you had to be on full lock the whole time AND have the bike quite laid over while riding very slow and not stalling … A bit tricky. Chris was exceptional at this and got through cleanly! I think the only rider in the whole event to do so. He was also quickest overall in a few other tests( great job mate!). The rest of us were okay, if not perfect. Quite a lot of riders had to stop and back up a few times to make the turn, it certainly wasn’ t easy. That was the first day done and dusted. And what a fun day it was! All of the teams were relaxed and chatting while waiting for the results. By this point we had an idea Team Kiwi was going pretty well, but, it turned out we were in the lead by almost 70 points. Wow, I don’ t think any of us expected that. We were excited for day two with an 180km adventure loop, something that would be much more our style – with only three challenge tests to complete.
DAY TWO The day was going to mainly consist of a decent trail ride over forestry roads( several quite rocky), some with lots of cool jumps, others with wet slippery tracks, a lot of up and down huge hills and, generally, it turned out to be a real
blast. The first test was an excellent 8km blat over a great mix of what I’ ve just described. After a quick team talk it was decided I would go first, then Scotty and Mark, with Chris doing the hard yards at the back in all our dust and roost. We all had to time in to the test together and all time out together- the whole team scoring as one. For me, this was probably the most fun test of all. In this test the Sena coms units came into their own. Scotty was calling distance remaining which was great encouragement, as towards the end I was getting a bit knackered. We all talked about the jumps that were cool and the standout fun bits and had quite a laugh. With clear view out front, I tried to call the dodgy bits, big rocks, jumps with kickers and unexpected tight turns etc, my thinking being Chris in particular probably couldn’ t see anything. Again, the team smoked through quickly and drama free … which couldn’ t be said for others, judging by the skid marks whistling off turns into the boonies – bugger. Moving on to the second test of the day – the‘ muscle’ test. All four of us had to get all of our bikes over a massive log with dead engines. The start was two metres in front of the log
KIWI RIDER 49