USRA Round 10: Sage Riders Dam Good Race

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-yq5c2LJ-Y (be sure to click "watch in high quality")

After reading and hearing about this race from last year I had all but decided to skip it this year. Didn't sound like a good time to me at all - there were horror stories of whoops, sand, whoops, sand, more whoops, and lots more sand. But I had to chance to take 3rd in points for the year in my class by going to it so I figured I'd take that chance. I have improved significantly over the year and learned a lot so I figured I'd be able to tackle this one and do well.

I had a great start but quickly got out of control and lost a lot of places. A mile or two into the course we got next to a road where I started making up a lot of ground. I was doing great and going fast and passing guys left and right when I suddenly found myself looking at the guy behind me, and he was upside down! Actually I was one upside down, midway through going over the handle bars. I really have no idea what happened to make me do that. Seemed like I was in the air for the longest time, then I finally smashed down hard on my head.

This made me pretty delirious for a time. I sprained both wrists and hands in this crash due to my stubbornness of not letting go of the handlebars. The front part of the bike crashed down on part of me when I landed as well. The guy behind me either jumped off my bike over me or actually drove over me or something, but he did stop a moment to see if I was okay before going (kinda funny - he knew it was a bad crash which is why he asked if I was okay, but he didn't stick around long enough for me to give him an answer, not that he could have heard me since we were in the middle of the pack of Amateurs).

All those people I passed passed me up until the last Amateur went by me (excluding Carlo - he was still in the pits I think trying to start his bike). I stood up to get my bearings wondering if I could even finish at this point and kind of bummed about it. I looked over at the start and saw the dust from the Novices and thought I should at least get out of the way when they come through.

Trying to start the bike wore me out even more...I felt like I had done 100 miles already at 100% - in other words, I was spent already. However when I got going again I felt like I could ride okay. The sprains weren't that bad (haha thanks adrenaline!) so I figured I could finish. If the guy I was hoping to take 3rd place away from DNF'd, a finish should give me enough points to beat him for the year.

Surprisingly I was able to ride plenty fast and caught up and passed a lot more AM's until crash #2. The course had about 50/50 of sand (meaning deep sand dune type sand, usually accompanied by whoops) and slick rock. The slick rock was pretty cool, but also very technical. There were several spots where there was a one to two foot ledge you had to go up. Those aren't something you can climb - you just pop the front tire up and over and gas it to have your back tire come up and over with momentum.

It was one of those 1-2 foot ledges we had to climb in the slick rock that caused crash #2. It had a bit of a bottleneck on it, so in an attempt to make several passes at once and show my expertise I took a little more difficult path through it only I did not have enough speed. As I was about to go over backwards, I instead just gassed it and threw the bike forward and watched it bounce off the rocks a few times. It didn't stall though so I just picked it up real quick and kept going, obtaining my goal of making those passes, but not looking so expert.

Didn't take me long to figure out I had bent the handlebars (further inspection proves I did not in fact bend the bars, they just felt like I did I guess) by doing that, as well as the clutch lever. Took me a while to get adjusted to that.

I kept pushing and made more passes. Surprisingly I was doing really well with the technical slick rock, and not so good in the sand. While sand is tiring to ride I DO know how to ride it and have in times past been pretty good at it, but whether it was the back tire on my bike (which I have come to not like a great deal), the weight of the Blue Tank (a likely culprit!), or maybe my new bent handlebars, I was struggling in the sand a great deal to say the least.

I made a pass on two guys on a corner going into one of the slic krock areas, and these two guys figured they were faster than me so they pushed hard to get the pass back. In one of my more genius moments in life we got to a point where the course markings had fallen down and it was harder to tell where to go. I could tell they were just following me and not actually looking for the markers due to a few attempts to pass me on corners and missing the course as a result.

I took the opportunity here to deliberately get off the course a bit. I then stopped, looked around, and shook my head. They figured it out pretty quick that we were off course and turned around. I then turned toward where I knew the course had gone and got rid of those two pests. :) I didn't see them again until I had a stall that cost me a lot of places later on.

