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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125758
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By Ro n Schneiders
Photos by Ro n and Ellen Sch neiders
DUNLAP, CAL" Dec. 19,1971 -The
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third and final round of the California
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State Championship Trials was held here
U
>- today. on the western slopes of the
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Sierra Nevada not very far from Sequoia
National Park. It was an ideal setting for
the final round of this Master's contest
with
every
conceivable type of
natural-terrain obstacle including mud,
logs, trees, sand an d a fa ir amount of
rock.
In spite of its lush and beautiful
setting
though,
the
trials
was
disa ppointing fo r Southern Californian s:
Lane Leavitt wo n th e championship .
The first round of th e cham pionship
was chaos: The rid ers wh om everybody
knew were the b est d idn't win ei ther of
the to p spots. T im e was a big factor in
th at first trials. The riders had to ge t
aro und th e ' co urse fast eno ugh to
'comp lete all the sec tio ns in the allo ted
time, an d could n' t affo rd the luxury of
minutely su rveying each sectio n b efore
th ey r ode it. A tough o ld pro wh o dates
fro m th e pre-hist ori c p eri od of trialin g
knew wh at w as required an d did it ,
dumping th e space-age champs down
several h umiliating pl aces. Bu t youth, o f
course, alway s t riumphs, so J ohn
Walter s' moment of fam e was jus t that ;
a momen t.
In th e next ro und , held a t Holli ster
n o t far from Sa n Franc isco . o n an eas ier
course w ith no time problems invincib le
Lane Leavitt easily triumphed over Rich
Bledsoe wh ile John Wal ters , n o stylist,
finis hed fourth.
Todav's trials w as well b alan ced.
Ti me was a facto r to b e consi de re d but
wasn't an overwhel ming p ro b lem as it
was in the firs t trial s. Some of th e t raps
were exceedi ngly difficult an d long, b ut
there were also a whole string o f novic e
sec tions wh ere all th at was req uired o f
the Mas ters was that th ey n o t ge t
careles s. Th ere was o ne mud sec tion in
whic h th e riders were required to make
a U-t urn in ab out a one-wh eelbase
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If you missed on th at big slanted rock, you best get out of th e way lest your bike com es dow"" and smite you.
length . If th at wasn't, enou gh, the
ground (m ud ) at the fin ish slop ed
steep ly . There's more tr action on a ski
jump. Bob Nickelsen took thre e 5's and
no one else did mu ch b etter .
~
.
Section 15 gave the riders a fin e
sele ctio n of ro ck. A Fter d ropping into a
gulley down a near -ver t ical slo pe and
then climbing b ack o ut up a sla n te d
ro cky rut th e ri ders got to th e re al
. ..
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