On The Pegs July 2019 - Volume 4 - Issue 7 | Page 78

On The Pegs
Pat Smage (FactoryONE/Sherco) extended his win
streak to six-straight wins in the AMA/NATC US National
MotoTrials Series after claiming a pair of victories at
rounds five and six of eight-round series at the Turkey
Rock Trials Area near Howard, Colorado. Unlike his pre-
vious four wins, however, Smage’s victories in Colorado
were a bit harder to come by.
On Saturday, Smage trailed GasGas North America’s
Daniel Blanc-Gonnet by four points after two laps. How-
ever, the Wisconsin rider tightened his belt on the third
and final lap and cleaned all but two of the difficult,
technical and somewhat daunting sections to take the
win. Smage’s final-lap heroics moved him four points
ahead of Blanc-Gonnet in Saturday’s final results (an
eight-point swing), with FactoryONE Scorpa’s Karl Davis
Jr. finishing third, 31 points behind Blanc-Gonnet.
Most of the Pro riders agreed that the Colorado sec-
tions, which were set at about 7000 feet in altitude on
the eastern slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Range, were
the most difficult and most intimidating of the season.
The power-robbing altitude didn’t help matters.
“When I first saw the sections I wasn’t excited for the
weekend,” said Smage. “There were a couple of sections
that I just couldn’t figure out on the first two laps, and
that’s where Daniel was getting me. Going into the final
lap I knew I had to at least try to turn it around. I had to
try everything I could think of and finally I started riding
a little bit better. It was definitely a tough day, but Dan-
iel rode really well. It was cool to have him pushing till
the end and I’m happy to come away with the win.”
Disappointed at missing out on his first overall win,
Blanc-Gonnet was clearly happy and excited about
pushing Smage to the limit.
“I felt like I had good rides, moments of brilliance, but
then just stupid mistakes, but I’m super excited with the
day,” said Blanc-Gonnet. “I kind of tried to just keep it
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