This race is a more technical type of deal, consisting of single track ridge lines connected by high speed sand washes. There are a few impossibly deep sand whoops scattered through out the course.
I thought that the pre-ride was at 12 on Saturday, so that was when I showed up, unfortunately for me, I was an hour off and didn't get to ride the course.
Lap 1: I get a horrible start, I'm behind everyone in my class, no choice but to try and work my way forward, we exit the starting sandwash and get up on this ridgeline, one guy is obviously scared of the 50 foot drop to either side and is riding way backed down, I forced the issue and passed him, seeing the next guy kinda getting away, I start after him, and fortunately for me, its a wider spot, because I caught a tree root which sent the rear end of the bike towards the right hand side of the ridge, I got passed back while getting oriented back up the hill. Later on, after I passed him back, I'm cruising right along, you know, blowing through corners and making wrong turns, getting frustarted, and just finished lap 1 kinda upset with how I'm riding.
Lap 2: Kinda got a feel for the course, riding along feeling better about it, started reeling a couple guys here and there, and I get right in the mix of some guys in 30 AM, not in my class, but we do this for fun ya know, so I'm racing them, passed 2 of them in a sandwash, got up on a ridgeline and I'm on the tail end of a guy, no room to pass, so we get into another sandwash, and I put her in 5th and just work on flowing through the corners as easy as I can, still can't get around him and I'm eating the dudes pebbly sand roost, get hit in the mouth with it, so I tilt my head a little to ease the pain because I'm not letting up. We get into a S-Turn, and I just randomly knife the front end, it grabs, and I go over the bars. I quickly recovered and caught up to them after another ridge line, dropping into another sandwash, we're booking it, and theres a Y, ok, I'll take the outside, hold it wide open, and swing by him, well, theres a sharp right at the end of my line, that I'm going too fast to take, on the outside of that, is a tree. Way too fast, I get into the tree, and a stout branch catches me right in helmet, shoots me off the bike, into the ground hard, bike goes weeeeeeee and comes to a stop.
I'm laying there, head ringing, and I hear a guy going holy shit he's not moving and he leans my bike up out of the line of fire, and starts talking to me, eventually I snapped too good enough to stand up, I told him to go, he said he was going to let the checkpoint know, and I approach the bike, the right hand number plate is torn at the seat bolt and is kinda dangling, the bars are bend, clutch and brake are pointed straight down, I managed to beat it into rideable shape, got it lit up, and the guy I had passed shoots by me. I got the bike going, almost caught up to him, but I'm having a hard time focusing, things are blurry and my head is pounding, and guess what? I hit a tree, low speed but I still go down, I hate those damn things.
Lap 3: No pit stop, with 21 mile loops at least, so I passed the guy back, and I'm cruising a long just trying to keep it on 2 wheels and he manages to pass me, I got motivated to at least beat this guy, so I start pushing a little harder and focusing on picking lines safely, like I mentioned earlier, he was really scared of the ridge lines, so we get up there, and he's limping a long in what feels like 1st gear, I picked a spot further up where it was just wide enough, and forced my way through, I didn't see him again. The lap continues to roll on, and I'm actually catching and passing a couple of other amateur riders, towards the end I'm lapping a couple of novice bros, and I come into the finish a couple seconds behind the guy who had helped me, he was asking the promoters if I had gotten picked up, and he's just completely shocked that I managed to pick it up and finish.
Its hot, I know I didn't finish well, my truck has A/C, I left, still don't know what my finishing position was.
off either side.
