by Avendano, where Peters went
clean on all three rides, gave
Peters the advantage and the
German ultimately claimed the
runners-up slot by eight points
over Avendano, 40-48.
North America GasGas rider
Alex Niederer was fourth with
50 points with rookie Pro Josh
Roper fifth on a FactoryONE-
backed Sherco with 53 points.
Smage was glad to get the first
win out of the way.
"I had a lot of pressure on
myself just knowing everybody
VOL. 56 ISSUE 21 MAY 28, 2019 P41
is stepping it up," said Smage.
"I feel pressure to ride the best
I can. Section four was the
toughest for me, but I was able
to clean it on the second loop,
which I was surprising myself
what I was holding onto and sav-
ing because that stuff is just so
hard to ride when it's this slip-
pery. But overall, I felt pretty solid
on the bike."
Sunday
If Smage had any nerves on
Saturday, they were surely gone
on Sunday. No matter how dif-
ficult or easy the sections are,
and Sunday's sections were
more manageable than Saturday,
cleaning an entire trial is difficult,
if only for the pressure that builds
with each clean ride. Smage had
a few close calls, but he man-
aged to keep his feet nailed to
the pegs for all three laps and
at the end of the day turned in a
clean card for the win.
GasGas North America's Alex
Niederer battled throughout the
day with Avendano for second
place, with the two riders swap-
ping second over the first two
laps. On the final lap, Niederer
edged Avendano by two points in
the final tally – 27 to 29.
Meanwhile, Myers was turn-
ing in a solid ride that was pretty
much going unnoticed. His final
lap was spectacular. Taking sin-
gle points in sections three and
four, Myers turned in a two-point
last lap to steal second away
from Niederer and Avendano.
Jan Peters was the
closest to Smage
after day one.
