Wainui, New Zealand. There was a concerted push south today as the
2020 BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy looked to finish the day
within striking distance of the Cook Strait, ready for a leap onto the
South Island tomorrow. Only first there was nearly 350km of mixed
trail and highway, through the never ending hills of the Wairarapa,
diving into native woodlands, crossing pastoral flatlands then a
return to the spectacular east coast before finally crossing the
Rimutaka Range to make camp in the bush on the edge of Wellington, New
Zealand’s capital city.
The GS riders again responded to
a pre-dawn 5:30am call to breakfast, yet again finding wonder in the
incredible sunrise over the Pacific Ocean, this time seen over the
reef at Castlepoint. Less than a kilometre from the start they stopped
for the first challenge of the day, Beach Drift. Here one rider from
each team rode against the clock over a deep sand section, then
crossed back and forth across flatter sands before making a precision
stop in a defined box. The deep sand claimed many victims, either
tipping over or sinking deep, including the hitherto infallible Team
South Korea.
From here the riders enjoyed riding a hard
pack farmer’s trail over spectacular cliffs to Waimimi – just another
small name on the map marking the location of a handful of farming
homesteads. Here the riders turned inland toward Masterton, the
Wairarapa’s market town. A mix of flowing roads and twisting gravel
tracks, much of it through native forest sections, took the riders
east and as they crossed the highpoint of 536m at Pariwhariki they
could see in the distance the impressive, brooding Tararau Range that
divides the southern half of the North Island, with peaks reaching
1300 metres.
After a refuel and coffee break in the quaint historic town of
Martinborough the riders then headed east again – not south! – On the
gravel tracks that lead to the iconic White Rock at Pahaoa. The beach
here is black sand which contrasts starkly with the solitary white
rock that somehow holds steady in the immense raging surf – this is no
swimming spot! Here the GS riders were entertained by the Leatt Neck
Brace Challenge, hurling their gloves up the beach into the neck
braces in something resembling target practice!
The
final leg of today’s journey saw the GS riders swoop over the
Rimutakas on the biker-famous Rimutaka Hill Road – a favourite weekend
haunt of Wellington’s bike riders. The curves are entertaining, but
either side of the road (which peaks at 725m) is a vast dense native
bush with manuka, beech, cabbage trees, hebe and ferns. New Zealand
almost as it was when Captain Cook first arrived. Only the action
didn’t end here as the teams again had to elect a rider to ride the
final challenge of the day: the Trial, a weaving track that led
through the trees and through a stream on the edge of the bush that
borders the campground for tonight. Of course this was set against the
clock, with time deductions for footing and stalls.
While
it was a typically late end to the riding day it was an early turn-in
for sleep as tomorrow the GS Trophy makes a very early pre-dawn start
for the inter-island ferry to the South Island.
Quotes:
Andrea Padovani, Team Italy:
“It’s been a very hard and beautiful spirit riding the GS
Trophy, we are every day riding hard to make our goals. Sometimes it
is difficult, sometimes easy, but we go on and see what each day
brings. The days are hard because we ride for many hours, but we are
enjoying it because the landscape is beautiful – New Zealand is
something amazing, different to all we know. We have enjoyed the Sena
communications; riding with the Australians today they talk so much!
But yesterday we rode with the first female team and they said we
speak a lot. The Sena is a challenge to us, though, for being Italians
we speak not just with our voice, but with our hands and our faces!”
Brandon Grimsted, Team South Africa:
“The event has been thrilling, lots of excitement, so
we’ve experienced lots of nerves. We’ve had a lot of supportive
feedback from our fans and friends back at home, and placed fourth
we’re in a good position in the competition, so we will put these past
days behind us and push on. Today we had a shaky start – BJ (Vosloo)
was maybe too aggressive in the first test, but Cobus (Theron) likes
his technical riding and so scored us a clean ride in the trial. A
good day. But New Zealand – it leaves me speechless, it’s an
incredible country!”
Cleuci Ronzella, Team Brazil:
“This is some event! The views are amazing, the route is
amazing – but we need to rest, there’s been so much riding in the last
three days. All the same, we simply don’t have the words to explain
how we feel, this is an incredible experience. We hope to go better in
the next days, we will find our strength.”
BMW
Motorrad International GS Trophy 2020 Oceania.
Day Three overall standings:
1 South Korea 157 points
2 South Africa 146
3 Netherlands 145
4 France 142
5 Italy 133
6 USA 124
7 Australia 122
8 Russia 114
9 Latin America 111
10 Brazil 109
11 Mexico 105
12 Argentina 101
13 Middle East 93
14 UK 79
15 India 78
16 Nordic 77
17 Malaysia 67
18 Japan 62
19 North Africa 62
20 Thailand 62
21 Int. Female Team I 43
22 Int. Female Team II 30
The event’s excitement will
also be relayed with much more information of a more informal kind via
BMW Motorrad’s social media sources:
BMW Motorrad Facebook www.facebook.com/bmwmotorrad
Twitter
www.twitter.com/bmwmotorrad
(#gstrophy)
YouTube www.youtube.com/bmwmotorrad
Instagram www.instagram.com/bmwmotorrad
“RIDE
AND TALK – The BMW Motorrad Podcast”
Watch out for more
information on the BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy 2020 – brought
to you directly from New Zealand!
In case of queries,
please contact:
Tim Diehl-Thiele, Head of Communications
BMW Motorrad Tel.: +49 151 601 57505, Tim.Diehl-Thiele@bmw.de
Ingo Wirth, Head of Communications MINI and BMW Motorrad
Tel.: +49 89 382 25814, Ingo.Wirth@bmw.de
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