Trials ace Ricky Wiggins refuses to let pressure take toll
Trials bike ace Ricky Wiggins starts the new campaign fitter than ever, keen to enjoy each event rather than be burdened by the pressure of reclaiming the British Championships.
The 2011 British Expert A Class Trials Champion from Stoford heads to Southampton this weekend for the Dave Pragnall Trial, wearing MRS Serco colours for the first time on the Autocycle Union Southern Centre circuit.
Car sprayer Wiggins ended a seven-year association with Spanish manufacturer Gas Gas in the winter to join forces with the North Yorkshire-based official importer of Sherco bikes.
As the outfit’s top UK rider, Wiggins said he was relishing the months ahead and was looking forward to repaying the faith put in him trials legend Malcolm Rathnell’s team.
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A dislocated shoulder sustained whilst training over Christmas is a distant memory, with thoughts now filled with tackling the gruelling Hampshire course on Sunday, the prestigious national Colmore Cup next month and even the United Kingdom round of the World Championships later this year.
Wiggins, 21, said: “I feel the best I have felt. This is the fittest I have been and I have been training a lot with (two-time British Enduro Champion) Rob Sartin of Talon Engineering, who has been a great help over the last six weeks since dislocating my shoulder.
“I have been back training as hard as I can and going out on the bike every weekend just to get as much time on the bike as I possibly can.
“I dislocated the shoulder when riding at Portland at Christmas, but it is a lot better now and I am doing as much work as I can to get it as strong as I possibly can.
“I have got two new bikes and I am loving working with the team. They are really helpful, really good with me and really good with the bike. It is probably the best move I have made in my career, everybody in the team is good and there is a good feeling.
“I am just hoping that after all the effort that people have put into me and all the training I have done that the results follow as they are all that matter, really. I want to pay them back.
“I just want to be consistently inside the top ten of the top group in the British Championship. I want to get some top fives and maybe some podiums, but you never know.
“The year I won the British Championship I was expecting to get top five but I won it so since then I have never really set any targets, I just try to get as high as I can. I just try to go to every event and not feel the pressure but just enjoy myself.
“Last year was tough with injuries. Hopefully this year I will stay injury free and can surprise a few people at the same time.”
Wiggins added that he would take the care-free approach into the World Championships round as he looks to test himself against the best the globe has to offer. And although he has achieved so much at such a tender age, he is refusing to get carried away with what the future may hold.
“A lot of riders I am competing against have had the opportunity to ride full-time,” said Wiggins. “I could probably go along that line but there are so many people who are a few years older than me and have done it for a lot longer with support from the start.
“Obviously I have achieved things a lot sooner than some. We are going to do the UK round of the World Championship this year, just go there and just enjoy it.
“When I went to that first round of the British Championship I just went there to see what would happen, I enjoyed it and ended up winning easily. I have not really thought about the events, I have just concentrated on riding every weekend and when the competitions come around I will take them as they come and see what happens.
“My team are just happy for me to do it, more than anything, whilst flying the banner for them. It will be a massive experience for me more than anything.
“I will go there and you never know I might get in the points, the top five or even a podium. Riding the British Championship you get to know who you are up against but with the worlds you don’t know if there will be a Spanish, French or Japanese riders.
“There could be a really good field or it could be just pot luck where I go there and do better than expected. We are not going to think about it and take it as it comes. Hopefully it will all come together.”
Wiggins thanked Gas Gas for their support in helping launch his career in the adult classes and said the change of team was working well for him so far. He said: “The main reason behind the change was for a change in bikes. I had ridden for Gas Gas for a long time and with winning the British Championship I was offered a really good deal.
“I would like to thank my old team for their help over the last seven or eight years with my success and they have said I would be welcome to go back whenever. Sometimes you have got to change and this team is better for me right now because I feel they do more to support me.
“That is with no disrespect to Gas Gas, it’s just with that team there were so many riders ahead of me with regards to the World Championships. My new team is a really strong UK-based team, which is good for me.”
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