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Round 2 of the Suzuki NI Enduro Championship was held at Arthur Waugh\'s property, about 10 km\'s east of the Mangitinoka Brewery, on Sunday. This round also doubled as round 2 of the Suzuki Central Series.
Until recently, Enduro\'s have been the \'forgotten sport\', with relatively small fields of dedicated competitors. 2002 however has seen a dramatic increase in the number of riders, with the first round of the NI Champs attracting 101 entrants and the 2nd round attracting 116. Even the first round of the Central series, held at Wellington a few weeks earlier, had a very respectable 67 riders competing.
A lot of the credit for this increase must go to the general policy of the last few years of setting ridable courses that are accessible to all, but with A splits to test the better riders.
In keeping with this policy Tony Smith (Bush Riders MCC) set much of Sundays 130 km (120 km for Intermediates) course on a CT200 farm bike. Obviously he got the mix just right because, by the half-way stage, just about everyone was still on time and there had only been a small handful of withdrawals.
The 2nd loop was complicated by a light drizzle which made the conditions a little slippery. Unfortunately the light drizzle was followed by a heavy downpour and this proved the final straw for a lot of the less experienced riders.
Bewteen the 6th and the 8th check 30 plus riders went from being on time or just a few minutes over, to houring out completely. By the end of the event, almost half (56 of the 116 entrants) had DNF\'ed, and many others had lost a significant amount of time.
Several people have commented that the higher numbers (who started later) were disadvantaged but several riders who started well down the pack managed to finish, including Expert Vet Anthony Murphy (38B KTM 200 - 32 minutes) and Intermediate Glen Magson (32B KDX220 - 39 minutes).
At the same time, quite a few riders with low numbers failed to finish. Probably more telling is the fact that only 8 Expert riders didn\'t complete the course.
Competitors from 15 or more years ago (yeh, it was really tough in those days!!) can tell stories of events where only a handful of riders finished and the bogs were so deep you ended up riding over the bikes that had been sucked in.
While there are still a small handful of die-hards who hark back to the days when Enduros were a real test of skill, preparation, and downright dogged determination, organisers & sponsors want to see more people out enjoying themselves.
Notwithstanding, Enduros are still a test of skill and no event organiser I know has much control over the weather. I think it\'s called the luck of the draw. The best bet is to make sure that the bike is as well prepared as possible, preferably with good tires, and come prepared to learn. Oh, and if you\'re still a little worried, pray for fine weather.
