25th March, 2018, Mt Erin, Middle Road, Havelock Nth, Hawkes Bay
We stayed at Blair & Susan Hislops place on Saturday night.
On Sunday morning he made us poached eggs for breakfast.
Last year at this property you could hardly walk without falling over, let alone ride up banks and rocks.
This year, thankfully, it was mostly dry, though still quite tricky to ride.
I pretty much rode by myself. I tried to tag along with Kevin Gundry and Kerry Lowndes again but they were going a bit faster than me and I couldn’t keep up.
I struggled a bit. I was tired from Saturday and couldn’t get my head in the right place so was dropping silly points all day.
I never quite got section one to my satisfaction. The line I was riding went through a small creek, across a slightly greasy farm track, and then up a steep bank that was a bit undercut with a root at the top, conveniently placed to catch the front wheel, knock some momentum off, and then the bank went up a bit further and that’s where my back wheel started spinning. I just managed to get my bike through it the first couple of times but, on the last lap, my front wheel slipped and my handlebar touched the ground. This was frustrating because everyone else in inters, at some point in the day, got better than a three.
I did have a few small victories on the last lap but it still didn’t quite compensate for my mistakes.I did have an OK day but it would have been a lot better if I’d been able to pull my head in.
Paddock to left of car park:
Section one: Over drop off, across creek, up vertical bank, round tree, over rock and tree, and out.
Section two: Over log, tight left, up, and down a bank, then sharp up.
Up left hand branch of creek:
Section three: Horse-shoe bend waterfall
Section four: Slippery rocks under trees, steep bank to left of stream
Section five: Up creek, tricky rocks at end
Section six: Similar to four, where Dougy crashed on video last year
On the way back…
Section seven: Opposite three, through a small rivulet, up an open hillside and over roots, back down, up again, and down.
Along right branch of creek:
Section eight: Steep down, then a vicious and steep up to the left, with little run up. Then back down into the gully, up a small rock, then immediately up a very steep bank with roots at top.
Section nine: Easy, ride up gully, under fallen tree, a few easy rocks, then a easy enough climb out.
Section ten: Tight stuff around rocks, hill climb. Should have been easier but kept getting bash plate stuck on a rock at top of one of the turns.
Section eleven: Easy up, down, up, down, out. Fairly open, around a few trees.
Section twelve: A hill under some trees on farmland. Got a silly two there on last lap.