On The Pegs May 2019 - Volume 4 - Issue 5 | Page 116
On The Pegs
riders going too fast, but you have to follow road rules.
You have to remember that you’re in a different country
also - the Australians were riding on the wrong side of
the road all week. So you have to concentrate on that.
And then you come to a test where you might have just
done an hour and a half just trail riding. Then you have
to switch on and do it at 110% for ten or eleven min-
utes. It’s mentally tough to do that and figure out how
to do it, especially with the conditions, without going
too hard on the throttle and too much tires. Then with
it being so dry this year where you’re trying to save the
tire. In the trail, you want to ride as slow as you can or as
smooth as you can without getting any wheel spin to
keep the tire good for the sixth test of the day. I noticed
that the end of the second day on some of those tests,
the first loop you’d go around the track and there was
some grip, and then the second time around when your
tire was getting wore out there was no grip. It made it
really difficult, especially then you’re tired. You’re think-
ing about tire changes at the end of the day. You’re
thinking about something else. You come into the test
and then all of a sudden there’s less grip than there was
the last time you rode that test. So, it’s odd. It all just
piles on.
How do you feel at the end of Six Days?
I think this was my seventh Six Day, and the sixth one
I’ve finished. So I’ve had a pretty good run. I’ve always
found that near the end, the start of day four is the
hardest to get through. You get through day three, you
really only have four and five left because six is fairly
easy. You walk all these tests leading up to the event
and you’re already fatigued and I would say on edge. I
am, at least because I don’t enjoy walking the tests. This
year they were so hilly. We walked them twice each,
116