Steve M. and I got up there on Saturday night and signed in, did tech, and had the KTM spaghetti dinner. Ed had already been there with his camper, wife, and dogs. The Noble high school was plenty big enough to house all of the riders, their rigs, etc.
Sunday morning, everything started out smoothly and the three of us were ready for minute 4 until Ed came back from the riders' meeting. He said that there was an issue with the first transfer section and that we had to leave 5 minutes early. We got lined up under the big inflatable arch and immediately noticed something was up. The flip cards were actually 4 minutes late. I reset my computer keytime to the flip and I was OK the rest of the day, but this meant that we'd have to hustle down the road on the transfer in order to check into the first timed section on our minute. The speed average for the transfer was 30mph.
Ed and the other rider on our row took off down the road. I was slowed by the low gearing of the XC and Steve stayed behind me. Steve and I check into the section just a couple seconds after the flip and I saw Ed leaving about 50 feet in front of us. Immediately, it was obvious that dust was going to be the story of the day. This section weaved in and out of dusty fields. In a short woods section I got caught behind a slower rider on a 4T Husky that would not move over when I revved and yelled. Then he stalled and I lost about 30 seconds. I reeled him back in and felt like I could get by if I could get close enough but it was very tough in the dust. We each missed a couple arrows and swapped the lead but Ed ended up getting me in the section by less than a minute. This section ended up getting thrown out because of the problem at the start.
The second section was more of the same with Ed and I pushing each other and Steve close behind. This section had some really cool, steep, short climbs. On one of them you ran up a 100 foot climb onto a ridge that we then ran down the crest of, weaving in and out of the trees in 3rd and 4th gear. Lots of fun. Again, Ed got me by a few. Same story in the 3rd section. Lots of fun. Lots of single track.
After gas, in the fourth section we were all pushing hard. I pulled away from Steve and Ed for a little while and was having a blast on more of the same excellent trail. About half way through the section there was an arrow with the words "Gas It" underneath. So I did. Right there was the biggest hill of the day. It has 6" of baby powder sand with loose rocks underneath. I got caught 3/4 of the way up and a couple guys got caught behind me. Pushed it to the top and rode on. This was the only real tough spot of the day. I ended getting Ed by a good margin in this section so we were both guessing that this put us about tied on the day...3 sections for him with a little lead in each. One section with a bigger lead for me. In fact, the Mototally scores show that at this point I was leading by 21 seconds.
The fifth section was the last for us and was promised to be the most fun on the day. Steve could have quit after section four with the rest of the C riders but he stayed with us for the extra ride. I still don't know why, but about half of a mile in, something went wrong with my left knee. Lots of pain and I had trouble standing, dragging, and even just extending it. Ed ran off and I couldn't keep him in sight. Steve stayed close behind me for just about the whole section.
We got back, had beers and burgers and bench raced for a while. Big smiles all around. We walked over to the scoring tent and found out that Ed had gotten me by 11 seconds. A great day of back-and-fourth racing. All three of us came home with trophies: Ed got 4th B-Sen and 28th B overall, I was right behind him in the overall and 7th B vet. Steve took 4th C-Sen. I was happy with the fact that I beat all but one of the B-vet guys that usually beat me pretty well.
Hope the club can get another national sanction next year.
NOW THAT'S A TROPHY!
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