BEN TOWNLEY – FIRST TIME EXTREME
My first experience at an extreme enduro was
definitely a tough day at the office to say the least.
After having a chat to organiser Sean Clarke a few
days out, I managed to track down a KTM 300 TPI
to have a crack at it. Now, I’ve done my fair share of
XC and enduro events, but this was a completely
different kind of track to conquer. It certainly wasn’t
about getting the holeshot... as I quickly found out.
I started on row five for the day, and when we
were let go I quickly got into my work. The trail
was pretty flowing, but technical, and I was able to
pass a few riders before we got to the first gold
section. This was a pretty narrow ridge line that
was slow, very technical, rooty riding which I was
able to get through comfortably. With a quick
road section and then a log crossing, we were then
into the second gold section and this is where my
day started to go pear-shaped in a real hurry.
I should mention before I talk about this section
that I was going like a bat out of hell from the
WHAT IS A HARD X?
T
he Husqvarna Hard X came to me as
an event that could show riders what
the Labour Weekend Husqvarna Hard
Adventure Enduro is like, but without all the
effort that is required to do the full three
day event. The Labour Weekend event is a
mammoth 300km off-road event that runs
from Putaruru to Ataimuri, where riders have to
navigate with a GPS and have a headlight and
tail-light on their bikes as the are using major
forestry roads to link it all together. Each day
takes riders six to eight hours to complete.
The Hard X is a simple cross country loop with
a few hard sections around the track that are
challenging enough, but not impossible. It’s
a simple turn up and race event that offers
a lot of fun. Seventy-odd riders started the
Hard X and most of them finished at least
two laps, with the top two Gold class riders
completing six laps each. The feed back from
the riders was exceptional with every one
saying they had a great time. SEAN CLARKE
Ben Townley
start because I’d assumed the race was like
a normal XC race with some technical riding.
I’d been on the horn trying to pass guys and
really being quite an ass after starting on row
five. Well, when I was sat on the side of a hill in
the second gold section waiting my turn to be
helped up, the guys beside me were probably
thinking, what was all the hurry to be sat here?
The uphill was a fresh, never ridden ridge
that was soft, pine-needled and rooty under
the soft top soil. It was a tough section for
me, I struggled with the theory of less throttle
up a steep, soft uphill and couldn’t get it
mastered in two minutes, that’s for sure!
So I’ll mention now, on the second lap I got through
much better, but I was just getting to the top and
pulled over for a quick break only to be lapped by
Jake Whitaker. It was impressive to see Jake attack
this section, he rode up there with both feet on
the pegs and with complete ease, a very different
picture to what I had just done to get up there…
The second to last gold section was interesting; a
steep little downhill section and into some rocks.
Now, I’ve definitely never ridden rocks and this was
interesting to say the least. The first little downhill
was tight, I had to wriggle the bike 90-degrees to
KIWI RIDER 33