News has been posted on social media direct from the Scottish Six Days Trial organising committee that the feedback received from competitors after this year’s event was that the 2016 trial was a ‘bit hard’ for many.

In a spirit of open-ness, the committee invited riders to feedback their assessment of the annual Highland classic event which has been running for well over 100 years.

In a statement issued on 26th May, following from their usual debriefing meeting, the following statement was issued:

“The 2016 SSDT is now officially over after the committee had there ‘greeting meeting’ on Tuesday night.
We had some great feedback from the riders and while they all enjoyed it we did get the message that the sections were a bit hard this year.
We want to spread the message that we will be addressing this next year to ensure a good mix of sections.
For the SSDT to prosper we have to listen to the competitors and ensure they have an enjoyable week while maintaining the challenge of the event.
So we will be easing off on some of the sections next year.
We welcome feedback so if you want to let us know your thoughts please post them here or through our website http://www.ssdt.org”.

John Moffat at Trials Guru commented: “I am very happy that the SSDT organisers have taken the task on board to listen and make constructive comment upon what the competitors say. After all, the riders are this event’s customers, they pay to ride and without them, there would be no trial. I was assisting at the end of the event this year at the finish podium by interviewing the finishers and it was evident that many did feel that the severity of the trial was on the hard side of challenging. OK, one must accept that this may not represent all competitors, but certainly it did reflect the opinion of the majority as far as I could detect at the finish podium. I must applaud the committee for being open and transparent with their findings, this can only be good for the event and the sport of trials”.

The Scottish has a reputation as being the ultimate challenge for a trials competitor to undertake, but the majority of those taking part are clubmen and the over-forty age bracket, which included the winner, Dougie Lampkin. However, there is a fine balance between setting out a challenging course and a destructive one and it would appear that the SSDT committee are keen to set their stall out early to attract riders for the 2017 event.