2007 Trial des Nations - Great Britain

30/9/2007

Team Japan Returned to 2nd

After having a frustrating Outdoor season and to finish third in the championship, Fujinami visited the Isle of Man to finish up 2007 season with Trial des Nations. His objects were clear to better the team finish than the previous years, and to have some runs he wouldn't regret to have a momentum for the coming season.

Team Japan finished second in 2000, but since then, third became their usual finishing position. They almost lost the spot last year, after fighting hard with three riders. This year, Ogawa, Kuroyama, Nozaki and Fuji formed the four men team. The way it was supposed to be, and there was no disadvantage to start with.

Ogawa rode 2006 works bike that Fuji rode last year. It was the bike Fuji rode in the Indoor championship this year too. Although the works bike is usually superior to the standard machinery, because of the special set up for a specific rider - in this case 'Fuji-gas special', it isn't always easy and comfortable to ride for the other rider; so for Ogawa either. The biggest difference was the suspension set up, which Ogawa had to get use to. He could have adjusted the bike to meet his taste, but he decided to ride the way it was because he figured it would be difficult to find an ideal set up in a short amount of time.

Ogawa knew it was going to be tricky to ride Fuji's bike, but it was a better case compared to Kuroyama and Nozaki's. They arrived the venue on Wednesday, and they had to have a holiday on Thursday because they had no bike to ride. The bikes arrived on Friday, and the set-up and adjustment works took place until late in the evening. Two Japanese did not have a chance to practice on Friday after all. They had a short practice on Saturday and prepare for the battle next day on the bikes they weren't comfortable enough.

At least, team Japan was lucky to pick the final starting order to have a chance to see how the rivals would do. Still, because of limited number of the staff in the team Japan, they had troubles collecting the information during the event.

Severity of the sections was low. The Spanish team thought they were extraordinarily easy, so they made a request for modifications to make them more reasonable. The easier the sections are the more decisive the mistakes would be. Their concern also came from the results at the women's championship held on Friday, where fellow Spaniard Laia Saiz lost the victory after making a single five point error and lost the championship too. The request wasn't granted, but looking at the results, many teams seems to have a hard time with the sections. The organizer made the right choice and good job to set up the sections for the special event.

The team Japan fought well at Lap1, dropping one point at the section four and another at two sections later. They were within a reach to the Spanish team, even though they were performing all clean at the time. However, after dropping a point at the section nine, they suffered a full mark at the section 11, when two riders made five point mistakes. Then, team Japan was a point ahead of team GB and eight points behind the Spanish team. Fuji said he believed it was possible to sneak up on the Spanish team at the stage. But they suddenly started to drop points now and then after that to build up the points. Team Spain on the other hand kept their error free, the gap became too far to catch.

At the section 17, the indoor style section, team Spain showed all clean as well as the team GB. Team Japan however dropped another five when Nozaki and Ogawa made five point errors. The section wasn't particularly difficult especially for Ogawa. But remember, he was on the bike with 'Fujigas set-up'? He couldn't maneuver the bike correctly when required a quick reaction. He would have no problem if he was on his bike. Team Japan then finished Lap1 with 19 points, three points behind the GB team.

Managing time is an important and difficult part of the TDN games. There are more sections than the usual championships, and there are four riders to ride. If first three riders mark clean, the fourth rider doesn't need to ride - the worst result will be omitted - and they can save time. But any of first three make mistake, the fourth rider need to ride to make a damage limitation.

So, at Lap2, it became evident that team Japan didn't have enough time allowance. Kuroyama's motor occasionally stopped in water sections, so all four riders needed to ride, and they couldn't save time as much as they needed.

Team Japan made a plan before the event to follow GB team, the biggest rival for the second place. Also, they wanted to make sure a fair judgement would take place for the GB team at their home ground. Their worry wasn't necessary as the observers in the Isle of Man were very clear and fair. But as the event progressed, team Japan needed to go ahead of team GB in order to finish as early as possible.

When the team Japan arrived at the section 17, where previously they dropped five points, they had only three minutes left. Suppose it would take a minute for a rider to ride a section and all four riders have to ride, that would be eight minutes for the final two sections. Fuji thought both Nozaki and Ogawa wouldn't make five point mistake twice, so he skipped the section to proceed to ride the final section and wait for three to catch up. It was a big gamble for Fuji to leave them behind, because it could be a huge five points penalty if one of three dropped five points. But at the same time, they would suffer some over time penalty if Fuji stayed. Fuji's gamble paid off, and team Japan marked clean at both section 17 and 18. But still they couldn't stay away from the time penalty either.

Clearly, the Spanish team was long gone, but the team Japan didn't have a concrete idea how the team GB did. Fuji made a calculation while waiting for the official results to be made. He thought they didn't make much of a progress at Lap2, so he figured it was impossible to finish ahead of team GB, who did better than Japanese at Lap1. Four Japanese riders were despondent and ready to hear their defeat at the battle for the second place.

The results were announced, and the team Japan was surprised to find that they were six points better than the team GB. The GB team dropped six points more at Lap2 and three more time penalty than Japan team to blow their early lead they made at Lap1. The team Japan went back up to the second step of the podium, seven long years after 2000. Missing the event in 2001, they finished third for five consecutive years.

Shortly after the event, Kuroyama and Nozaki were busy to disassemble the parts to go back home for their championship.

Quote from Fujigas:

I think I rode well today. Me, Dougie and Spanish team compared the points after the event. Toni had six, Adam had eight, and I think Albert had seven points. Dougie said he dropped nine points. I skipped the section 17 on Lap2, but I think I should have marked clean there, so my five points result wasn't too bad after all. Honestly speaking, I was frustrated a little on Lap2, because we really needed to hurry, yet I saw five point mistake and so on to slow down the pace. But, when we heard we were second, it didn't matter anymore. We were four very happy riders. I had a sore throat from a cold going to the event, but I kept cheering up our riders during the event. Now I can barely speak.