, Marc Colomer, Dougie Lampkin, Takahisa Fujinami, Adam Raga, Toni Bou, Iris Kramer and Thierry Michaud, the FIM Trial Commission Director.
If that’s not enough to get Trial enthusiasts reaching for their autograph books, there will also be an exhibition of championship-winning motorcycles inside the cloister of the beautiful Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll which will be open for visitors on Saturday afternoon.
The action is due to get under way tomorrow at 13:00 local time and on Saturday at 09:00 local time. For more information click here. |