Making more and more ground on some of the more difficult climbs in the slickrock made me feel good, and my day was really made when I saw number 101 Open Amateur - he's the one I was fighting for 3rd place overall in points. I put the moves on and got by him and then forgot my wrists were hurting and my bike wasn't normal. I was now ahead of him and all I needed to do was make that distance greater.

He didn't like that though and he turned it on as well. Despite the fact my 4 stroke is a loud beast and I generally can't hear 2 strokes behind me, I could hear his 2 stroke right on me as he was staying right with me. I pushed it and started hearing a couple other bikes in the mix so I thought I might be gaining some ground. Then I came to the spot where it was a 2-3 foot drop into the wash.

It caught me off guard so when I landed in it I stalled the bike. #101 got by me here and I never saw him again sadly. I couldn't start the bike for the life of me and I lost probably 15 places.

Finally getting it going again I took off with a vengeance in hopes of catching him again but it was to no avail. All the kicking I had done between that stall and several others, in conjunction with the first crash was starting to take it's toll on me. I was exhausted.

I still passed a few people on my way back to the pits despite the fatigue. I got a nice rest getting gassed up and headed out for a second loop. I was still making some more ground when I got back into one of the slick rock areas where my fatigue worked against me and caused me to have a stupid tip over. It couldn't have happened in a worse place though, because my boot got caught on the peg on my way down trapping my leg under the bike, making the Blue Tank's heaviness essentially throw me to the ground with the bike on top.

My right thigh hit the slick rock just right - gave me a nice bruise that is super deep. Trying to start the bike after this was an exercise in self-torture. It was my right leg that I had landed on and bruised and now kicking the bike was like stabbing myself with a knife. I basically called it at this point, making it my only goal to just finish the race and hope #101 gets a DNF (terrible to hope for another racer to have problems, but when you're out for points, it's a shark tank out there!).

I rolled through the rest of the course at a leisurely pace, occasionally turning it on when my leg wasn't hurting so bad. My wrists were starting to come to life as well in terms of pain - every bump and every whoop and every variation in the slick rock was just pure pain in several places at once.

I had a couple more dumb tip overs due to washing out in corners and going to put my right leg down to keep myself from falling only to have it give out on me. Stalling it and trying to bring it back to life just more torture.

Then I saw a sight that made me oh so happy - an Expert...one of the leaders. In fact the leader had already passed me but since I didn't recognize his number I wasn't sure if he was the leader. But the guy coming up was someone I knew - #2, Jason Gomeric. I was now certain that no matter what I would only be doing 2 loops.

I through the rest of the course getting passed by several more experts. The course was drawing to a close as was the race and with it the 2008 Desert season. I had done much better than I think was realistic to hope for this race after that first crash, but not as well as I know I am capable of.

The last few miles of whoops were pretty brutal on my leg and wrists, but I rolled in and got my finishers pin. The Sage Riders put on a great race, and had I not injured myself and worn myself out so early on with many preventable stalls and the crashes including the over the handlebars crash spectacular within the first couple miles of course, I'm sure I could have finished pretty good and possibly good enough to have clinched that 3rd place overall in points for the season. But that's the nature of racing, you never know what will happen and when things go South you have make the best of it.

Race Report: Grand Junction Fall 2008 Snakebite Hare Scrambles!

(Yes, I am so awesome for editing with awesomeness, and much awesometry. Props to Dalin for the mad filming skills. Sorry for lack of pics...hopefully the awesomeness of this awesome video that displays how awesome I am will make up for it.)

In the beginning, there were the Buzzards, and they had a race scheduled for November 1, 2008. But then the flood came. The flood of what, I know not, but for one reason or another, and possibly many, the Buzzards were forced by the hand of Him Who Shall Not Be Named that goeth about canceling USRA Desert Races (he's not named because I don't think anyone knows who he is, or whether or not he actually exists, or what his name is).

