After such a great result in Taranaki I was expecting to do well at Woodville this weekend even though it was my first go on the big track here. We stayed in Palmerston North for the week leading into Woodville and spent a few days out at Flipp MX Park to get a feel for it before Junior Nationals. Unfortunately the wind was blowing like crazy so we got sand blasted and wind burnt but it was another different condition I hadn’t ridden in before so got to learn more new stuff. We did early sign on on Friday afternoon and did a track walk and it looked pretty good. This morning it was dry and still blowing hard so by the time we got to our practice I was already over thinking my ride. Even though I didn’t enjoy practice I qualified 8th out of 26 or 28 other riders. Race 1 was okay, I wasn’t committing to the race so spent most of the time with my wheels on the ground and staying upright. In Race 2 I realised to meet my goals I need to work harder and smarter. The wind had died down a bit so I started jumping until I went over the double and a gust caught my front guard and I lost it, landing on my bum and sliding down the jump. I was in 4th when this happened so I got angry and rode hard to finish in a reasonable place. Race 3 I was in the zone and I pushed from gate drop to flag and considering how my day started I was happy with my finish. 11-15-4 put me at tenth overall for the day. I have learned that it really doesn’t matter how good I am on a good day, I need to be able to mentally bounce back from a bad ride to not have a whole bad day.
Soren Staudinger 