Another Sunday in November, another sandlot/shinny/pick-up trials competition at the Faribault grounds.
Yesterday, we formed two teams: The Spaniards (Ben Winterer, Jimmy Blount, me) vs The Brits (Jim Winterer, Jim Blount, and Martin Belair — riding his Honda TL 250 for a combined 500 pounds of pure momentum).
Each group set up four sections, with lines for Expert and Advanced. Whichever team had the lowest total points for a section earned one point. We also counted dabs up to five.
One of the sections was “gated” — the first in UMTA history, set by Mr. Belair. A gated section has multiple lines, and each has a point value. Easier lines have point values of 1 or 2, harder lines have point values of 3, 4, or 5. The idea is to accumulate as many points as you can. But if you dab at all, you get zilch for the entire section. We all kept overestimating our ability to clean the damn section, due in part to frozen ground underneath the sand. It not only really makes you look at lines differently (am I sure I can clean this part?) but there’s a whole strategy to who rides in what order and what lines you need to ride based on the team scores thus far.
Rooting for your team, razzing the other team, closely watching the scores of every ride by every rider, spectacular all-out efforts/crashes (you gotta go for it when your team is depending on you) made for a very fun afternoon. A team trial would be a great addition to our Fun Days next year.
Oh yeah. The Spaniards whupped ‘em. 
