Reeves Plans Gruelling Double Campaign

Reeves Plans Gruelling Double Campaign

JUNE 8, 2015: Manawatu’s Adam Reeves is a glutton for punishment.

How else can you explain why the Palmerston North man is planning to be twice as busy with racing this winter than he ever has before?

The 33-year-old former champion dirt bike racer is planning to take his Yamaha YZ250 to tackle two major off-road series at once, both competitions he is well capable of winning.

The three-time former national cross-country champion has just wrapped up his 2015 New Zealand Enduro Championship campaign – where he finished fifth overall and second in class – and his only disappointment there was that he was not also able to challenge his close friends and fellow Yamaha riders Paul Whibley and Adrian Smith in the parallel but separate cross-country nationals.

"There were too many clashes with the dates for the two series and so I had to choose one. I enjoyed the enduro series but would have liked to have been able to challenge Paul and Adrian in the cross-country champs as well.

This weekend he heads to forestry land just south of Tokoroa for the first of four rounds in the popular Dirt Guide Cross-country Championships, an event that doubles also as round one of the inaugural NZXC cross-country series, a new five-round series created by just-crowned national cross-country No.1 Whibley.

By contesting both series, Reeves will be pushing himself and his bike to the limit right through until early December.

"I did okay at the enduro nationals, but not great ... not by my standards anyway," he said.

"I'm really looking forward now to the Dirt Guide series and the NZXC series as well and, because Sunday's results count for both series, it is doubly important for me, and the other riders too, to do well this weekend.

"I think the NZXC will be a true test to find who is best in New Zealand because it is being raced across all terrain types, not just farmland and not just pumice or sand.

"Paul (Whibley) has been training me and running me into the ground. I have almost been throwing up. Instead of him leaving me alone while he heads overseas to race, like in past years, he's at home in New Zealand fulltime now and so he never lets up. I only live about five minutes down the road from his property at Taikorea (on the outskirts of Palmerston North), so I'm always there."

The second round of the NZXC series is at Taikorea and so that should play right into Reeves' hands.

Dirt Guide Cross-country Championships 2015:

Round one: June 14, Tar Hill, south of Tokoroa

Round two: August 9, Ohakuri, south of Tokoroa

Round three: September 6, Atiamuri (new venue)

Round four: October 4, Tar Hill, south of Tokoroa

NZXC series schedule 2015:

Round one: June 14, Tar Hill, Tokoroa (part of the Dirt Guide Series)

Round two: July 18, Taikorea, Palmerston North (the stand-alone Yamaha Taikorea 500)

Round three: August 30, Woodhill, Auckland (part of the Woodhill Two-man Series)

Round four: November 14, Maddix Park, Tauranga (part of the NZ GNCC Series)

Round five: December 5, Castlehill, Pahiatua (part of the Central CC Series)

ENDS

© Scoop Media