24th March, 2018, Dartmoor Road, Puketapu, Hawkes Bay
We left home at 5:30 in the morning to get to the trial with plenty of time to sign on, get changed, and have a warm-up on the bike.
I didn’t ride around with anyone in particular but, for the first lap, I tagged along with Kevin Gundry and Kerry Lowndes and got a few tips from them on where and how to ride some of the sections.
I got three’s on the first couple of sections and felt I could have done better and was a bit worried it would set the tone for the day.
After those first sections though my day started to get a lot better.
The biggest highlight of my day was section eight. There was a small flat rock which was easy as but, before it, there was a tight right-hander so I couldn’t get straight on to it. Immediately after was a few bigger rocks but, just as you were coming on to them, the back wheel hits the front of the small one. On the first lap over half of the intermediate field fived it, including people who are better riders than me. I went into the section half expecting a five but somehow I got it perfectly – I just got over it. Then I cleaned it for the rest of the day as well. The only other person to clean it for the whole day was Daniel Herbert, the winner of the Intermediate class on day one.
Usually there’s one or two sections I don’t like quite so much but, at this event, they were all great.
I was a little freaked out by the rocks on one and five but I got up and, by the end of the day, was cleaning them.
My focus drifted a bit on nine and ten on the last couple of laps and cost me a few placings. Apart from that I mostly kept it together and didn’t get too bad a score. Overall I had a pretty good day.
