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by Nick Drew  |  Thu 24 Oct 2013

Europe’s top operator’s fight it out at the Case Rodeo 2013

Last weekend the Digger Man Blog attended the European Final of the Case Rodeo 2013 competition in France, which was my first visit to this superb Case facility.

Europe’s top operator’s fight it out at the Case Rodeo 2013
The event saw teams of highly skilled operators from 13 countries descend on the Case Customer Centre in Monthyon near Paris, over the weekend of the 18th October, for what was the fourth European Rodeo Final. Interestingly, this year’s event saw the first female operator attending the competition, with Lisa Lott Jansson, skilfully representing Sweden in the competition, revealing further evidence of the growing trend for female plant operators around Europe. Lisa is seen below competing in the “Buffalo Basket Ball” element of the contest, where operators using a Case CX55B mini excavator, set off from a starting position, then had to pick up basket balls in the machines bucket and try to score a basket. After each attempt at the basket the contestant had to return the bucket to the starting position before making an attempt with the next ball, all against the clock of course! The overall winner of this event was Sebastien Pirlet from Belgium, with a time of 02:23:24. Belgium also went on to win the best team award. Our UK team member Ashley Goddard came 2nd in this event with a very impressive time of 02:24:09, with fellow UK competitor James Binks coming in fourth. “Crazy Horse” also proved to be a challenging event for the contestants. In this event operator’s had to manoeuvre a Case TV380 tracked skid steer loader through a slalom course, negotiating a series of obstacles without knocking any thing over, gaining time faults if they did. Another element involved picking up a football in the bucket and depositing it in a goal further around the course. In the early stages of this event people were going too fast and damaging the course, which proved costly on the points tally! In time the contestants realised that a more steady approach, was far more beneficial. The winner of this round was Sunins Artis, from Latvia with a completion time of 02:54:00. Taking to the controls of a Case 621F XR wheeled loader, the operator’s took part in the “Wheeled Loader Lasso” competition. This high speed contest saw the contestants racing around picking up coloured poles using the machines front bucket, and distributing them to the colour coded delivery points, which were located around the course. The winner of this contest was a regular at the Case Rodeo event, Peter Bart Poppink, from the Netherlands, who has also become something of a serial winner at this contest! Last of the four contests in this round up is “Bull’s-eye”. In this event the operators had their skills tested to the maximum, whilst using a Case CX210C hydraulic excavator, which was equipped with a chain and hook hanging from its bucket. Using the aforementioned hook, the operators were required to pick up geometric and colour coded shapes, and relocate them into the designated supports as quickly as possible. Those of us that use excavators with chains attached on a daily basis will know that you are often at the mercy of a swinging load, so it takes great skill to remain smooth with your movements at all times to prevent excess swinging! This challenge was once again won by Dutch operator, Peter Bart Poppink, who achieved a time of 03:05:00. Our UK team member Ashley Goddard came in 3rd in this contest, with fellow members James Binks, Lee Graham and Karl Owen coming in 6th, 8th and 11th respectively. Our UK team, who are pictured below from left to right consisted of, Lee Graham of Graham’s Ground Solutions, James Binks of J Binks & Sons, Ashley Goddard of A P Goddard Ltd, and  Karl Owen of KSO Groundwork’s. They were a fantastic bunch of lads, with all the usual attributes of a British team, in terms of a great sense of humour and a competitive team spirit. Our boys actually came 2nd in the overall best team rankings during the competition, which I feel is a cracking result. In an upcoming article for Earthmovers Magazine I will be covering this event from the UK team’s perspective, as they talk to me about the challenges they faced and their journey to one of Europe’s top operator competitions. Definitely one to look out for over the coming months. Overall champion Sebastien Pirlet, is seen below after receiving his award from Serena Bisacca, Case communications director EMEA and Enrica Oderda, Case marketing director EMEA, and will now hold the cup and the title until next year’s competition and will automatically attend the 2014 competition in Europe. He has also won two tickets to the International Rodeo Final that will be held in Brazil in December. I would just like to thank the whole team behind the Case Rodeo event for their kind hospitality over the weekend. We all had a great time both on a personal and professional basis.  

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