So with no race that weekend my wandering eyes were forced to look elsewhere, and found browner (in this hobby, that's a good thing) pastures on the other side (in this case, the CO/UT border). The Bookcliff Rattlers Motorcycle Club of Grand Junction, Colorado were there to fill in the gap by putting on their Fall 2008 Snakebite Hare Scrambles.

This intrigued me a great deal - it would be a short 15 mile loop, timed 2 hour race, and including a motocross track. Very similar to the Bull Hollow race in June this year, a race which I liked a lot. So I got everything arranged and ready to go and on Saturday night I loaded up with my good friend Dalin and we drove out to Grand Junction, a four and a half hour drive.

There would be quite a few other USRA races showing up to get their race fix like me, so there would be familiar faces to hang out with, but as an added bonus it would be fun to race against people I didn't know, and see how I fared in a foreign market.

We rolled in after dark, set up camp, and tried to fall asleep amidst the loud camp music and beer celebrations that were occurring.

Thanks to daylight savings (actually no thanks...I hate daylight savings more than anyone I know) I was able to get up a little earlier than planned to get ready. I registered for the race and did some work on the bike while I waited for Dalin to get up so we could grab breakfast.

Had I asked a few more race workers a few more questions, I would have been gearing up to go out and ride on the course. They were allowing a one-lap pre-run of the course for $10, which in my opinion would have been totally worth it. Instead I didn't know about it and woke up Dalin and went into town and got breakfast.

When we got back I saw loads of people taking their pre-run, but I was too late to get one in. I went back to work on the bike to check the bolts and fix my stuck throttle among other things. The Novices and women were scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m, Amateurs/Experts/Pros were schedule for 11:00. I had chosen to enter the Expert Under 30 class for a variety of reasons, chief among them was that I would be one of the first off the start line, so there would be a much lesser chance of slower riders in front of me and a lot less dust. I also chose that class to see how I'd fare against Experts, since I consider myself faster than a lot of the Experts in USRA.

I borrowed Carlo's video camera so Dalin could get some good footage. Since the Novices were going separate I broke out the camera and got some footage of their starts. One of our USRA buddies would be racing in the women class so we made sure to show our support.

After the Novices took off Dalin took his jeep out for some play time and I finished working on the bike. The area the race was in was really neat because there were trails everywhere, so I finished up the bike, got geared up and went out for a ride before the race to get warmed up. I had installed some new hand grips and wanted to try them out a bit, and also spend some time trying to get used to the dirt - it was kinda slippery.

11:00 am came up fast and before long I was lining up on the start. They had us start by class so instead of a big line of Experts I would only be starting against four other guys. The only line in front of mine was the pro line, which had seven or so riders. I was starting, at worst, in the 12th position overall. Not too bad!

They used a similar setup as Bull Hollow with a start light. What was different though was the time between starts. I'm used to longer times, around one to two minutes. They started us on a minute, so simply the next minute that came around after they had checked us for the start. I think my line had about 15 seconds before the light turned green. Kinda caught me off guard, but I was able to react quickly.

The Blue Tank hasn't liked starting in gear for more than six months, a fact I've just started to accept. After blowing it at the Knolls Knockdown start, I decided not to chance it this time and left it in neutral. I got a one kick start, but getting it into gear took way longer than I would have liked. As a result I was last off the line by a split second and got beat into the first turns handily.

I quickly realized I had entered a class over my ability by a long shot. A few turns into the motocross track I was being left quickly behind. I think that had I practiced that morning I might have fared slightly better, but there is no denying the riders in my class were better than me. I felt okay though - I was getting hopefully a minute or two ahead of the next line, which would get me to the desert loop and hopefully there I could make some ground.

The course was really fun. I had been warned by some of the USRA guys who had a chance to ride it in the morning that it lacked in a few locations in regards to markings, and that there were a few sketchy points. As a result I took the first loop a little easier than I might have if it had been a USRA race. In USRA, I'm racing for points so I care a little more about my finish. With this race I was there for fun and practice, and didn't want to injure myself in the process.

