20 Aug 2017, Gorge Quarry, 4999 Napier Road, Woodville (SH3)
Kevin gave me a ride over.
It was raining in the morning but let up before we started. The trial was at the gorge quarry. The gorge is closed at the moment so we had to go over the saddle road. The rocks are nowhere near as grippy as Hawkes Bay but they’re still cvool to ride on. There was some trees and a few banks too.
I was riding with Kevin and Warwick. They were riding A Grade, which I usually ride. Because I want to work on my consistency I decided to ride down a grade.
My favourite section was seven. I got a one on it on my second lap when my back wheel skidded a bit on top of a small bank. Other than that I cleaned it all day. It started off going over a railway sleeper, then a tight left corner over another sleeper, tight right corner, then turn out to the left a bit, then come back in and up onto a small mound of dirt, ride along a bit, then turn left and go up a bank. The bank is on the side of the hill so, when I got to the top, I had to put my front wheel out onto the side of the hill, so I didfn’t get cauught up on the tree before turning down. Then it was jusdt up onto the mound a little bit, around another tree on a bank, then down and out.
My least favourite section was five. On my first lap I didn’t have another glance at it after I walked it and I got lost and missed a peg. On my second lap my back wheel caught on something while I was turning on the side of the hill (I thought I was gioing to do a head-dive, freaked me out a bit). On my third lap I cleaned it perfectly and I was just going down the bank at the end when my front wheel hit an extremely small stone and my bike went one way and I went another, right before the end flags. I finally cleaned it on my last lap.
It was really cool to have Paul Simmons there to compete against. There were five guys fromn Hawkes Bay there. I found it quite easy but most of the others were around the 50 point mark. But then again, I was riding down a grade.
I had a bit of a cold but, other than that I had a great day.