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/128327
, '0 ne man's loss ~s another man s gain. " Montesal Michelin-backed Chris Florin proved that adage to be accurate after capitalizing on an early and costly mistake made by seven -time National Trials Champion Geoff Aaron. De fe nd ing EI Trial de Espana C hampion , Gas Gas /Red Bull rider Aaron made that costly mistake on the fi rst section of the first day. Aaron's blunder caused him to come away with a five from that sect ion, and for the rest of the weekend Aaron was forced to play catch-up as Florin continued to perform flawlessly . In the end Aaron's mistake wou ld prove to be too big a deficit for him to make up over the weekend. Unlike many previous editions, this S2 year's EI Trial de Espana combined scores over the two days to determine the winner of the Exhibition/Pro class. NonProfessional classes ran on Saturday, with Sunday being reserved for a Kids class followed by the Exhibition/Pro division. In addition, Experts tackled a coup le of sections on Sunday, though they used different lines than Exhibition/Pro. With the big story being that Aaron got beaten, people were left wondering how the multitime champion could have made such a big mistake. "The section had a small rock right in front of a big rock face, and I decided to just go all in one move where, because of the split markers, you could dance around instead and set yourself up a lot better for the step ," Aaron said. But the four-time and defending ETDE JUNE 9, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS champ decided to go big and ended up with the penalty that wou ld ultimately cost him the trial - perhaps due to some misunderstanding of the event 's rules. "They had told us before the event that the first day didn't count toward the Exhibition results, so I was thinking, 'Oh , I'm just going to go o ut and have fun and ride and try to do some crazy stuff,''' he said. "O bviously, that was a mistake because that kind of blew my weekend." Aaron wasn't the only one who made a costly mistake. Third-place finishe r Cocly Webb arrived late fro m his home in Northern California and was forced to rush to get into the event . "I didn't know I had to ride on Saturday; I only thought I had to ride Sunday, so I showed up late [on Saturday after the event started)," he said. "We 40th Anniversary showed up about half an hour into the trial! [It was) warm-up real quick the n just take off, so I had a bad first lap, but my second lap improved ." As the day wore on, Florin's dab in section five on the first loop proved to be his only mark all day, and the Florida rider ended up a clear leader over Aaron, who also dabbed once in section four on loop two. Webb , also a member of Aaron's ERE/Gas Gas squad , carded a 21 on the opening loop then settled down with a much improved six on loop two , giving him 27 for the first day. On Sunday, the Exhibition/Pro class tackled five new sections on a very small and spectator-friendly loop, which was executed twice. All three riders took ones in the opening section. But after that, Aaron hammered away at the sec-