On The Pegs February 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 2 | Page 101

On The Pegs
VOL. 5 ISSUE 2 - FEBRUARY 2020
101
Raga, Benoit Bincaz, and Bou rode the same section forward and backwards
and Bou ended up doing a gap that no one else did. I looked at it and went and
walked the sections and I just didn’t quite see it being possible for me, and he did
it in a race situation and saved a bunch of time and ended up winning the night
at the very end, so that was probably the coolest way to end this event, having
three riders tied and then the last guy goes and does something that no one else
did. That was probably the coolest part of it.
Are they using any techniques that we don’t use over here that maybe you
were kind of amazed at?
I think the biggest difference is indoors you get a point for using the skid plate,
and that’s something that we just don’t ever practice. So, they have a little bit dif-
ferent way of hitting certain things that I’ve just never really done. The main thing
is it’s a big, square chunk but they make it more of a triangle and put it on its
edge. To go up and not touch the skid plate you have to use a little different tech-
nique that I’ve never really practiced, so I just didn’t even attempt it. I just planned
on using the skid plate and taking the point just to be safe. But they had kind of
a way of holding the wheelie and then popping off of it and landing on the front
tire without going forward too much, because if you go forward, then you’re go-
ing to fall off the front of the diamond and go over the bars. So that’s what I was
worried about. They just had that figured out from practicing this skid plate point
technique.
Were the fans receptive to you?
Yeah. They were really awesome. That was one of the coolest parts was you
could really see how much they were watching the actual trials technical part of
it. They weren’t just after the big jumps, looking for crashes or big air. They were
really into the technical side of it and the balance side of it. There were times that
I was struggling just to hold my balance and if I caught myself they would cheer
for that because they could see that I was fighting for every inch of balance to
stay on the obstacle. When you got back on, they noticed. It was really cool. Defi-
nitely the loudest for Benoit who is French. They were always going crazy every
time he had a good ride.
They’re obviously very knowledgeable fans.
Yeah, definitely. They’re not just, “A motorcycle show, let’s go watch some crash-
es.” They’re like, “A trials show, let’s go watch the best riders in the world do crazy