VOL. 50 ISSUE 24 JUNE 18, 2013
The Cayuta area offered
terrain not normally seen on
the national schedule: steep
and slippery dirt climbs. Compounded by heavy rains two
days before the trial and late
on Sunday, rounds one and
two were high-scoring events
and left the top riders at times
in the unusual situation of just
"finding a way through."
"I thought I was up for
the challenge but this was
a lot harder than I expected
and I made a few more mistakes than I had hoped," said
Smage. "The entire event was
basically a clean or five proposition, and in a few cases we
were just trying to find a way
to get through the section for
a three."
Throwing his hat into the ring
as a legitimate title contender,
Bryan Roper finished out the
weekend with a second and a
third over the two days, while
his Sherco USA teammate
Karl Davis was fourth on Saturday and second on Sunday.
keeping an eye on these guys
and that's normally not how I
ride; I usually jump out ahead
of everyone and ride my own
race."
Saturday
Day one was a learning experience for the Pros, as each
rider sat back and took notes
while they waited for someone
else to ride a particular section first. It was also a time to
see just what the limits of traction were on the super-slippery dirt climbs, which grew
more treacherous with each
passing rider.
A lot of the sections started
P97
Briefly...
The NATC made a last minute change to
one of the national rules just a week before the opening round in New York, one
that governed contact by a rider or motorcycle with a course marker. Last year,
if a rider or his motorcycle made contact
with a course marker while in the section
the rider would be scored a five. The rule
was unpopular and created a lot of controversy, so for 2013 it was changed so
that touching a marker is not penalized,
however, if the marker is displaced requiring that they be reset, i.e. breaking or
knocking down, then the rider is scored
a five for that ride.
Southern California Pro Eric Storz had a
rough time of it on the slippery climbs of
upstate New York. "The rain earlier in the
week made everything super slippery, the
mud in a lot of sections was really thick
and gooey," said Storz. "Since most of
the trials were based in a creek, it makes
everything slick. My hill climbing skills
just weren't there, and I was just slipping
all over the place and just not making it
happen. I had a lot of sections where I
was almost making it but not quite. This is
a lot different from what I ride in Southern
California, and I tried my best to adapt,
but I just did the best I could."
Sherco USA's Karl Davis Jr. gave his assessment of the event. "This place is so
slick and the hills and banks are so steep,
and it's not like anything else we normally
run into on the national schedule, so it
takes a bit of time to adapt to these sections," said Davis. "It's tricky, for sure,
and you have to have a lot of confidence
in your abilities to do well in this. It's so
nasty and slick and you can be going on
a clean and then all of a sudden be on the
ground in the blink of any eye."
