So far things really hadn't gone according to schedule. The Wendover 100 took place August 16, originally scheduled to be a race in Bryce put on by the Desert Foxes. Originally scheduled for March, a late winter pushed it back.
Paul and Carlo are both members of the Foxes, so this would be their first race that they would be working instead of racing. I looked forward to coming through the area where they were working and making them jealous of my mad skills.
I had high expectations for the Wendover 100. This was the race last season that gave Paul his first overall division win (Novice). He attributed the win to the style of the race which included a much heavier dose of high speed jeep roads like we are used to and less whoops and technical stuff. It also probably helped that it was held in November last year and pretty frickin' cold so a lot of people didn't come. Opposite of that weather pattern this year, mid August, the race would be hot. Hopefully it would deter more than a few competitors making a better finish more plausible for me.
A common theme and story for this year I went into race day under-prepared. I had talked my dad into racing this one with me and so brought the load of two bikes to prep for race day. Paul helped a great deal with his bike with some of the more major problems, but the basic prep I took on. I put his above mine and so he was all set to go and I had to elect to not replace my tires for the race. I simply ran out of time and so wasn't able to do a complete and thorough pre-race check on the bike. Like at Sage Riders I promised the Blue Tank a full go through if it would make through this race. Since I failed on my promise last time, I think the bike decided to not be so forgiving.
As all the racers were heading to the line I was filling up with oil and gas. I quickly put on my gear and headed down there and getting stuck in the worst spot on the line due to not having time to get a better spot. The Foxes seem to want to break a lot of "status quo" in desert racing - most marked by the increase in long fast stretches of course on jeep roads, but also in starting the race on time. I got to the start right as the riders meeting was ending and then it was only a minute or two it seemed before the banner dropped and the Experts were off. I was up and having not had a chance to walk the start line was hoping for a stroke of dumb luck. Even though I hadn't had enough time to work on the bike, a few weeks prior we had fixed the starting issues that had become a problem, so I was confident and hopeful.
There's a little trick to starting the Blue Tank so in order to have a perfect start at a race you have to prep it. I prepped it but messed it up a little bit. In any other situation I would just re-prep, but for fear of being in the middle of the prep when the banner dropped I just held it where it was and hoped I'd get a first kick start anyways. This logic would prove to be backwards. If it started anyways, that's great, but what were the odds? Pretty bad I'd guess...so I should have just re-prepped and took the chance, because that would have given me a higher chance of a perfect start. Live and learn, AGAIN.
The banner dropped and I kicked but there was nothing, so I quickly re-prepped and fired it right up but had lost a lot of ground on everyone else. To make matters worse as I got going down the bomb run I could tell that the spot I was in was much worse than I had originally suspected - I had to cover a lot more ground than anyone to the right of me.
Here's a video of the start from someone that was there. I first show up at about 1:19 as we're waiting on the start line. Then for the start it zooms out and I'm on the far right. The guy they're watching starts right up and takes off (you can see me kicking furiously for just a second) so I fall out of the frame for a while, but at 1:40 I come back in with a vengeance! I don't know if it will embed in high quality or not, so if you can't see too well click here and then click on the "watch in high quality" link just under the video.
Paul had told me that for the first few miles I could ride off the road and make passes pretty easily, so as you can see in the video I stayed off the main line and attempted to get around as many as I could. The dust was pretty bad as you can also see so anything to keep me out of it was worth it.
But it didn't seem like it lasted more than a mile or two before there started to be huge rocks outside of the course which made riding out there pretty hazardous. A couple times I nearly wrecked so I decided to jump on the course and just try and get through the dust. Yet the course itself was pretty perilous too - these were some rocky jeep roads! Luckily the suspension on the Blue Tank is about as good as you could ever hope for so I was able to absorb a lot of what I couldn't see without it spooking me and slowing me down.
I was about three or four miles in when I hit a big rock that popped me and the bike up in the air pretty good, and then I heard a sound that nearly made my heart stop: a loud WHIIRRRRRRRRRRR!!! Like something spinning super fast that isn't supposed to. The bike instantly stalled and then I noticed I had no gears - I kicked up and down on the shifter but it made no difference, I just coasted to a stop.
