earlier, a spill that left him suffering ugly, deep bruising all
down his right thigh.
He amazed everyone that he was able to battle on despite
this.
Enduring intense pain, his 34th and 38th (actually a DNF)
results from his two races did not reflect his ability or his
attitude.
Meanwhile, the youngest team member, just-turned
19-year-old Purvis, took his 250cc machine into battle
against riders on 450cc bikes in the Open class and he
proved to be something of a revelation, his 27th and 33rd
results extremely honourable under the circumstances.
In the end, that meant that Purvis was actually the best-
performed of the Kiwis.
“I have loved every bit of it here, my first time in Europe.
The wow factor for me is just about how many people are
here at the event and how fast these riders are,” Purvis
said.
“Racing the 250cc bike against the 450s was tough
because I was getting out-dragged out of every corner but
I just had to keep my momentum up.
“The sand here is way different than anything I’ve struck
before. It was way thicker and heavier than anything at
(my home track at) Taupo. It sucked the power right out of
the bike.”
As for the actual MXoN winners, the favoured Dutch team
– Jeffery Herlings, Calvin Vlaanderen and Glenn Coldenhoff
– celebrated their first MXoN victory, Team Netherlands
finishing the weekend well ahead of Team Belgium and
then Great Britain, followed by Estonia and then last year’s
champion Team France.
The Motocross of Nations will be staged at Ernee, in
44 KIWI RIDER