Smage , with new minder Luke Littlefield , had a bit of a rough start to Saturday ’ s competition . After catching his skid plate and then his boot on a few rocks , he left section three in second place with three points behind GasGas ’ s Daniel Blanc-Gonnet with only a single point . But as Pat continually reminds us , mindset is everything . He changed his thinking , and after another point scored in section four , he would remain clean for the remainder of the day .
“ Today started out pretty shaky ,” said Smage . “ I didn ' t feel that confident or comfortable from the start . I started getting frustrated because I saw some of the other guys looked like they were riding better than me . I didn ’ t want to just get more frustrated and not have any fun , so I just changed my mindset . I was like ‘ ok , I don ’ t care if I lose , I ’ m going to just ride for fun and enjoy this .’ You never know when you ’ re not going to be riding nationals anymore . If I don ’ t enjoy some of them , it ’ s going to be miserable . I didn ’ t dab after that , so whatever I did worked . I ’ m really surprised to have kept it clean after those first few mistakes . There have been times in the past where stuff like that drags on and makes the entire day worse , so to have some fun and end up riding well is a good way to start the season . Most of us have ridden here quite a bit ; it does tend to get over-practiced , and when
VOL . 7 ISSUE 5 - MAY 2022 // PAGE 51