Dirt got the better of Waikato bike rider Dylan Yearbury at last season’s annual Husqvarna Hard Adventure Enduro, but this time around it was Yearbury who conquered the treacherous off-road terrain near Tokoroa.

The 22-year-old diesel mechanic from Cambridge had been forced to withdraw from this extreme enduro event last year when dirt entered his eye and caused it to painfully swell up.

For the 2017 edition of the popular Husqvarna Hard Adventure Enduro, staged over two-and-a-half days of Labour Weekend, Yearbury was back and with a now 2018-model fuel-injected two-stroke Husqvarna TC300i, determined to “settle some unfinished business”.

Yearbury finished fourth overall at Friday night’s prologue event, where the riders tackled obstacles such as tractor tyres, logs and concrete pipes in the SATCO logging attachments company yard in Tokoroa.

Results achieved over this spectacular man-made spectator-friendly prologue course were used to determine qualification and starting positions for each of the Gold, Silver and Bronze category riders the following day.

Record eight-time former New Zealand moto trials champion Jake Whitaker, from Wellington, won the tricky prologue, finishing ahead of Napier’s Mackenzie Wiig, Helensville’s Tom Buxton and then Yearbury.

However, winning the prologue is only a small part of the gruelling test.

Whitaker and several other riders too were punished early the next day, each docked 15 minutes after they misread their Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) devices and ended up skipping an entire section of the track.

This handed the initiative to Yearbury, who had correctly navigated the terrain and therefore earned a handy lead over the chasing bunch.

Yearbury rode solidly throughout Saturday and Sunday and maintained his advantage and, although Whitaker closed in on him near the end, Yearbury had done enough to win the Gold grade by just over 11 minutes from Whitaker, with Wiig finishing third overall, more than nine minutes further back.

“It was a tough event and I know that’s what it was supposed to be. The expansion chamber of my bike’s exhaust took a bit of a hammering,” Yearbury laughed.

“They were long, hard, tough days of riding. The course had everything, from tight sections to fast bits, steep up-hills, down-hills, forest trails, bush bashing, rock gardens, creek crossings and bogs. There wasn’t much time to rest.

“I want to thank Husqvarna New Zealand and Fox NZ for supporting me.”

Meanwhile, Putaruru’s Nigel Smith won the Silver grade and Cambridge’s Beau Taylor finished top of the Bronze grade.

The event was sponsored by Husqvarna NZ, Forest Trail Events, Kiwi Rider magazine, SATCO logging attachments and Michelin tyres.

© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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