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AMA/NATC Ryan Young Products U.S. National Trials Championship Series Rounds 3-4; Cascade Mountains STORY AND PHOTOS BY SHAN MOORE/ TRIALS COMPETITION NEWSPAPER GOLD BAR, WA, MAY 25-26 t round three of the AMA/NATC Ryan Young Products National Trials Championships, Geoff Aaron quieted the skeptics who had doubted his ability to win in slippery conditions by taking the victory, his third straight of the series, in those very conditions. At round four the following day, Canadian Ryon Bell countered with a win of his own, his first of the series, letting everyone know that the championship chase was far from over. Another Canadian, Wilson Craig, also turned in his best performance to date with a third and a second on the weekend. With the next six rounds scheduled in the Pacific Northwest and the New England areas, venues that traditionally produce low-traction events which tend to favor the Canadians, the series may well turn out to be one of the most competitive in years. The Gold Bar event, which was held in a heavily wooded valley nes- A tied in the Cascade Mountains of northern Washington, was a mixed bag; Sunday's event was held in overcast conditions with intermittent rain, while Monday's event was held under clear skies and bright sunshine. Sunday's sections were long, technical and very busy, causing many riders to hurry through the final two loops or skip sections altogether, just to finish under the time limit. On Monday, the sections were not as technical or as busy, and most of the riders finished with an hour to spare. Sunday's event was high scoring and filled with drama, while Monday's event produced low scores and seemed almost anticlimatico After four of 13 rounds, Aaron leads the points standings with 111 points followed by Bell, another 10 points back. Wilson Craig of British Columbia is third with 86, while Spaniard David Chaves and Floridian Chris Florin round out the top five with 73 and 67, respectively. IAbove) Geoff Aaron proved the pundits wrong by winning a round in the wet stuff in Washington. ILeft) Ryan Bell got the last laugh by topping day two. After arriving a couple of days early to acclimate to the conditions typical of a Pacific Northwest Trials, Aaron was feeling confident in his wet-weather abilities. Bell and Craig were confident as well, having just completed the wettest Scottish Six Day Trials in years, just two weeks before. And as it turned out, the three Gas Gas teammates were pretty much dead-even after one loop, with Aaron and Bell posting 21-point laps, while Craig was just four points back with 25. A way behind were Shercomounted David Chaves and Montesa's Chris Florin, each with 39. Of the six-and-a-half hours allotted to complete the event, the top guns used over five of that just to ride the first loop, leaving them no other option but to literally motocross the final two laps. "There was no real time to mess around or set the bike up - once you got into position, you basically just had to set off and go because of the length of the sections," Bell said. "It 52 JUNE 1 1, 2003' cue • e n _ vv s was just relentless. It was so muddy and so slippery that it was nonstop fighting the bike to stay on line. In these conditions if you get off line just a little bit, it resulted in a quick five. n On lap two, Aaron began to separate himself from his teammates with point-saving rides on a couple of the toughest sections. Section seven was one of the first to really challenge the top riders and claimed spectacular, second-loop endos by Bell and Florin. The toughest part consisted of a large, mosscovered boulder followed by a very large log that the riders had to jump onto. From there, the riders immediately had to launch from the log across a bike-long gap to another rock. Too little momentum resulted in the front wheel dropping into the gap. Aaron's approach was to go over the first boulder a little slower than the others, enabling him to land sooner, which gave him more room to set up for the log. The added run sent him easily over the gap. The result was a clean for lap two. Craig moved up the order here, as well, with a one-point ride. Later on lap two, a bit of drama may have psychologically tipped the odds in Aaron's favor at the 11 th section. This section was one in which no one got through on the first lap