Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I Briefly... This year 's EI Trialde Espana was again a fundraiser for the U.S . Trial des Nations team and a land-acquisit ion fund for the American Trials Association , a Southern California trials du b. One of the highlights of the awards at the EI Trial is the raffle, and with Ga s Gas donating a bike for several years now, the bike raffle is always highly ant icipated . Th is year, Kristjan Thordarson won . O f course, being 10 years old and currently riding a Beta 80 , he'll probably let his dad, Oli , keep it in running order for a while . Two years ago , another of the Thordarson kids won . EI Trial always br ings out fo rme r winners and/or Na ti ona l champs. Th is year they included Tom Hamman, Scott He ad , Lane Leavitt and, of course , Geoff Aaro n. Fred Belair, the originator of the EI Trial de Espana in 1970, normally never misses the event. Th is year, however, he suffe red a mild stroke and could not attend. Belair's condition is described as good , as he is able to speak and re cognize people. Repo rtedly, Belair predicte d that Chris Florin would win. With only three Champ ionship-dass riders in attendance, the field for EITrial's Exhibition sections was the sparsest in me mo . . ry. Many attributed that to several factors, the leading one being that th is year 's ETDE was a stand -alone event . Talk for next year is a return to piggybackingit onto a National. Fueled by a desire to have a pe rpetual EI Trial trophy once more (after the last one never retumed from a trip to Europe), Bill Markham created a new one . He purchased a beautifullycrafted ceremonial Spanish sword , mounted it on a giant wooden plaque and had small brass plates engraved with the names of every ETDE winner. Chris Florin's name will simply be the latest plate added . tions and chipped away his deficit to Florin : by cleaning each section. Florin also cleaned the rest of loop o ne, but he began to make sm all miscues that led to ones in four of the five sections o f loop two, giving him a total of five fo r the day. That, however, still kept him clear of Aaron and gave him a memorable victory. "T his is my first wi n of any kind in a Pro class , so th is is a big obstacle I just overcame, so I'm qu ite happy about that," Flor in sa id. " Back t here at t hat last sec t ion, I started th inking about all t he mind games that affected me in th e past, and I just started clearing them aw ay, thinking abo ut something else - going to a happy place or something like t hat . I knew what the po int spread w as . I was kind of playing my cards co rrectly. If I'm go ing to do something, I might as well play it smart instead of taki ng t he challe nge and hope fully getting through [a sectio n]. T hat's why I kept o n losing little points here and there. N ormally what I'd do is fight and fight and fight. I went into to day saying , 'Well, I'm just going to play things safe and see how that goes,' and shoot, man, it worked! Playing th e game smart was the key for me ." For the top ride rs in attendance this was a warm-up competition for the actual Nationa l trials events, and for Chris Florin t his co urse was a bit d iffere nt from a Nat ional. " No rm ally, it's q uite a bit easier on the first day," Florin said. "Yeste rday, there were a lo t of good sections - challenging sections . I felt like I was riding really well yesterday, and t hat's why I d id so well. If I was off my game, anyth ing co uld've hap - pened yesterday." Aar on fe lt the same way as Florin did . " I would say that the sectio ns were a litt le bit o n the mild side both days," Aaron said. " But both days had certain th ings that w ere difficult. Chris a nd I are one and two in the National standings right no w, so we're kind o f at th e top of the heap. They co uld' ve made th e sections qu ite a bit hard er for us, and it would've may be separated us more; I don't know." Afte r finishing th ird for the w eeke nd , Webb w as happy w it h his performance. Ho weve r, he felt that t he re is still room for him to im prove. " I felt pre tty good for showing up late in the trial and having to w arm up for only abo ut five m inutes and then ride ," Webb said. " I felt I could've do ne better; I just www.cyclenews.com made stu pid mistakes here and there. I im pro ved mentally as t he day we nt on; usually I'd be very int im idated by some o f the obstacles, bu t I felt much more confident and just went for it." eN EL T RIAL DE E SPA NA A GU AN GA, C AU FO NIA RESULTS: MAy 22 -23, 2004 EXH I8 , I. Chris Florin (Moo); 2. Geoff Aaron (GG); J. Cody Webb (GG) . EX: I. Kenny Str ou b: 2. Mike McGr egor, 3. Tom Hamman. HSTR: I. Gary laPIante; 2. Rick Jenkins: 3. Mark McGregor. ADV : I. Kerry Williams; 2. Bruce Davis: 3. Ryan Miller. INT: I. Randy lewis; 2. Rick Delaney; 3. Craig Couture. SPTSMN: I. Andy Bycha wsk;; 2. Hamson Oswald : J. Mike Harke r. NOV: I. David Cooper, 2. M. Gareton; 3. Mark Coru m. V INT: I. Randy Ressell: 2. Mike Ca tes ; 3. l.arry Reiter. KIDS A:. I . Wi lliam Head ; 2. Tanne r Pekar; 3. Mo rgan Tan ke . KIDS B: I. Wes ley Couture ; 2. Daniel O ldar; 3. Siliane Tho rdarson . CYCLE N EW S • JUNE 9, 2004 53

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