My first thought was that I had somehow destroyed the transmission. I was mad that I would probably have to DNF the race, sad that I wouldn't get to see the course, and worried that Paul would be really mad too (the bike is after all, still his). I stopped it off the course so I wouldn't get hit, waited for the dust to settle a bit so I could see where I was, then got off and took a look at the bike. To my pleasant surprise the problem was easily visible: the chain had fallen off. It wasn't broken either, which meant I could just put it back on real quick and keep going.
I did so but noticed after it was on that it was crazy loose and that it would probably fall off again. I decided to test it by getting back on the course, but riding easier. I figured it would be worth it if it lasted 20 miles or so before falling off again and I could just keep putting it back on. I wouldn't finish great, but I would finish, and after not finishing at Firebirds I knew that any finish would be worth it.
Unfortunately it fell off again within a mile or two. I decided at this point it wouldn't be worth it to try and continue, so I put it back on and headed back to the pits. Oddly enough at pretty much all the other races I had packed tools that could have fixed this issue. But at every other race I had felt the weight of those tools and never used them. So this race I decided to go light and not bother with the tools. Murphy's Law strikes again!
On the way back I just paralleled the course. As the Novices came by I suddenly thought that my dad would be coming by soon (he raced the Sportsman class, which goes with the Novice division) and that he would probably have the tools I needed. I watched for him and as he came by I waved at him hoping he would stop. He didn't recognize me - he just waved back and kept on going.
I kept it in first gear and just putted back to the pits, and the chain fell off two more times. As I got closer to the pits I noticed they were already starting to pull the course markers down, and now I was worried that they wouldn't let me go back out and that I really would get a DNF.
A lot of the race workers saw me, but none came to ask me what I was doing. I chalk this up to the fact that since I hang out with Paul and Carlo a lot and ride with them a lot and they are both Foxes so by association I hang out with the Foxes a lot that anyone that saw me just assumed I was working the race too.
But there was one Fo
x out there that knew I was racing and he saw me and caught up to me as I got back to the pits. (At Left: Shane got this pic of me working for some passes shortly after the start. Notice I'm off the course avoiding that guy's dust! This was before the first chain falling off) He has taken a few of the pictures I have posted on here from time to time and is a cool guy that is very helpful. He stopped to help me get my chain on right and tighter - thanks Shane!Since he was working I asked him if I could go back out since I saw someone pulling course and he said sure, and that I should and just have a good ride and a good time. That made me feel better, so I set off. Paul or Carlo or someone apparently got a call from the race chairman who saw me go back out, "What's up with your brother? He's DEAD LAST."
As always being that far back has it's benefits. I rode the first 20 miles with no dust and no one to battle with. As a result I ended up riding pretty fast and was having a blast. The course was great and I was loving it. The first person I caught up to was my dad, so I rode by him for a while just to keep him a little company. He didn't recognize me at first and when he did he was very startled. I thought about stopping him and chatting for a bit but he seemed like he was having a good time so I passed by and went on my way.
Not far from him I caught up to some other riders and witnessed a pretty spectacular crash. There was a really steep uphill that had been totally trashed and had hardly any traction. As I got to it a four wheeler was going up and just about to the top when his front end got off the ground and he went over backwards.
He was able to jump off and so wasn't hurt, and his four wheeler tumbled down a bit but settled on its wheels and rolled most of the way down. It looked pretty crazy for sure as it got a little airborne right when he went over.
I stopped quickly to ask him if he was okay and needed any help but he said he was fine and waved me on. At this point I started catching riders pretty regularly, all of them either Novices or four wheelers. The four wheelers had started about 10 minutes after the Novices, but there weren't very many of them in total. Shortly after passing a few more (and wow they kick up a lot of dust) riders the course split and the four wheelers went a different way.
I got to the first checkpoint and immediately after that hit the best part of the whole course. It was a wash that just had the perfect consistency of sand depth and it was plenty curvy but not so much that you couldn't just blast through it. I must have passed more than 10 riders here. It was simply the best part of the course and I wish it would have lasted 30 miles!
