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the root entrance out wrong and fived it
right off the bat , along w ith Clamagi rand. One rider who never seemed to be
comfortable with the slippery conditions
would be the Kempkes, and a questionable call in that difficult first sectio n basically ha u n ted th e crowd-pleasing
youngster for a good portion of the day's
proceedings.
"In that first section, 1 jumped out of
the bou ndaries near the end of it after I
hit a rock a little wrong," said Kempkes.
"The checker ga ve me a five because he
said I went off the course w hich 1 did n' t.
I was app roaching the blu e arrow markings and wasn't a nywhe re near th em.
The rules state that you can't go outside
the ribbon and you have to go betw een
the a rrow cards w hich ba sica lly mark
the course. If there aren' t any arrows or
bl ue ribbon, you can ride there. That
just got me on a bad start and I kind of
lost my head and got really pissed off.
That carried on to the next .two sections
as I fived them also."
The sli p pery co ndi tio ns defin it ely
had an effect on the riders who weren 't
used to them, as Hallsted, Moor e, Kempkes and, to a lesser extent, Clarnagirand,
all s tru ggled with w hat the y all called
the tough est trial so far this seaso n. Their
sco res on th e firs t loop re flected th eir
frus tration.
The riders to watch were, not surprising!y, the long time rivals and this year's
one a nd two in th e stan dings. An on pace Peters was riding well enough to
po u nce on th e first of the two leaders
had they shown any signs of faltering.
As the riders began their second lap,
Aaron was fou r poin ts ad rift fro m his
rival Young, and d isplayed a rare case of
nerves. "1 realized 1 wasn' t leading after
the opening lap so 1 went out to the first
co u p le of sec tio ns on th e second loop
withou t my minder," said Aaron. "Bu t I
didn't hav e my hea d screwe d on right,
so to speak, and my sco res in th e first
thr ee sect ions proved tha t. 1 gained 11
po ints compared to Ryan's one po in t
dropped, wh ich basically sealed my fate
for the remainder of the lap. "
Seal hi s fat e it did, as that allowed
Peters to sneak into the runner-up pos ition going into the final lap. The Fantic
rider managed to complete the lap withou t a single fiv e - somethin g that no
other rider could boa st about. Peters'
am azing score also garnered him th e
lowest point total on the loop .
Another rider wh o was out fo r
revenge was Kernpkes, as he managed to
sha ve 11 points off his first loop score
and actually bea t Aaron's total by one
point. Unfortu nately for the teen age
sensation, he wo uld falte r on the fin al
lap . "1 had a grea t second loop and I was
starting to get used to the slippery sections but, unfortunately, eve rything fell
apart aga in o n th e final loo p ," sa id
Kempkes. '1 was trying to copy what 1
was doing on the second loop bu t it just
was n' t happening. That jus t confused
and aggravated me, bu t I d id hav e some
good rid es and got a lot of threes by
basicall y push ing my wa y through th e
sections."
Kempkes would n't be the only rider
to s tru ggle throu gh the third and final
loop, as the lead er of the event began to
feel the ph ysical effects of the di fficult
cou rse. Youn g explained later, "Everything was going pretty good on both the
first and second loops and it was the best
lead that I've ever had going into a final
lap at an event. I'm usually either second or third, or jus t barel y ahead o f
everyone so I was pretty confident. But
basically, I couldn't do it the last loop
because I had a pr oblem with tra ction,
lo sing confidence in traction, and just
getting plain tired in the last four or five
sectio ns which caused me to five the last
two. "
Mechanical woes wo uld slow d own
the progress of Peters, as he cut a water
hose on I his Fan tic in the sixth section.
After a short pit -stop to rep air the damage , he realized tha t he was pressed for
time so he decided to tum up the wick a
little . This worked un til he managed to
bend the rear sprocket in the 14th section.
"I was probably going to have a problem wit h penalty points and the clock
was tickin g pr etty loud by then ," sa id
Pete rs . "I d id acquire 3.5 la te pe nal ty
marks, but those points subtracted from
my score wouldn't have mad e mu ch of a
difference in the overall sta ndi ngs for the
da y so I'm quite happy with my third on
the podium toda y."
Clamagirand also fe lt like he was
pressed for time and his ride on the third
lap showed it. "On that last loop, I was
wrongly thinking th a t w e onl y had
seven hours total to complete this event
instead of seven-and-a-half, so 1 was riding very fast and not even walking the
last few sections," said Clamagirand. "I
took a couple of voluntary fives at the
really hard sections and rushed throu gh
th e o the r ones. Ab out the only other
problems I had besides th e tim e issue
would ha ve been my flat rear tire at section 14 on the first lap whi ch set me back
a little and earned me a stupid five as
well . The n my ch ai n ju mped off my
sprockets in the middle of the sixth section on the middle lap . I feel that this is
by far the hardest ational we've had
this year as I don't really get to practice
in these types of co nditions and m y
score at th e end of th e d ay reflected
that."
