For me, the first lap of this ten minute loop went
well, at a trials pace I was scoping the obstacles and
dealing fairly well with them. A couple of drop offs
elicited a gasp or two (I was worried the front would
tuck under), but actually these were safe. And there
were a couple or three technical climbs that while
not huge had a sting or two that could trip you up.
Second lap I put on a bit of speed, but this wasn’t
the best idea; at speed I wasn’t processing the
detail of the trail quick enough and so lost accuracy
on the climbs, necessitating some footwork.
This then highlighted my fitness (or lack of) and
so while pushing harder again on the third lap,
determined to put in a good time, things got even
messier as muscles wearied and the brain – no
doubt wanting for more oxygen – failed to keep
up. More pushing ensued, this time out of the
saddle as well. For the fourth, and last, lap I took it
back down to a steady trail pace, took the time to
look and plan as I rolled up to the hills, and made
my best lap of the set. Slower can be faster.
I’m by no means a novice in enduro, with at least
20 years of experience on and off since I came back
to the sport after a good 15 years dabbling in road
racing. And two years riding trials as a youth formed
a solid bedrock of understanding of riding off-road.
So I have a running start at this. Something that was
evident when I chatted with fellow attendee Jordan,
a writer for a national motorcycle newspaper, and
54KIWI RIDER
a cyclist turned motorcyclist with just a couple
years of gentle trail riding under his belt. He
explained how the loop started with probably the
most daunting challenge of all – riding a narrow
trail with a precipitous drop of maybe a hundred
feet down a near-cliff into a river below. It didn’t
help that the trail had rock steps and loose rubble
along its path. My years of riding seem to have
taught me to never look down in those instances
and it took me to go back and take another look
at the section to see what he meant. And no,
you wouldn’t want to slip. So yes, by comparison
to some, I’ve got a running start at this game.
TYRED OUT
With only a few hours to share in the direct
tutelage of Taddy and Jonny we were never
going to practice every kind of extreme obstacle,
and with the group offering up a range of skill
levels from an ex-world championship trials rider
through to trail newbie (Jordan) the extreme
stars had their work cut out. In my instance we
chose to look in detail at two kinds of obstacle.
For an artificial example – such as you see in
indoor or arena enduro – we chose the tractor
tyre pit and for a natural challenge a four-foot
rock step encountered half way up a hill climb.
With Taddy as my tutor we looked at the tyre pit
first. No question this was intimidating and I was