Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

2003 Gas G a s USA Fall T r ia ls S e r ie s Rou nds 7 -S : Lone Star Two-Da y Trial Ie and ra s It Up But it's Peters' day in g Satu rday 's eve nt by claim ing th e only clea ns at sec tio n one, a tr ap that feat ured a tricky doubl e ste p w it h a downhill ap proach . Wi eland got off to a bad start w he n he unde re st im ate d the fir st of th e two st ep s and fell back ward fo r a five. This appeared to be a bad om en for th e Kansan, who got off t o a si mila r sta rt in O klahoma and suffered his o nly nonpodiu m finish of th e series wi th a sev enth. Arkansas' Gabe M izell ex ite d section on e in good form , need in g onl y a singl e prod on the ste ps , whil e Dav id Black and Sc ott Carpen ter each to o k threes . At sec tio n fo ur, a steep climb with a j um p from one ro ck slab to another , Wieland put himself in an even deep er hole with a three-point ride. Peters and Comm o stil l rema ined clean , whil e M izell added one point , Bla ck added tw o , and Sc ott Carpenter dropped th ree. Comm o dropped his fir st point of short notice to debut the 2004 Beta Rev3 for the American Beta importer and t o test f or the upcoming U .S . Na tional In door Cham pionships in Dec em ber. " I' rn really just trying to get the bik e loo sen ed up for the indo or," said the New York native. "We decided this event would be a good pla ce to showc ase the new bike and get a little time on it - it's a fun series ." With all eigh t rounds in the book, the final standings looked like this: Wieland was first with 221 points, fo llowed by Jason Ca rpenter with 165 and Scott Carpenter with 174 . David Bl ack and Bill Sand erson rounded out the top fiv e with 154 and 92, respectfully. The Mu en st er event, orga nized by th e North Texas T ria ls Associatio n, fea tured a mixture o f ascents and descents on low-tractio n , h ardpack ed soil (whic h was covered with loo se sand and roc k s) com bi ned w ith g ri p p y , h i gh - t r a c t i on r o c k s . Th i s m ak es for a d eceivin g com bi nation and often cla ims po ints wh en a rider least expects it beca use of the transition from low tractio n to high . Peters and Vermont's Ron Commo Jr. j umped out to th e early lead dur- MUENSTER, TX, NOV. 15-16 o nsist en c y paid off for Gas Gas USA's J ak e Wieland who claimed t h e ' 2 0 0 4 Gas G as USA Fa ll Trials Champion ship title with a seco nd -and a third-place finish at the final t wo rounds of the series in Muenste r, Texas. The up-and-comer from Wichi ta, Kansas, used steady f inishes throug hout t he eight-round series to claim the title, despite at times having t o go hea d-to-head with the likes of t op N a t i o n a l c o m p eti to r s D avid Chaves and Ray Peters , not to m enti on 200 1 series winner J ason Carp enter. " It feels good t o win the cha mpionship ," Wie land sai d. "T here was a lot of traveling this year wi th the Nation al s an d [the F all Se ries], and I w as able to make all the rounds , but win nin g th e title m ad e it all wo rth w hile. " Du e t o th e Tr ial de s N ati on s and oth er p r om ot i o n a l co m mi tme n ts , Peter s and Ch aves o nly contested part of thi s ye ar's serie s, lea v ing Wieland and Carpent er to battle ove r the titl e. Th e t wo Texas ro unds were won by Pet er s, wh o' attended the event on C DECEMBER 3, 2003 · cue • e n e vv s Ray Peters capped off the final round with a pair of w ins in , Texas. th e loop at se c tion n in e o f th e 10 section, th ree- loop course. He added two m o re at sec tion 10 and held th e se c ond -pl ac e po sit ion afte r one lap w ith h i s th re e-p o i n t t ally. Pet ers head ed the group with his unbl emished card , with Mi zell in th ird with a tota l of f ive . Bla c k fini shed hi s first lap w ith six points, while Wi eland was fi fth best with eight. On lap 't wo , Wi el and regained his co m posu re and turned in some of his b est rides o f t h e se rie s, match ing Peters ride-for-rid e. Both rid ers were cl ean f or the entire loop. Carpenter was cl ean as we ll , wh ile Commo took a singl e point on th e double st ep at section one , and M izell scattered sev en points across the loop. Going into th e final loop, Commo h e l d a four-point cushion over Wieland in the b at t l e over second p lace. However, t h e former NATC National winner was beg inning to ti re,

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