said before I left New Zealand that finishing Romaniacs would be my win, and being part of the pack surviving four days in the Carpathians against some of the best hard enduro riders on the planet was the realistic goal. Anything beyond that was a bonus. That was a lie, well-meaning but a lie all the same. And it turned out to be one of the more interesting parts of the whole week... once I actually let myself admit it.

PUTTING ON A FACE Outwardly I was all,“ It doesn’ t matter where I finish, I just want to get through it,” but internally, from the second that Prologue clock started, results mattered to me more than I was letting on to anyone... including myself.

Pretending otherwise for a few weeks of prerace content didn’ t change the fact that the competitive switch flicked on the moment I lined up, and that quiet mismatch between what I was saying out loud and what I actually wanted came to a head. For the entire event, I found myself wrestling with it at pretty much every service point and every start line for four straight days. The headline is that I finished 3rd in the ADV Core class, on a CFMOTO 450MT, at my first ever Romaniacs. But that’ s just the headline, this is the story behind it.

PROLOGUE Things started off terribly! I was nervous going into the Prologue, although, underneath the

KIWI RIDER 23