The lunch break was long enough that I finally got to see Bert, Shawn, Cory, and Greg. I sat down with them for awhile and we all bench raced over lunch. It sounded like they were having a blast racing each other all day. I think it was here that Bert called Greg the Martian... he hadn't ridden in about 3 years but was just killing it. Both Cory and Shawn had some minor mechanical problems which they were able to repair at the lunch break.
Cory rockin' it in a transfer section
Test 5 was only about a mile after the gas check and had a killer long flat start with a sweeping left hand corner. There were lots of spectators at this one and after I hit the trail I could see spectators darting off the trail to get out of my way. Once again I felt great and was keeping what I thought was a pretty good pace, but it was a pretty tight trail and my big 505 was starting to tire my arms out in the corners. Naturally I went down again before the end and dropped minutes as usual. We had one more short transfer section before the final test.
The final test started right next to the pits, and was a 15 mile test all the way to the finish. Brad was there waiting for us and he got me some water since I had just drained my camelbak. Lots and lots of spectators at this one.
This is what 51st overall looks like people!
The first 5 miles of this test was killer, more fast and flowy singletrack and some spots where you could really open it up. After that it went up into the mountains and it got pretty tight with some steep spots and some technical rocky spots. It was a long test and it was hard to keep pushing 100% through the whole thing. I felt great and made a lot of passes, I think all the way up to minute 32. I knew I was getting near the end so I was pushing hard in some whoops when I saw something flapping on my bike out of the corner of my eye. I look down and its my right-side radiator, barely hanging on by one hose, and its just smacking the head pipe over and over.
I thought my race was over, can't ride without a cooling system and I figured there was no way my radiator survived such a beating. Without even thinking I just grabbed it and forced it back into the top hose (the thing is scorching hot by the way) so that all the hoses were connected. Then I rode the rest of the test, slowly, while sitting high up on the tank and squeezing the radiators between my knees so it couldn't come out again. It worked and I made it to the finish, but in this test the Husky guys finally caught up to me and two of them passed me about 1/2 mile before the finish. They looked a lot faster than I have ever felt. I think it was Garrison that got me first, I was able to get out of his way easy. It was then either Cory Graffunder or Nick Burson who came by next and I tried to move off the trail but I didn't know he was already over taking me there. I ended up pushing him way wide on the corner as he's yelling “whoa whoa whoa!” at me the whole time. Sorry about that!
At the finish there were tons of spectators taking pictures, and here I am going 2 mph holding my radiators in and looking like a total goon. I made it and the club had another cooler full of cold beer waiting for us. Take note USRA, beer at the finish = awesome. I had a smile on my face so big you could see it from Salt Lake City. The course was 95% singletrack, and the roads that were there had only been used by dirtbikes in the last 10 years so they were practically singletrack too. The temperature was perfect, about 60-65 degrees all day. All I could think was this was by far the funnest time I have ever had at a race, and I've raced about 50 times in the last few years.
I finished 51st overall and 16th in my class (of 51 riders). Not too bad but I felt I could have done better of course, had I not crashed, got lost, got tangled in some barbed wire, helped a rider who crashed, and most of all if my radiator hadn't fallen off! The club did an excellent job with everything, laying out and marking the course, a great mix of tight, fast, smooth, and technical terrain, lunch, pins, shirts, hats... everything. I hope they reconsider and do the Enduro at some point in the future, I don't think anyone who raced this would miss another one.
Below is a video of all the helmet cam footage I took. I tried to record every special test but the tests were so long my battery ran out about 30 seconds into the final test. I'm a total novice at video editing but I hope you enjoy it.
Reply With Quote