Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1995 06 14

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127732

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 34 of 81

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

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's - Cycle News 1995 06 14