On The Pegs July 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 7 | Page 104

On The Pegs 104
minute, so I got a free five to seven points. It could be ten points if there were
that many Pros. You have to take advantage of a free five points.
So if your competitors aren’t smart enough to be in front of you on the last loop,
they’re going to get it. The only way they can get in front of me is to punch a five
in the section to go around me. So that way I was going to get free five points on
them, as well. So they couldn’t pass me in a section. They couldn’t pass me on the
loop. So I controlled the time limit on the last loop.
I was in front of my competitors. So by section, let’s say it was a fifteen-section
trials. I don’t remember how many sections there were, but there were about
five sections left and I still had about fifteen minutes before I got into penalty
points. So if I don’t come in on penalty points, I don’t make up any free bonus
points on penalty time against my competitors. So I have to come in late to get
my free points, I had a late time limit and I had that advantage over my competitors.
So with five sections to go, I had fifteen minutes to blow. I start panicking. So
I start making the sections last forever. Back then there was no time limit on the
sections. I could take twenty minutes in one section if I wanted. So the first section
I decided to start slowing down big time. I just hopped a lot of extra hops,
acting like I was losing my balance and I was struggling to get my hops precise
and over the log. This section was all log sections. This trials site was just tons of
logs. That’s all they have there. So it’s over a log, hop, hop, hop, hop. Over a log,
hop, hop, hop, hop. Mark Manniko was behind me in line. So now I had him in
my sights, and he was my main focus that day. So then the next section I started
hopping and bopping, hopping and bopping, hopping and bopping, and I get a
clean there. The third section it’s still like ten minutes. I’m not picking up my time
penalty. So the third section I do hops, hops, hops, hops, hops, hops. I get over all
the obstacles and it’s just a straight run, about ten feet to the end gate. I stop and
balance with no obstacles left. Mark Mannike starts revving his bike up. He’s obviously
very frustrated, but he doesn’t have any control over the situation. That’s
the key point. I have control. So I waited for a little bit, actually glancing at my
watch. Finally I go out of the section, get my score punched. On the way to the
next section, Bill DeGaris comes running up beside me and says, “Ryan! Ryan! You
have to stop doing this. It’s bad sportsman-like conduct. It’s not cool.” So people
knew what I was doing. It was obvious.
So, I finished out the sections and got some time penalty. But besides getting
time penalty, Mark got three fives on the last five sections because he was out of
his wits. He didn’t know what to do. So very psychological, but I had control of
the day, of the time. Back then, I would always try to get free points if I had the