nerves, I genuinely thought this was going to be my chance to shine, as I’ ve always rated my slow-riding skills as one of my real strengths. Then I made an amateur mistake that cost me the whole day, leaving ABS and traction control switched on by accident. On the concrete sections where I needed to slide the back wheel around and pivot smoothly, the electronics simply wouldn’ t let me do it, and instead of sliding I found myself pulsing straight into barriers again and again- fighting the bike the entire way rather than working with it. It was a disaster of my own making. I finished the Prologue in 14th, genuinely gutted. This was supposed to be the one part of the event that suited me and instead it became the first real test of whether I could let a bad result go, rather than carry it into the next four days. That’ s the thing about a rough Prologue at an event like this, it’ s a mental trap. I had to make a conscious decision that night to treat it as a closed chapter rather than a sign of how the week was going to go, because if I’ d let 14th sit in my head going into Day 1, I don’ t think I’ d have ridden anywhere near as well as I needed to.
BLOWING OUT THE DUST AND LEARNING TO TRUST Straight off the start line on Day 1, my heart rate rocketed through the roof, and I blew myself out completely in the first fifteen minutes, riding way over my own redline
24 KIWI RIDER