Richard Cox, Roy Prescott and Tim Mitchell
This year the UK team comprised: Richard Cox – an engineering contractor from Bristol; Roy Prescott – farmer from Southport and Tim Mitchell – a car technician from Wales. Their ages ranged from mid-20s to mid-40s and their riding experience included everything from newbie racer, to an experienced trials vet and even a junior motocross champion.
Team UK’S greatest achievement arguably came at the end when the lead marshal named them the team with the biggest smiles, best jokes and most carefree attitude.
‘Taking part really was a dream come true,’ says Prescott. ‘At the start of last year I hadn’t heard of the GS Trophy and now I’ve actually done it. We struggled a bit on the first few days and I got some stick after I ran over a journalist on day one, then fell off on day two. But it meant there was no pressure for the rest of the week and we could get on and really enjoy ourselves.’
‘I think some teams got a bit caught up in the actual competition element,’ adds Cox. ‘You could see that if they did well early on, then every point came to matter. They wanted to win and ended up taking it so seriously it kind of spoiled the trip for them – we saw some lads having a proper sulk when they did badly in a test. As for us, we were just singing and having a good craic.
‘Before we came out Simon and Llel Pavey told us if you get to New Zealand you’re already winners and we really had to remind ourselves of that when we struggled in tasks.’
‘It was very different to what I expected,’ admits Mitchell. ‘At first I struggled a little, not with the riding, with how it was arranged. At the start I was really hoping we could do well in the competition, especially after seeing other teams, but after a couple of days I realised we were never going to win and relaxed into it. I really relaxed by the end.’