It was like many of the races so far this year, whoops, more whoops et al. But there was plenty of respite from the whoops in that there was some really nice single track and some really fun washes. Not to much high speed stuff which hurt me a bit, and a couple singletrack razorback hill climbs, which definitely aren't my forte.

It wasn't long before the fast riders from the next line caught up to me. I maybe got five miles into the course before I was caught. Then a few more here and there. One of the USRA racers, Jeff Boyd (might remember him from his magic bike I borrowed a couple races back), caught me about seven or eight miles in. He had started with the 40+ Experts and was two rows behind me. He's closing in on 50 years old and he passed me like I was standing still. The guy can rip (he placed eighth overall this race by the way) - I hope I can be that fast now, let alone when I'm an "old guy" (bit of a play on words here - his license plate is custom and says OLD GUY on it).

I kept track of my overall position until I started drifting past 20th or so. Losing that many places got me geared up to push a little harder so by the end of the loop I had gotten a little tuckered out. But now I knew what was ahead because it was just repeating what I just did until the time limit was up.

I pushed much harder the second loop and took advantage of everything I had learned about the course the first time through. I made a few passes as a result, but there were still a lot of fast guys behind me that were catching up. Again not wanting to hurt myself in a race I wasn't racing for points (and glory!!!!) anytime someone that came up on me that was obviously faster than me I simply let by. I think this surprised some riders as I got many enthusiastic waves from those passing me.

I had planned to pit after this loop and Dalin was ready for the pit. I came in and filled up, got new goggles, and a few shot bloks for some additional energy needs.

Out on the third loop I didn't see as many riders. I made the occasional pass on someone who was running out of stamina and then got passed by a few more guys that had been fighting through the ranks to pass me.

I was feeling pretty good at this point - still plenty of energy and best of all I hadn't crashed yet. I was careful to try and have a crash-free race, something I have never done on the Blue Tank.

There was a guy approaching me most of the third loop and when I started the fourth loop I decided the buck stops here. I pushed hard to get some distance on him and never saw him the rest of the loop. A couple times I caught a glance on one or two guys ahead of me, but other than that never saw anyone else.

I did see someone this time though, someone I've never seen before but always heard behind me. That's right, Mr. Phantom Rider made his appearance this race. On the fourth loop I glanced behind several times when I heard Mr. Phantom approaching, and what would you know, there he was! I want everyone who has ever heard him before to know that he rides a 2008 YZF 450 special edition.

It was so crazy - I heard him so many times, looked behind me, saw him coming up fast, pulled over a bit and looked back again and there wasn't anyone there. I'm getting old or delirious or both!

About five miles from the finish I was feeling really great because I had not crashed nor stalled the bike once. About twenty feet from having this thought I came up over a little hill out of a wash and a giant gust of wind blew a huge dust cloud right into me. This was a tricky spot in loops past and with this dust cloud visibility quickly went to zero. I panicked and tried to stop quickly but stalled the bike. So much for that goal.

But I didn't crash so I quickly started it back up and kept going. The wind had picked up considerably and on one of the last stretches of trail before the finish it was blowing so hard I thought it might blow me over!

I rolled in to the finish feeling good, but beat up too. My new grips had ripped my hands to pieces in ways I've never experienced. There's always something I guess.

I ended up finishing 35th overall, third in my class, the last person to complete four loops. The Bookcliff Rattlers put on a really fun race, and many thanks to them for having me and my USRA friends! One thing I really liked was the way they did their checkpoint - it was a barcode scanner. You put a sticker on your helmet with a bar code and when you come through they simply scan it and you keep going. This was great because it gave live and official race results at the end of the race - so no waiting for two or three weeks like some of the races this last season.

In a week I'm in Page, AZ for the last race of the 2008 season. I'm sad to see it coming to end...I may have to be crazy and try a motocross race or two this winter to get my fix...