USRA Round 3: Sage Riders AMA National H&H

A year after Paul's first race I had been thoroughly hooked on racing and the Sage Riders had returned with their National Hare and Hound. (At Left: Josh Morros, 16 years old, and a Professional riding for Kawaski led the pack off the start and put on a show) I had originally decided not to enter this race, mostly due to what it had done to Paul the year before. But now that I had two races under my belt and was more confident (even though I hadn't done very well yet), I felt I was ready for it.

I had boosted my confidence significantly due to several rides between Rhino Rally and this race as well, which I think helped greatly.

This race didn't start so great for me though, in terms of pre-race preparation. The race was held at pretty much the same location as it had been the year before, which is only about two to three hours away from where I live. So unlike the first two races, I didn't stay in a hotel or anything the night before. Just got up early and headed out on race day. Thing is, I didn't get an early enough start - I showed up with just under an hour before the banner dropped.

I had to step lively over to the registration table (unlike the first two races I wasn't pre-registered) and got there just as they were closing up. I then had a little bit of last minute bike maintenance to do. Paul and Carlo were already geared up and headed over to the rider's meeting, and I was starting to wonder if I was going to make it.

I got my gear on, filled up with gas, did a super quick (and likely terrible job of) bolt and chain check. The chain was actually a little skewy, and I didn't feel all that confident in the condition of the bike. But I knew that time had run out on me - I quickly had a little heart to heart with the Blue Tank. In short I said, "Make it through this race and before the next one I'll do a real good maintenance check." With that I fired it up and headed to the start line.

I've since decided that this method of showing up late and rushing to the start line is a good idea. You'll see why in just a moment.

I got to the start line and couldn't find Paul, but was able to locate Carlo. I had no chance to check out the start area before going, so I had no idea what to expect. I lined up next to Carlo and right away everyone was shutting off their bikes and getting ready to go - Experts were up.

Here's a good angle on the start - While Rhino Rally had a ton of Novices, this race was dominated by the sheer number of Experts. (The music put to the video isn't my thing, and if it's not yours either, it's just as good to watch while muted):



The Experts took off and we were up. I found that I never really had the time to be nervous or get worked up. I was in such a rush to get to the start on time that I had to forget about worrying about it. Then the banner dropped. I don't know what got into me, but I somehow knew when they were about to drop it. I started to kick as it came down, and having learned from Rhino Rally, I was already in gear. What happened - well I had a textbook perfect start:



The guy who filmed that was there to film his buddy, who was on his left, because his buddy typically gets a perfect start. Unfortunately it didn't happen this time - he couldn't start his bike. I'm on the right side of the camera, and though it's only brief, I got a perfect start and you can see how I quickly took off in front of everyone nearby. As a bonus, there's a moment early on where you see a guy sprawled out on the ground having just crashed pretty badly. That's Carlo. His start didn't go so well.

The first loop went really well. I had lots of energy, I was confident, I was riding well. I had a couple little wrecks but I was able to quickly get going again. I had made it off the start and onto the course I'd say in about 20th or so out of the Amateur wave and I held that for a while, making some passes but getting passed by a few people as well.

I rolled into the pits feeling great - I don't know for sure but I think I had kept in the top 20 or so. Carlo hadn't caught up to me yet, which felt good, and neither had any Novices. The first loop was 35 miles and I had done it well. Coming to the pit stop everyone was surprised to see me, which was good too - more evidence I was doing well. They almost didn't know what to do or expect! Here was the guy who got dead last at Mesquite, was way behind at the Rhino Rally, suddenly doing good/decent.

Turns out I was only eight or so minutes behind Paul, which made me feel really good as well, and they had figured he was in about 9th place or so. I left the pits with a ferocity to try and catch some of those between Paul and me, and hoped that I could do well enough to maybe come in right behind him to surprise him at the finish.

Sadly, it wasn't to be. At about mile 60 or 65 (out of 80 or so) all energy left me. I felt as if I literally had nothing more to give. This was bad for several reasons, but the most immediate one was that this part of the course was very technical. That kind of riding requires more strength, endurance, and skill than any other. As a result, I crashed more. A lot more. The first couple of Novices passed me. Several other Amateurs passed me. I started losing all the gains I had made on the first loop.

I kept trying to psyche myself out and push myself, but then I would get so tired I would crash. I finally resigned myself to a slow pace and tried to conserve energy and make it all the way home. Such a bummer, I was doing so good.

This put me in a right fowl mood I must say. The exhilaration of the perfect start and doing so well on the first loop was all gone, and now just anger at being in poor shape. (At Right: Oh the hazards of the Bomb Run. Another benefit of getting a great start is you're ahead of this kind of thing and don't have to navigate through it) Carlo finally caught up to me. He's in his 40's, and has 10x the endurance I do - he zipped by with ease, not looking tired at all. Apparently he had had quite a few bad crashes that had slowed him down. Too bad - if he could go a race without crashing he could finish really good fairly easily, if on nothing but endurance alone (that is not to say he isn't skilled - he's a great rider).

I kept looking ahead on the course, just hoping it would be coming to an end. Finally it started turning back toward the pits and I was getting happy, knowing it would soon be over...but just before I got close enough to be really excited, the course turned south and went into the Little Sahara sand dunes. I really don't like sand dune riding, or super deep sand in general. It's tiring riding too, and if I had been spent before, I was all but gone now. So of all the moments to be heading into sand dunes, I'm pretty sure this was the worst timing ever.

Somehow I made it through though. I'm not sure, but I came to the end of the race and finished. Though I didn't do as good as I could have had I not run out of steam, I did improve more than 10 places (within Amateurs) from Rhino.

Paul and Carlo were impressed with my finish, but I was pretty upset about running out of energy. Once again the energy crisis prevented me from a finish I'm capable of. The next race was only a few weeks away and the bike needed some work - it kept it's part of the deal so now it was my turn to fix it up some. Too bad that ended up biting me in the back! More on that next post.