The Matrix , a short arenacross-style extreme enduro prologue course , could also be described as being quite similar to a typical trials section . Within The Matrix arena , each of the first three “ dabs ” ( touching a foot to the ground ) would be penalised with 10 seconds being added to a rider ’ s time and any more than that wouldn ’ t be counted against the rider . An engine stall , a dropped bike , or riding out of the course bounds incurred a maximum 50-second penalty . “ Every time I try to improve the event , making it safer ,” said event organiser Herbert . “ Historically , the trials club guys and the dirt bike codes do their own thing , but , when I went to the international Red Bull Romaniacs ( extreme enduro event in Romania ), you could see that the trials guys could find traction
where nobody else could ,” he said . “ So this event is a cross-pollination of the bike codes , where they can all learn from one another . Everyone will have learnt something here today . “ Everybody wants to be pushed a little bit out of their comfort zones and my obstacle course is based on The Matrix movie ... you can take the ‘ red pill ’ or the ‘ blue pill ’, the easy option or the hard option . The hard option will save you time and the easy option has less risk , but takes longer . Obviously the fastest rider wins . “ Before today , we ’ ve run this event four times and had two trials bike riders win it and two dirt bike riders win it ... this year we had a guy winning it who is comfortable in both formats . “ When it gets fast , the trials bikes bounce along a little bit and , when it ’ s slow and technical , it ’ s best to have a trials bike . It really
New Plymouth ’ s Matt Foster launches his trials bike up a steep concrete face in the Matrix segment of the Korito Technical Matrix event in Taranaki . He finished overall runner-up in the Gold Grade
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