Burts Battles Through a Brutal Weekend at Abestone
Waterfall tumbles, rock garden chaos and a whole pile of graft.
It was a weekend of mixed emotions for our Burts Crayston in Italy, taking on Abestone Hard Enduro as part of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship.
Set in the mountains around Abetone and Val di Luce, Abestone is proper Hard Enduro territory – rocky climbs, streams, technical sections and plenty designed to push the best riders to their limits. This year's event brought another stacked international field to Italy for Round 5 of the World Championship.
And Burts got the weekend off to a cracking start.
Saturday's qualifying saw Burts put in a strong ride to take P10, earning himself a second-row start for the Sprint Race.
More importantly, he was feeling good on the bike and could see the improvements in his speed coming through.
Then things got a little more eventful.
During the Sprint Race, Burts went head over arse coming down a waterfall. He got himself going again (earning the name worst case scenario survivor) and pushed hard to try and make the time back, but the heat and altitude began to take their toll.
With heat exhaustion setting in, Burts was eventually forced to DNF.
Not exactly the Saturday anyone had planned.
A strong showing from Burts in the early qualification.
That DNF meant Burts had it all to do on Sunday, starting the final from the very back of the 50-rider field.
He settled into a pace, pushed where it mattered and grafted his way through some seriously tough conditions to eventually bring it home in P27 overall.
Considering where he'd started, the rock garden chaos and what he'd been through the day before – there was plenty to take from it.
Triple D Boss and dad Neil Crayston shared:
"I'm truly pleased with 27th overall as I saw a proper grafting lad in real tough conditions. Well done from the boss!"
The result also means more Junior class points on the board, in a class Neil reckons is getting stronger and stronger as the season progresses.
A weekend of mixed emotions for Triple D/KTM UK rider Burts in Italy with strong opening performance and few lessons learned from waterfalls and the heat.
A weekend of mixed emotions for Triple D/KTM UK rider Burts in Italy with strong opening performance and few lessons learned from waterfalls and the heat.
It wasn't the weekend Burts had pictured after such a strong qualifying result, but that's Hard Enduro.
There was speed on Saturday, a fairly spectacular meeting with a waterfall, heat exhaustion, a DNF and then a fight back through the field on Sunday.
Plenty learned. More World Championship experience banked. And more groundwork laid for what's coming next.
As Burts summed it up:
"Certainly not quite how I imagined the weekend to go, but still some groundwork to do leading forward."
Next stop for Burts is back on home soil for the British Extreme Championship at Cowm Quarry in a few weeks.
