Lasting the distance
Husqvarna builds their bikes tough and expects that they’ll last the distance with even the toughest of treatment and over the most daunting of terrain.
And it’s highly likely that one of their riders will prevail too when the 2019 Husqvarna Hard X race plays out in forestry near A¯ tiamuri in just over a week’s time.
This annual four-hour cross-country race on Saturday is a unique challenge that will feature some of the same terrain used for the separate Husqvarna Hard Adventure Enduro events, “but on a more compact 25km course“.
The event had originally been scheduled to run in March, but the fire risk at that time was too great and so it was postponed until now.
Event organiser Sean Clarke describes the challenge as “mostly Bronze level trails, but with a few Gold and Silver deviations”, meaning there will be something for everyone but also that it will provide a stern test for the elite riders entered.
And this perhaps plays right into the hands of 25-year-old Cambridge diesel mechanic Dylan Yearbury, one of the favourites to win the race after his recent impressive outings at similar events across the country.
Yearbury (Husqvarna FC250) was a stand-out competitor at the Nut Buster Hard Enduro, part of the two-day final round of the New Zealand Extreme Off-Road Championship series near Christchurch last month, and he also won the threeday Husqvarna Hard Adventure Enduro near Tokoroa last year, so he certainly holds no fears for the four-hour crosscountry “sprint” at A¯ tiamuri on saturday.
“I have never raced this event before, but I’m looking forward to it,” said Yearbury.
“This should be nice and technical and that suits me. I have been focused a lot lately on my riding and I’m getting good results. I am using this event as part of my buildup towards me returning to racing in the United States next year. I head back to my base in South Carolina on January 27.
The Husqvarna Hard X race is being held in a private forest on Ongaroto Road, about 30 minutes’ drive south of Tokoroa and 30 minutes’ drive north of Taupo¯ , and the venue will be signposted on SH1 near A¯ tiamuri. There is no charge for spectators.