Sadly it was over so very quickly and the course took a turn up into the hills and into some technical single track. This portion was actually pretty good to, but it was riddled with deep ruts. I was able to get through fine and have a good time, but when my dad got to this area he had trouble with them and ended up crashing bad enough that he had to stop the race and go back to the pits. He hurt his left shoulder pretty good and I feel pretty bad about putting him up to the race.
Paul was working check point #3 which was located at mile 57 or so. There was an alternate pit stop at mile 50 and when I got there my pit crew was relieved. They had expected me an hour or so previous and were worried something happened. While filling up and getting a drink I let them know I was fine and just had mechanical problems. I took off feeling fresh from the break and was excited to come through Paul and Carlo's check point.
On the way I passed a couple more guys, and I noticed that there was an Amateur or two, so I had finally started catching up to my division. There were still plenty of Novices ahead, but the tail end of my group had been reached which felt good.
The trail from the alt pit to Paul's check was great. Lots of washes and some tight stuff with a good mix of fast track. I rounded a corner and saw the check and tried to pop a little wheelie but didn't have good enough balance to get it all that high. Paul just looked exasperated at me and threw his arms like as if to say, "WHAT THE H*** MAN???!" haha. Well that's what it looked like anyways.
I tried to tell him I lost the chain early on but he couldn't really hear me. I had been marked off so I took off right away instead of staying to chat. Having passed that Amateur previously gave me a lot of energy and hope that I could still have a decent finish.
The War of Attrition started about this time. I began catching up to several riders and making passes and the look of all of them was the same - they were exhausted. I was feeling great actually and was very happy about that. P90x is working well!
I passed a few more Amateurs and was getting excited. There was a bit of dust up ahead which made me think I was coming up on several riders. After Paul's check point the course went out and turned back and would come through the alt pit again. It was a great section of course, easily the second best of the whole thing. Nice wide washes and plenty of fast track.
As the course turned over toward the alt pit it got on a jeep road and I let loose. I quickly caught up to about five or six guys on that road and started passing them. One of them wasn't too happy about that and gave me some battle on that road. It was fun inching ahead of him, then him edging in front of me and back and forth. We got close to a couple other guys and I backed off a bit so as not to create a dangerous situation.
But as luck would have it all of the guys I rode with on that road stopped at the alt pit. Since I didn't need to, I blew right past them and was able to put a ton of distance on them because the fast track just kept going and there was nobody to battle with this time so I was wide open. Had I known what had happened there only a few hours earlier I probably would have been a little more conservative. Josh Morros, one of the professional riders, and Tracon Kirk, one of the fastest Experts in our series, both had really bad crashes on this section due to sections of the road that had washed out. Josh suffered major head trauma and was in a coma for a while. He's doing better now and is in physical therapy. Tracon broke his femur, but I haven't heard about him since then. It's too bad as they're both amazing riders.
The course turned back toward the main pit and I saw a mile marker for mile 80 or so. The first loop totaled 93 miles, and the second loop was around 40. I was cruising along at as fast as I dared to go through a pretty technical wash. All of the sudden out of nowhere an Expert rider went flying by me like I was standing still. I didn't hear him coming at all. One second I was all alone and the next he was flying by me. He left me behind so fast I didn't even have to eat his dust for any length of time. I've never seen speed like that. I didn't even get his number it happened so fast.
I didn't realize it at the time but the second loop came back around and used the end of the first loop. I had thought for a while there that I must have passed the guy broken down or something, but realized later on that he was just coming in off the second loop, and likely was one of the leaders.
I estimate it was at about mile 91 that the fatigue set in. I had lasted all this time at full strength and energy and was so happy about it, but it wasn't to last. I was closing in on the main pit where I'd get a break and a chance to drink my P90x Recovery Drink, which I had planned to take there to give me the boost needed to complete the second loop at full strength.
The last mile of the loop was a stretch of nice big whoops. A cruelty to be sure. I didn't have the strength to ride them correctly so I simply rolled them and just held on till I got to the pit.
