Cycle News

2014 AIRES AMA NATC MOTOTRIAL USA NATIONAL SERIES ravines and hills littered with jag- ged rock outcroppings. Smage had one slipup on the second lap when he inadver- tently dropped his front wheel in a hole after scaling a tricky step. The Wisconsin rider showed his frustration by giving off a loud outburst as he finished the sec- tion and the tactic must have worked as he cleaned the rest second loop and the entire final loop, as well, to end the day with a total of only two points. To clean an entire loop, es- pecially at the national level, is an amazing feat and Smage has produced two clean laps in two straight events. "I had one point on the first lap and then another on lap two but then I was able to put it all togeth- er on the final lap and go clean, which I am pretty happy about," said Smage. "I didn't feel as good as I did in Colorado, I was a little shaky in the beginning, but I was able to save it when I needed to and keep my feet on the pegs, for the most part, but I didn't quite have the same feeling I did last week. I think I was solid, but there were a couple of sections that could have ridden better." In Colorado, Matejicek had a tough battle with Smage's Sherco USA teammate Logan Bolopue. However, in Kansas, Matejicek was a different rider altogether and outdistanced his American counterpart by 48 points at the end of the day. The Gas Gas rider posted loop scores of 13, 5 and 1. His first lap score of 13 included two fives, one in perhaps the easiest sec- tion of the day when he lost con- centration, and the second one was in arguably the toughest sec- tion of the day, number 12, which featured a 10-foot rock wall and an intimidating drop off. VOL. 51 ISSUE 22 JUNE 3, 2014 P99 Briefly... Trials is all about maintaining your fo- cus and when Smage was asked if it is difficult to keep his mind totally in the game when he has a big lead like he did in Colorado, this is what he said. "I just try to focus on my- self and put up the best score I can, no matter who I am riding against," said Smage. "Sometimes if the sec- tions are on the easy side, it's hard to keep that focus, though, so it's a challenge sometimes." It was learned during the event that Karl Davis Jr., the American Pro from Florida who is in Europe competing in the world championships injured his knee this week while practicing. "I stepped wrong on the foot peg and my knee gave out with a big pop," said Davis. "I got it examined by the doctor here and they pulled the plug on me competing today for fear of something being torn. I fly home Wednesday and will get it further examined once I'm back in the states. It's a bummer but things happen." Matejicek dropped five single dabs across the second lap, in- cluding a one on section 12, and then on his final lap he had just one point, that one also in 12. "I'm used to the sections a little more than I was last week, although the heat and humid- ity here were hard for me, but I think this was an improvement," said Matejicek. "The last section was for sure the toughest section for me. There was a big stone in the middle and I had to stop with my front wheel against it and then take off from a dead stop and go With his Kansas sweep, Pat Smage is now four for four in the MotoTrials series.

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