The 2020 BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy changed in the biggest way today as the South Island served up a sizable new challenge: mountains! The North Island was never anything less than hilly, but today in the South Island the GS riders found themselves tackling two mountains, riding on proper mountain tracks, not gravel roads. As promised, the riding intensity had been raised to a new level.
The morning started with a steep and winding climb up Mount Richmond, 20km of rocky ascent through native forest that took the riders above the cloud base before reaching the 754m Maungatapu Saddle where they found the first test of the day: the Emirates Challenge. In this test all the riders from each team had to ride a tricky trials section among the rock and bush while remembering three key flight details to be relayed to the marshal at the finish: flight number, boarding time and seat number!
