On The Pegs November 2018 - Volume 3 - Issue 11 | Page 112

On The Pegs
practice session in the morning along
with the opportunity to practice the
qualification section. One of the new
changes for the TDN this year was for
two people from each three-person
team would have the chance to put up
the fastest qualification time. We de-
cided that Pat and Daniel would run the
course and they made the practice run
look easy even though it was stadium
style obstacles on very slick grass just
outside the paddock. After that we piled
in the cars and drove out to where the
sections were to walk them and pick our
lines. This was different from our nation-
al competitions as we had much more
P 114
collaboration in determining lines since
we were not competing against each
other. As we walked the sections we
realized how hard the trial would be and
Daniel said that it would be the hard-
est TDN he had ever ridden. Once we
had walked all 15 sections, we gathered
with the other nations for the open-
ing ceremonies before the qualification
races. Daniel and I made our rounds
trying to get a picture with every team
that we could before we made our way
on stage. That was fun, and the other
nations were excited to take a picture
with the Americans. After all the coun-
tries were presented it was time for the
On The Pegs
qualification section. The International
class was first to go and the Australians,
who won the international line last year,
set the fastest pace early on at 31.17
seconds. Then Pat came blazing through
and even though his execution was not
perfect, he was still able to top the Aus-
tralians with a time of 30.25! I thought
for sure that Pat had won the race for
the second year in a row. However, Noe
Pretalli from Switzerland was able to
post an amazing 28.93 which moved us
to second and meant that we would be
starting second to last. Maddie Hoover
was able to post the fastest time be-
tween her and Kylee Sweeten and it put
Vol. 3 Issue 11 - November 2018
P 115
them in 6th place for their starting order.
In the TrialGP line, Takahisa Fujinami was
able to beat out Spain’s Jaime Busto and
Toni Bou by 0.36 seconds! It was incred-
ible watching these men navigate the
course at such a fast pace. Being able to
witness the best in the world is a great
part of the TDN.

Now it was time for the competi-
tion on Sunday. We were focused, our
bikes were ready, and we were excited
to represent our nation. Unfortunately,
the weather turned foul the night be-
fore and the temperature was a toasty
50ºF with forecasted showers all day.
This meant that the long loop ride be-