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Parc Ferme
New Zealand Senior Team Decimated at A4DE
Day two dawned with renewed optimism amongst the NZ Team with Christopher Power fixing his steering head bearing problem and the rest of the team having a good ride for day one.
Disaster struck about half way through the day when Shaun Prescott's borrowed KTM250 blew the reed valves and it went badly off song and wouldn't run. Improvised reeds made from goggle lenses lasted until they melted and even some borrowed second hand ones worked for a short time too.
Eventually it was just too much and Shaun had to retire with an almost dead bike and out of time.
This meant that the 6 Man Senior Team would now be penalised maximum points for three of the four days making it impossible to repeat last years excellent result.
To make matters worse, multi National champ Sean Clarke (NZ Captain) had a serious off when his front wheel let go in a terrain test. He has suffered a shoulder injury (he thinks it is a separated AC Joint) and is sure he won't be riding tomorrow. This is a double blow for Sean after his bike problems last year.
The rest of the NZ contingent fared pretty well with all returning on time except for Merv Heard who put in a fantastic effort to lose only 9 minutes after his poor showing the day before. Fortunately Merv got back 30 minutes lost on day one as the organisers wiped the section that had the big hold up.
Lockie Columb was dissapointed with the couple of minutes he lost when his tyre change went wrong. He got into parc ferme with the chain not on, the tyre not pumped up and the axle still loose. He has 10 minutes tomorrow morning to sort it out which won't be a problem.
So tomorrow it will be the survival of the fittest amongst the visicous rocks and steep hills.
Merriman is still going exceptionally well and is very fast on the terrain tests. Fantastic to watch.
SO IT IS NOW UP TO THE JUNIOR 4 MAN TEAM TO BRING HOME THE SILVERWARE - GO THE BOYS!
Full report tomorrow around Noon
