higher energy and just more going on during the trial , so I felt I couldn ' t really keep up all weekend . Third loop I actually fell on section four , and I think broke or jammed my thumb ; it kind of threw me off . I felt like I was doing all right , I had a little confidence going until then , and I managed to ride around the last loop and kind of punch or get through sections I felt like I had to get through . All in all , this weekend was kind of a bummer , but you know , just gonna keep trying and see if I can still ride Ohio and if Ohio goes well , hopefully keep pushing that through the rest of the year .”
“ Today went pretty well ,” said Smage . “ I was a little frustrated with my start , but I decided to change my mindset a little bit and just really try to enjoy what I was doing . When I put a lot of pressure on myself , I tend to get a little frustrated and not enjoy what I ’ m doing so I had more fun with it … It was easy to catch a five pretty quick ; you could be on clean and it could go to five pretty fast . There were a few spots that I decided to take some kind of early safety dabs you could call them just because I wanted to minimize the fives as much as possible . I had more fun today ; definitely not entirely happy with my riding overall but it was it was good enough .”
With the usual Pro Women ’ s class competitors , FactoryONE Sherco ’ s
Louise Forsley and TRS USA ’ s Kylee Sweeten , competing in the enduro series , GasGas ’ s Maddie Hoover was the lone competitor in her class .
“ The riding was the best riding I ' ve done in a long time ," said Hoover . " I didn ' t have any competition today , but I was able to compare my scores to the boys which was really fun and I think I shook out around fifth . I had some time penalty today ; it was tight on time but I ' m really excited with my riding and I am motivated for the rest of the season ."
RESULTS - ROUND 2
1 - Pat Smage ( SHE ) - 39 pts 2 - Alex Niederer ( BET ) - 86 pts 3 - Alex Myers ( SCO ) - 89 pts 4 - Josh Roper ( TRS ) - 90 pts 5 - Will Myers ( SHE ) - 103 pts 6 -Daniel Blanc-Gonent ( GG ) -105pts 7 - Karl Davis Jr ( VER ) - 108 pts 8 - Sam Fastle ( TRS ) - 129 pts
Following up the next weekend with Rounds 3 and 4 of the series , the competitors moved to Wildwood Lake Raceway in Little Hocking , Ohio , competitors were given a bit of a reprieve from the shaky shale terrain and instead had to battle the Ohio clay . In the weeks leading up to the event , the location had received quite a bit of rain ; so much so that members of the organizing club , Trials Inc , were unable to ride part of the predetermined loop . As a result , the difficulty of the sections were lowered to allow all classes
ON THE PEGS // PAGE 120