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Day
1
Saturday had good weather, though a bit chilly, and the 20-mile loop
featured 20 sections, mostly in the muddy woods. Riders had to change
their cards and enter a time check at the halfway point, and Bilbao
started off poorly by arriving late. Oddly enough, the leading three
riders (Agostoni, Re Delle Gandine and Tanaka) were tied (scoring
22) on everything - number of cleans, number of dabs, etc. Bilbao
only had a 21, but his three late points put him at 24, in fourth.
In fifth was Kuroyama, with 24, three better than Justribo.
Day 2
The sun was still shining on Sunday's 130 lucky participants, who
took to the 30 sections laid out on a 40-mile loop (mostly of the
transfers were on road). The sections were more difficult than Saturday's,
and all the top riders moved together in a group. A steep rock in
section 19 stopped the pretenders, many of whom had already lost a
lot of time studying it. Bilbao was lucky because his number (58)
was the lowest of the top riders, and since the order was reversed
for day two, he was the last to start. Since the top riders were travelling
in a group, he was the least late. But his riding was quite strong
anyway, and he received large cheers from the fans as he made his
way around the loop. At the finish, many of the top riders discovered
they had made a poor choice when waiting for their rivals, and they
paid the price. That left room for names like Fabio Lenzi (who rode
more quickly and finished as the runner-up) and young Valerio Bauce
(who rode well and made the third step of the podium).

With
the first World round scheduled to go off in just over a month, international
trials competitors knew that they were running out of time when the
Due Giorni della Brianza (Two Days of Brianza) pre-season competition
came along in the northern Italian town of Monza (famous for its road
circuit). But during the even, many entrants found themselves literally
out of time, as a tight course schedule had a number of riders being
disqualified for finishing late. The event was run in a format very
similar to the Scottish Six Days, and the entry list was populated
by a number of top riders. Many of those were among the people finishing
late, as they took their time and studied the sections - some of which
were quite difficult - without realizing that they were running out
of time. True, they could refer to their schedules and maps, but such
information only gives an approximate idea of where you stand, as
there is no way to know ahead of time how difficult a section will
be or how long other competitors will require to navigate it.
Thus, it would be easy to assume that the rare victory by veteran
Amos Bilbao was underserved, but that is not so. Subtract the time
penalties from all of the top riders, and the little Spaniard would
still have emerged with the win. The old lion, who was on the point
of retiring at the end of last year, showed that his last-minute change
of heart was no mistake.
Fans of Marcel Justribo, on the other hand, were deluded at the event,
as the new Sherco rider finished sixth on Saturday before riding better
on Sunday, only to have his score thrown out for finishing late. The
disqualification of Japanese riders Kenichi Kuroyama and Taichi Tanaka
was even more of a surprise, as both have ridden the event many times
and are normally fairly quick. Young Tanaka was leading the competition
(tied with Italians Dario Re Delle Gandine and Pietro Agostoni), on
the first day, but didn't hurry enough on day two.

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