On The Pegs February 2018 - Volume 3 - Issue 2 | Page 76

On The Pegs
DBG’S
DIALOGUE
A bi-monthly column by
Daniel Blanc-Gonnet
Before I talk about the upcoming
2018 season, I want to quickly recap
the last year. 2017 was a year of a lot
of change for me; I graduated college,
got a job, moved to Arizona, and pretty
much started a new life! Through all
this my focus on trials never faded and
has probably gotten even stronger. A
lot of people say that trials will never
make you money and that “The only
way to become a millionaire riding
trials is to start off as a billionaire.” My
response is always that I never started
it for the money. The experiences and
lessons I’ve learned from trials are far
more valuable than money could ever
be. I was forced to work hard, perse-
vere, and mentally strengthen myself
to be able to compete at the top level
of this sport in the US and attempt
to live life like all my peers. Not only
all that, but I have had the fortune to
travel all over the world just to ride a
motorcycle over rocks in a different
country! How crazy does that sound?
Over the past year, reflecting back on
my journey with trials and how diffi-
cult it has made everything else in my
life, I realized I wouldn’t trade it for the
world. As I enter this new era of my life,
I have often asked myself, do I want to
continue doing this? And the answer is:
I don’t think I will ever stop. Even when
I am too old and broken to ride, I hope
that I can promote the sport that has
helped shape me into the person I am
today and bring the same experiences
to other kids around the country.
Coming out of 2017, with a 6th place
finish in the Pro class at the NATC na-
tionals, and a second place finish at the
Trial Des Nations, I am determined to
bring my riding to the next level. Look-
ing back at videos and scores from the
past season, I was able to come up with
a plan to tackle the “lowest hanging
fruit” of my riding AKA the techniques
that would save me the most amount
of points for the least amount work. I
narrowed the big point takers down
to splatters and consistency. Almost
2/3rds of the sections in the pro class
have splatters which makes this tech-
nique very point heavy. Improving
this category for the next season is
rather obvious by practicing splatters
religiously for the next 9 months. As
for consistency, both physical strength