Aaron put his head down an d ripped
throu gh th e th ird and final lap wi th a
vengeance to claim the trial's lowest lap
sco re a t 13 - 18 po ints better tha n his
rival for the cha mpionship .
SUNDAY
As the competitors began their opening lap , they soon realized that the trial
th e y co m pe ted in th e pre viou s da y
wouldn't be showing up at this end of
the woods . Dry conditions and huge
climbs g re e ted the combatants a t a
majority of the sections. Also d ifferent
from the Saturday round would be the
gradual difficulty fact or th e sectio ns
seemed to take until the latter half of the
trial as the sections resembled world
championship caliber. It appeared that
the compe titors who struggled the previousday wou ld finally get th eir just
rewards and have a trial they were more
accustomed to - witho u t the sli p pery,
muddy conditions.
The championship conte nders all
ca rded ze ros until the tra nsform a tion
point at the 10th section . By far the most
popular section for the h u nd red s of
spectators was number 12, as the riders
showed what this sport is all abo ut.
After t he entrance, th e rid ers would
work over and zig-zag thr ough a series
of sma ller and bigger rocks, over a log,
tu rn and-climb a slippery hill . After a
quick U-turn back, riders went around a
tree and se t themselves up for a vertical
20-foot cli mb . A ter th e cli mb , they
would shoot back, nearly straight down ,
a nd over a cou ple of sma lle r boulders
before finally exiting the sectio n. Hu ge
cheers echoed through th e wood s as
Kempkes and Young both tried to ou t-:
d o each other by nose wheelying down
the nea r -v ertica l descent. It wa s a n
amazi ng d isp lay of skill and jus t plain
raw courage.
" I th ink the biggest d iffer en ce a t
today's trials was that I was having more
fun out there and that definitely helped
m y confidence level," sai d You ng . " I
only had a couple of problems out there
tod ay, compared to the multitude 1experienced yes terday. I made a bad judgment call on this real tricky, loose uphill
in section 16 because the line 1 was using
on the previous two laps really deteriorated. So instead of picking a new line, I
used that one and go t a stu pid five. I was
kind of mad at myself for a dab I took in
section five on th e sa me lap where I
didn't quit e hit a slight uphill climb hard
enoug h but sometimes if you hit it too
hard, you' ll spin and risk getting a five.
Other than those, I was very happy with
my perfo rma nce ou t there. I still got a little tired, especially in the last four sections on the last lap , but I man aged to
hang in there an d only drop two more
points.
"1 was n' t really worried too much
about Geoff as he rode the first loop just
about in front of me until around section
13. We were about four hours ou t at that
section so I basically said I'm ou t of here.
I was one of the first championship class
rid ers out and wh en you' re first out you
can' t play with the time."
The battle for runner-up honors went
right down to the wi re, a nd a si ngle
po int se pa ra te d Aaron and Cl amagirand . The elegant Belgian got the upper-
(Abo ve left) Raymond Peters found his
stride and finished third on Saturday.
(Abc:ive) Lo nny Halls ted was sixth on both •
days.
hand in the end, 71-72, nearl y 27 points
adrift of You ng.
" I felt a lot stronger today," said CIamagirand . "Yesterd ay, I slep t very bad ly
and th e trial was very physica l so I
wasn 't at my best sha pe but I also preferred the event's set-up tod ay. It's more
of what I'm used too: '
Third-placed Aa ro n had w ha t he
claimed to be a off day from the get-go,
as he appeared to st ruggle to find his
form.
.
"The sections d efin itely go t more
slick afte r th e fi rst la p:' sa id Aaron.
"Everyone was pu llin g mud and water
up on to the better lines throughout the
course. We had also spent a lot of time
on the first loop so I was kind of ru shing
a little bit. I gues s once I started to do a
little poorly it just compoun ded. 1 really
do n't know what the problem was out
there, but every once in a while you ' re
bound to have one of those type of days
and I guess toda y was my turn: '
When asked if he felt the larger motor
in Young' s bik e offered an advantage,
Aaron replied, '1 don 't think it really did
as much as the fact of Ryan' s sma lle r
statu re where he's able to maintain his
momentum better in these type of conditions . I have to really abuse my clutch,
especially in most of the sections toda y
where there was n' t much in the way of
running room. My size offers it's advantages in certa in areas like Ryan's did in
this type of trial. I can' t take anything
awa y from him tod ay as he rode good
and d efinitely d eserves the win: '
L
~
Arcadia National Forest
West Greenwich, Rhode Island
Results: May 27·28
Saturd.ty
CHAMPIONSHIP: \. Geoff AMon (Betl 68; 2. Ryan
Young (G -G ) 76; 3. Raym ond Pete rs (Fan) 83 .5: 4 .
Olivier Clamagirand (GC) 112; 5. Jess Kemp ke.. (~
120.5; 6. Lonny Hallsted (Bet ) 138; 7. Malt Moore (G'(;)
181; 8. John Clark (Mon) 198; 9. Andy Saum (~ 2m;
10. Brian Nanengast (G-G) 2055 .; 11. Kevin KraheJ (GG) 212.
Sund