AMAINATC Trials Natio n a l Champion s h ip
Round s 1 -2 : Reed V a lle
STORY AND PHOTOS By
S HAN MOORE/TRIALS
COMPETITION NEWSPAPER
AGUANGA, CA, APR. 20-21
re d Crosset made his intentions
to win an Ame r ican t it le very
cl ea r at rounds one and two o f the
NATC/AMA Na tiona l Trials Championship in Aguanga , California.
The five -time Belgian Champio n
was all business and took an eightpo int win over re ign ing U.S. Champ
Geoff Aa ron in round o ne , t h e n
backed that up with a res o undi ng
4 1-point victory in a very di fficu lt
round two the following day .
" Ev ery thi ng is m uc h bigger in
America ," Crosset sa id th rough an
inte rp re te r. "It is a dream to co m pe te
for the American Champ io nsh ip . I
like it here , t he peop le ar e frie ndly
and the organ ization is very good. "
Rumors had been circulating fo r
s everal months of Crosset's plan to
ride the ser ies a nd there was m uch
spe cula t ion as to h o w the North
Ame r ican r iders wou ld stac k up
aga ins t the Eu ropean inva de r. Former World Champ Tommi Ahva la of
Finland had competed fo r the cham pionship in '9 9 , winn ing easily. However, s e vera l othe r Euros had tried
for the tit le with ou t success.
Going into the 200 1 opener, Ryon
Bell loo ked as fit as e ver and admitted to having p rac tic e d five days a
week dur ing the wint er , wh ile th e
S he rco team h a d an in te rn a ti o n a l
im po rt of their own , Da vid Chaves ,
who is a former cham pion of Southern S pa in.
Aa ron, who lives just a n hour from
the Reed Valley a rea, was look ing
forward to rid ing on familiar te rra in,
but was nursing a spra ined wrist that
he had sustained , oddly eno ugh .
while p rom oting thi s very event.
F
DAY O NE
As is ty p ically th e case with
Southern California trials events, " he
t
sections cons isted mainly of large ,
grippy rocks . The American Trials
Assoc iation had prepared 15 sec tions s et alo ng a six-m ile lo o p t hat
wo u n d around th e m ou n t a in o u s
Reed Va lle y riding area .
Bel gian Fred Cro sset swept the
opening two rou nds of the AMAINATC
Trials NatIonal Championship Series
rounds in Califomia.
38
MAy 9 , 2001 •
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