Familiarity with land can sometimes spell a disastrous ride. Exactly what went wrong today was down to some rear poundage. I'm not talking that extra Christmas turkey love handle poundage I've gained over the festive period, no, I'm talking tyre poundage. Although, like me you all may suffer a little from that wide-boy Christmas turkey look, it took one very smart rider to point out my bad performance was due to.... in steps Rob Fleet (fleety) "let some air outta-yu-rear tyre". Yes, you read it right, let some air out of my rear tyre. How could I be so stupid, me an expert club rider getting the basic set up of my bike wrong before the trial even started. I blame it on Takashi Fujinami. If you was fortunate enough to attend Sheffield Arena, World Indoor Trial yesterday and see him crash on section 8 - with paramedics cellotaping his left leg back on, I can tell you I went one stage further on section 1 today. Such was the quality of my five even I was amazed at how much injury I could inflict on myself on the opening section to the trial.
The progress made after the tyre was deflated riding with fleety and Gary Roberts (gazzer) was a lot more like it. It meant I could ride the sections more competitively. Fleety was on a flyer showing a clean set of heels on nearly ever section on the second lap. Gazzer, king of the mud, though, was unable to build on his opening advantage over Fleety and myself. Gazzer, huffed and puffed and caused himself to make a big gaff on section 8 when his bike sidestepped to lose drive and take a five.
The scores were high for all us experts, but the goal posts are always on the move in this class. I promised myself a good ride after all the excitement at Sheffield, I did keep my composure and I did achieve a satifying ride.