81-year-old driving force organizes TrialGP in Zelhem one last time

On September 4, 5, and 6, the former landfill site in Zelhem will serve as the venue for the TrialGP. Following the successful world championship in 2019, the world’s top riders are returning to the town of Bronckhorst to showcase their impressive bike control. But before that happens, there’s still a lot of work to be done: according to organizer Dick Bulten, about twelve challenging obstacles need to be built first.
“And according to the rules and regulations, those obstacles must also vary in difficulty. We’re working on that right now, because we need to stack larger stones high on top of each other,” says 81-year-old organizer Dick Bulten. “We hope to have it finished by the end of May or early June.”

Bulten is 81 years old and wanted to organize one more major sporting event. “I love organizing events. And the fact that it just happens to involve motorcycles—that’s something that came about long ago in the distant past. But I love working with the possibilities—or especially the limitations we have here—to bring the world’s top riders here,” says Bulten with a laugh. “So that the public thinks: ‘How on earth do they manage to organize this kind of event in Zelhem?’ So if they tell me it can’t be done, that’s the wrong thing to say to me.”

Bulten still had to convince his family, but that was easily done. “After a good conversation and a glass of wine, everything was given the green light.”

Obstacles
Alex van den Broek, an eleven-time Dutch trial champion, flew in to build the obstacles, and that’s quite a challenge. “Especially since we unfortunately have to build everything artificially here, a few centimeters can sometimes make a huge difference. Otherwise, something is actually too easy, or completely impossible,” says Van den Broek. “It’s actually almost like building with Lego for adults. And if I can later offer challenges to a lot of people in a lot of different ways, I’ll get a lot of satisfaction out of that.”

Taking a step back
Bulten indicates that after the TrialGP he will be less active for the motorcycle club, but that the organization of the Trial competitions will be left in good hands. “I’ve already indicated that after the World Championship, I’ll be taking a significant step back from the club. But we’ve chosen an organizational structure where the GP committee absorbs all the information like a sponge,” says Bulten. “If they have a woman as accommodating as I am, it’s possible that a third World Championship might be organized in the future.”