Season Update from Billy Green: TrialGP Rd 4&5 France & San Marino
At Slickwhips, we're proud to back riders who live and breathe grit, passion, and performance. Billy Green is one of those rare athletes who brings all three to the world stage - and these past two rounds of the World Championship have been a serious test of resilience.
From the heat and hardship of Corsica to the slick technical sections of San Marino, Billy’s journey has been anything but smooth. But true to form, he’s stayed sharp, bounced back, and shown exactly why he’s one to watch this season.
Here’s Billy’s take on Rounds 4 & 5 — in his own words...
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Here we are after two tough weeks away for rounds 4 & 5 of the World Championship. It’s been challenging mentally and physically but I’ve continued to push forward no matter what.
Round 4 was on the island of Corsica, France. It was a hot and dusty weekend with all of the sections based on top of a very rocky hill overlooking the town. There was immense amounts of grips, however the sections didn’t look overly hard with this considered. The first day went fair well with only one 5 on each lap, although I didn’t feel my best 4th place was a solid result. Sunday started off very much the same however midway though the first lap my bike started to run quite rich and poppy. This then developed as the lap went on to the point the engine felt laboured and the tick over had dropped. The team made a few adjustments in the lunch break, however riding up to the sections on the second lap the bike had worsened. Not having much time to fix the bike on the lap I proceeded to soldier on and ride the bike the best I could. I was salvaging some of the sections until number 8 where, on top of a big step, the bike popped, banged and stopped. I managed to restart the bike but it would barely run. We tried swapping parts and fixing the bike to no avail, at this stage I was out of the points so unfortunately had to retire from the lap. I was distraught, to say I was disappointed was an understatement.
During the week I had some time away from the bike to try to restart and reset for San Marino.
Round 5 was in San Marino, a micro-state within Italy. A venue I had been to two years ago I was prepared for some slippery stream sections with the addition this year of 3 man made sections. On Friday I was riding the same bike as last but didn’t feel comfortable, so made the change to my other bike for the rest of the weekend. Saturday I really struggle to find my flow, feeling tired and weak on the bike. It was a mildly average day finishing 8th. Saturday was an easier trial so it was easier to find my flow, I did feel better on the bike finding room to make some new lines and save marks where others couldn’t. To my surprise I had won! What a result. I was happy to have won and put some decent point on the championship board.
Im still sat in 3rd place 40 points behind 2nd place. Although it’s quite a gap I will keep pushing for the best results I can in the next events to try and close the gap.
Next up is Round 1 of the ACU TrialGB British Championship at Inch Perfect Trials.
As always thank you for your continued support,
Billy
