wayneg

~SPONSOR~
Aug 29, 2001
544
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Well I finally did it on sunday - got two clean laps, which was one of my goals from about 4 years ago. I ended up with three points for the whole trial (40 sections, or 4 laps of 10 sections), which is another minor miracle (I normally end up scoring at least 40 or 50 points).

The only thing that I will put it down to is riding so much recently, lots of practice gives an improvement in confidence=much less time spent falling off, and consequently very few bruises.

This sort of scoring is a bit unusual for us, as the goal of the trials master seems to be to take 1 point per section, meaning that the best riders in each grade should score around the 40 points for the day. This means that I was a bit of a 'trophy burglar' at this event and should of been riding in a higher grade, which is a bit embarrasing :o . I did however beat a couple of riders who whipped me by a large margin at our National Champs about a month ago, and they were riding the same line as me.

It still felt nice to beat some people who are much better riders than me..... :cool:
 

Patman

Pantless Wonder
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Dec 26, 1999
19,774
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CONGRATS! :thumb:

Not to take anything away from your effort but maybe you had some help Wayne?

It's taken me a while to come to grips with what I’m about to say, since it’s a new year my resolution was to get this off my chest.
I am not a great rider by any stretch of the imagination, but I try to use the things taught to me by those that are gracious enough to explain the skills needed to ride trials properly. Nobody taught me more than Gary, he always made it sound and look so simple that I could sometimes convince myself it was but I usually don’t progress very quickly. So I was quite surprised when I was out at a friends place in Wimberly riding the rocky creek and ledges on his property one afternoon. Everything was just so perfect, I was able to place the bike exactly where it needed to be, I felt totally in control of every obstacle, I tried things I normally wouldn’t. My friend commented “You make it look effortless.” I agreed but confirmed that this was not usually the case so we both enjoyed sharing my Montesa well into the evening. Finally things swung back to more normal for me as I poked my eye on a small branch and decided to take a break. While watching my friend through a blurry and teary eye I kept thinking to myself “Man I really wish Gary was here, I just can’t believe this is all so easy like he kept telling me.” Well as it got darker we headed back and I headed home still thinking about what a great ride it had been and that maybe I should call Gary the next day. The next morning instead I got a call from my good friend Leo telling me Gary had passed away. I didn’t want to ride for several weeks after that news, now I do and while it’s apparent I’ve lost those great skills I had for a few hours late in the afternoon and into the evening of November 23, 2002 I now KNOW that I can do it and that it can really feel as easy as Gary always said.

PATMAN

From HERE

I was unable to ride Sunday because of a server install gone massivly wrong so maybe Gary found somebody else to help out.
 

wayneg

~SPONSOR~
Aug 29, 2001
544
0
Well it definitely helped - thanks Gary!

I was not really in the correct frame of mind for riding on sunday, so it was surprising for me to ride so well.

I had been to my brother's wedding the night before, and my youngest daughter tripped over and cut her lip badly. So we were at the hospital until the early hours of sunday morning - not much sleep. Then my wife had to take her back to a plastic surgeon on sunday where they were going to stitch her up properly, and I was sort of thinking about that a bit too much.

So maybe I shouldn't be concentrating on what I'm doing, and then I'll ride better??? If I close my eyes when riding I might improve even more :laugh:
 
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