" Saturday ’ s round was canceled early in the day as the sections were completely buried and the loop was impassable . For Sunday ’ s round , event officials felt that if the weather would break by noon on Saturday , there would be time for the snow to melt and that the Sunday event could then continue as planned . However , the snow continued and was forecast for a few more hours . There would be no real chance to get the course in shape nor get observers out to the sections . At that point , the decision was made to cancel Sunday ’ s event as well .”
FactoryONE Sherco ’ s Pat Smage , the current series leader in the Pro class , had a bittersweet view of the decision . “ It ' s a bummer for everybody for sure . I feel bad for all the people that set the event up and put all the time in , and a lot of people traveled a long way to get here . There ' s nothing anybody can do about it … I have a lot of experience riding in the snow and there ' s a limit to what you can really get away with , and it went well beyond that . I think they obviously made the right call for sure , but it ’ s never a good thing when something like this happens .” Smage is currently recovering from a small flare-up of tendonitis which occurred in California the weekend before at rounds 3 and 4 of the series . “ Looking at the positive side , it does give me a little bit more
ON THE PEGS // PAGE 114
time to heal my wrist and hopefully be good to go to Minnesota . But this is a first for me . And I hope to never see it happen again .”
While attendees slowly went to work cleaning off their rigs and trying desperately to get back on the road , others worked to make the most of an unfortunate situation . Between sledding on broken tables , snowball fights , and even some building of snow forts , the truth was obvious that trials riders are adaptable to any environment .
From the far end of the pits , an engine roared to life . TRS ' s Sam Fastle had unloaded his bike and was making his best attempt to ride , even trying to nose wheelie once or twice ! He was quickly joined by fellow TRS rider Seth Vorseth .
" I think a little bit of snow would have been cool ," said Beta ' s Alex Niederer . " It would have changed things . But 12 inches just is not cool anymore . We had four E-Z UPs down . We were able to save two . We lost four ; no damage to the bikes ,
SAM FASTLE BEING SAM !!