When I arrived to my pit location the crew that was going to pit me wasn't there. I was actually glad of this because I was so tired I couldn't bear the thought of hurrying through just to punish myself some more. I had to go to the bathroom real bad too.
I took my time and pitted myself, first downing my Recovery Drink, and then two bottles of water. My sister had come to watch the race and she turned up while I was there so I had her drain my camelback and fill it up with fresh cold water. I went to the bathroom and then came back and filled up. I was still completely spent, but I had been there long enough that it was time to go. A couple of the guys I had passed back on the way through the alt pit had passed me up back here - just goes to show how far ahead I was. I must have had been there five or six minutes before they passed me again (one of them was the guy who came in on that video above, John Williams).
I got back on and headed out on the second loop still tired but feeling better than when I had come in. The second loop started out pretty fun but it didn't take long before there was some difficult whoops that just drained me all the more. As the course turned up to some more technical washes I passed John Williams again. It was kind of funny because I was riding right behind him at his pace for a while because there was no where to pass, and I didn't have the energy to just go around him off the course and be aggressive. I figured he'd let me by sooner or later because he was looking pretty tired too.
I got kind of in a trance behind him though. I started looking at his back tire (big no no) and using it for my direction. He finally got to a spot where he could stop and let me by but I wasn't paying attention and just drove right into him. It woke me up out of the trance and I struggled a bit but got around him. The trail then turned up and into the hills on some fun and technical single track.
I was still dog tired though, and I got to a corner where it was on a side hill and I wasn't going fast enough and just lost my balance and went down. First crash of the day, around mile 105 or so. I was pretty happy about that actually - normally I have crashed much sooner. I was pretty tired, and I couldn't hear John behind me so I decided to rest a bit. One of my bolts from the hand guard came off as well so I spent some time putting it away so I could fix it later.
John showed up soon after and I let him go by me. He did stop to check on me since I was off my bike. I tried to set up my hand guard so it wouldn't flop all over the place and got ready to go again. When I got back on the bike I suddenly found that I was feeling really good and had a lot of energy. The Recovery Drink had finally kicked in!
I took off with renewed visions of passing up several more riders and really enjoyed the part of the course I was on. It was still single track and going up in the hills more. I crested the top of a ridge and noticed it was time to down - pretty much straight down. I figured it was a part of the trail I had heard about - Foxes Revenge.
I don't think I've ever seen such a steep down hill before. I basically rode both brakes down the hill and still felt out of control. I looked ahead and noticed John was about halfway down it. I quickly caught up to him and made sure he was okay - this downhill was really rough. We both got to the bottom okay and I went off ahead of him again, looking forward to the last leg of the course.
I didn't see anyone else the rest of the race. It went down a wash, onto a fast jeep road, up a wash, back in the hills a bit, back down a wash, around to the east of the pits, then looped back around for what I consider a cruel joke - it went back through whoopsville USA or whoop alley or cruel way to end the race-ville or whatever it was called.
Upon seeing the sign again and realizing where I was I was suddenly really angry about it and turned on the gas and went flying into the whoops with complete reckless abandon. I quickly discovered that I had just made the whoops much easier to tackle! I kept the gas on and really tore there feeling great and having a good time, but unfortunately the course wasn't a perfect straight shot so after a couple of turns through there I lost my speed and the whoops became very tiresome. I rolled through the last several hundred yards of them and then picked it back up for the final stretch.
Coming into the finish like that (full speed) is always nice, but somewhat depressing. The workers at this point are more concerned with how you are feeling and if you are delirious or in physical danger of some sort. There's nobody there waiting for you, and half the people on pit row have already packed up and headed out. But I still got my finishers pin and that's what I had set out to do after my chain problems.
All in all this was one of my more favorite courses and it was great. I liked it so much that two weeks later I went back out and rode 50 miles or so of it again with Paul, and frankly I'd like to go back out there and ride some more of it.
When I had thought of desert racing in the past, this race was more what I had in mind. The Foxes really know how to put on a race!
And with that, I'm finally caught up! I have a race this Saturday, so expect a new report up shortly!
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