free-draining and offers great traction , with a mix of trails from novice to AAA Expert , regular sweep riders and onsite medical assistance , I felt confident that if the worst happened , I would at least be looked after . Along with my riding companion for the weekend , Mathieu Day-Gillett on his Honda CRF250 Rally , I figured that as long as I stuck to the easy trails to begin with , I should at least be able to complete one loop . It would be a great test if it was dry , but if it rained , things had the potential to get challenging ... fast . Hello Murphy ’ s Law ! Saturday morning it was hosing down , and the rain didn ’ t let up all day . We hit the trails around 9:30am , and they were already feeling rather soft . I opted for the shortest loop to begin with and as soon as I rode through the pits and out the gate , I was starting to think I had made a terrible mistake . I had loads of traction in the rear , but the front was feeling very washy and uncontrollable . The weight of the bike was playing against me . About 4km in I started to feel a little more confident , but still riding slowly and with caution , trying to pick the driest lines . The last 2km were the worst by far , as this was the section where all
the other trails joined , so all riders were covering the same ground . I kept at it , completing the first loop of 8km in around 30 minutes . Back in the pits I took stock and assessed the situation . Heavy bike , loads of power , little front end traction . I let some air out of the tyres , going down to around 15psi in the front and 18 in the rear . We then decided to tackle a longer loop . As we were already soaked through , it didn ’ t matter how long it took us to get back . As soon as I hit the trails again , I felt more at home , more in control . I got the bike up into 2nd and 3rd and started to enjoy my self . I was getting some real flow going on . This trail was longer , around 15km , and although we stuck to the easy trail , I was getting some confidence up . That was until we started coming up on some small hill climbs . The first few were actually quite fun , I got the bike in 2nd and just wound on the power . With the exhaust singing obnoxiously , and the Maxxis rear tyre digging in and carving a trench up the hills . The first four or so were great , but then we came up on climb that riders on smaller dedicated dirt bikes were getting stuck on . Sitting at the bottom studying the lines , it
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