After a hard-fought four-round cross country season, Waipukurau motorbike racer Steve Sergeant has come away with the National and North Island Cross Country title in the Vets 35-44 class.
Sergeant is a member of the Central Hawke's Bay Motorcycle Club and started riding when he was 9. In his early 20s he had national success in Enduro racing, then took 10 years off to go travelling.
Returning to New Zealand just three years ago he got back on the bike and back to race fitness. It was a lot of hard work, he says, but it has paid off.
With the first round of the Cross Country Series starting in February, Sergeant starts training in September, working with Sam Harvey Training in Napier on a programme that is specifically structured for Cross Country Endurance racing. He also mountain bikes three to four times per week on the local Tukituki mountain bike trails and enters as many motorcycle races as he can.
Sergeant competes on a Kawasaki (KXF250) and is the only rider on a Kawasaki to compete in the national series senior class this year. The majority of racers choose to ride European brand motorcycles but his Kawasaki has held its own, he says, handling everything the tough three-hour races have thrown at it "from fast open sections to steep gnarly uphills and technical tight sections".
