Tuesday October 31, 2017 at 3:42pm
Britain’s top lady off-road riders have had another very successful season on the world stage with Emma Bristow claiming her fourth World Trials Championship crown at the final round at Arco de Trento, Italy in September.
The enduro and trial parc was a fantastic setting for the Sherco rider to demonstrate her skills in front of a large and appreciative gathering of fans, many of them British, who had made the trip specifically to watch the Lincolnshire lady clinch her fourth consecutive title.
Hoping to claim the crown with a clean sweep of the series, Emma had to settle for second place on the day to Germany’s Theresa Bauml when she clipped a marker flag with the rear wheel which cost her five marks in a relatively easy event, a loss she was unable to recover from. However at the end she was able to share the podium as top woman from Spain’s Sandra Gomez in second and Bauml third.
In the women's national team competition held a week later, the British squad of Bristow, Jess Bown and Donna Fox took second overall to the Spanish squad having been the defending champions for the past few years.
Having been third in the world Women’s Enduro Championship in 2016, Lancashire’s Jane Daniels moved up a placing to finish runner-up in the series for 2017 after a challenging series of events.
After a three round series that began in Spain back in April, continuing in Portugal and Slovakia, it was Germany’s Maria Franke who won the series with Daniels second and Spain’s former World Women’s Trial Champion Laia Sanz in third.
Women in off-road spot in the UK is very strong with the national championships attracting up to 50 women and girls on the trials scene and smaller but equally competitive numbers in the enduro championships.