Dan,
Do you expect to see some riders showing up at TTC
for an early 'look-see' and practice?

Mickey:

I expect most of the teams will arrive and get set up Wednesday, do some hard core riding Thursday, ride some - but back off on Friday, and do a Saturday morning warm up ride before the competition. You will get to see some neat practice Wed/Thurs/Fri before the big event.

Brock

Thanks,
I found out over the weekend that the riders
COULD NOT arrive earlier than Wed.
Makes sense,,,,,,,at first I was looking for some
world riders to show up several weeks before,,duh!

It amazes me how these guys can ride at 9000 feet on dry rocks one weekend and show in in another country and ride at sea level in cold, muddy conditions the next weekend and look at home in both situations.

Anyone who has never seen a world championship trials in person will not believe what these guys can do! The videos do not do these events justice.

When I was in Barcelona during my visit to the FIM organizer meeting, some of the teams were discussing logistics for the indoor series. Seems that they had an event one night in one country (don't recall where), and the next night in Russia or the middle east or somewhere over 1000 miles away. So they had to send different bikes to 2 different places. The 6 or 8 that do these events riders had to travel and ride in the same day across a couple of time zones.

I had offered to open the paddock a day or 2 early so that they could get acclimated to the time change and practice, etc. But I think the factory teams would rather not have the extra expense of extra days overseas for the whole team, and they don't want to allow the competition to come early and have an advantage, so there you are. The riders just have to do the best they can in the time available.

We should be thankful that we still get a 2 day event, all the European rounds are one day of competition only, with a European championship on the Saturday. All the European promoters complain about it and I don't blame them, they spend all this time setting sections that get ridden 2 times in one day and that's it.

dan