Sandy Lane 2011

The unofficial start of our enduro season finally arrived.  It's been one of the toughest winters I can remember.  Huge storms in January brought feet of snow cover to most of southern New England.  I had the studded tires made and ready to go but they never even got mounted.  Everywhere we usually get some seat time in the winter was unrideable....even canceling the Snow Run.  Yes, the Snow Run Enduro canceled by too much snow.

So, it seemed like I was looking forward to the Sandy Lane even more than usual.  Luckily, I'd gotten to go to Jersey to do a couple practice rides with Gilles.  This was a huge help to helping me get my timing built up a little and to check my fitness level.  Good trails and a fun time, but not a complete prep for the Sandy Lane.  Practice was a lot of the faster, flowing, fun stuff and none of the tightest stuff that I knew would be in the S.L.

A group of seven of us went down and did the usual reg. and tech on Saturday afternoon.  Most of us were on lines 42 and 43.  I think I saw rows as high as 58 so it was the usually strong turnout for the Meteor club.  Everything went smooth and we were at the restaurant for dinner by 6:30.

Sunday morning was cold and clear as predicted.  The dash thermometer on the truck read 32 when we got to the event parking and was forecast to get into the low 50's.  I opted to start with the enduro jacket on, thinking I'd take it off at first gas, but there were lots of dirt road sections where I was glad to have it so I wore it all day.  Conditions were perfect all day.  Tacky sand that was wet down by moderate rains earlier in the week.  Probably some of the best conditions since I've been going to the S.L.

The first section was that stuff that we all look forward to right out behind the gun club.  Smooth, flowing, rhythm riding was just incredible fun.  There were only two drawbacks: at mile 0.5 there was a 3-mile reset....just when you started to get the flow going; and the whole section was set to 18mph when 24mph would have been doable and tons of fun.  Instead, I led and kept time, slowing us down at almost every possible (0.3 mi.).  As we were getting to what seemed like would be the end of the section I was riding very carefully, keeping our group just 5 seconds hot.  I figured that I could easily scrub this time when needed but I was wrong.  We came around an innocent-looking corner and BOOM, checkpoint.  NO TIME to even tap the brakes.  As a fellow trailboss, I was psyched for a very cool check placement.  As a rider, I was pissed.  I was being very disciplined and still got caught.  The check was very well concealed.  One of the check workers was even wearing a ghillie suit like an Army sniper.  Showing just how close we were to the top of the minute... the five of us on minute 42 were riding pretty much nose-to-tail...the first three of us burned it and the last two did not.

The next section was more awesome flowing stuff.  Lots of fun riding hard and building up a sweat.  This is why we come to Jersey.  Really, really enjoyable stuff.  I was working hard to try to stay in front of Rick.  It felt like maybe I'd pulled a few feet on him for a little while but he soon caught up.  I let him by and rode hard to stay on his tail.  I was able to stay close enough to end on the same minute about 20 seconds back.

Between the two gas stops were some transfer sections and the sections infamously known as "the meat grinder".  This year, the really tight stuff didn't seem quite as bad because the club had it broken up into smaller sections with resets between.  Last year, it seemed like it was one LONG section that was just demoralizing.  Rick really took off in this stuff and I could not keep him in sight.  There was another NETRA guy on our row that I could keep covered in the flowing stuff but he pulled away from me too in the tightest stuff.  I think this is where being a big, tall guy is the biggest disadvantage.  I kept trying different techniques to make better time...smooth flow, brake sliding, elbows in and wiggly, elbows out and aggressive....nothing seemed to make a difference in speed so I just tried to keep a positive race-oriented mindset and push on.

About half-way through, Rick did one of the cooler on-trail fixes that I've seen.  Tony C.'s bike had blown off the plug on the smog system.  Rick used the bracket from the headlight switch on his own bike plus a penny to plug the hole.  He'll probably have a part number assigned to this deal and start selling it through Tucker Rocky.

Back to the gas stop after the "meat grinder" sections and we knew the final push would be fun stuff.  The next section was epic.  Just like the opening section of the day but a little more technical.  Rick came into the section a ways behind me.  I pushed as hard as I could trying to stay ahead of him.  About a mile before the check-out he caught me and I pushed about 5% harder to stay in front of him.  Flowing, carving, brake-sliding, and laughing under the helmet.  When we finished I said to the guys that it was the kind of section that made you feel like a superhero.

The last section was all free territory to the known at the end and the beer tent that we'd all been looking forward to.  It was about 5 miles of solid whoops.  Lots of fun for a while, but this was a little bit of a wake-up for me.  My legs were done about halfway through.  Guys from my row and the row behind got by as I periodically slowed down to give the thighs a quick break.  Part of the problem was that I could have had my compression set stiffer.  The bigger part is conditioning.  Need more leg workouts.

All in all, an awesome day of riding.  Good trails, good event, good people, good BSing on the drive.  When we left, three of us were in the top ten in B-Senior:  Rick 7th, me 9th, and Scott F. 10th.  Don't know if that held.  Gilles was in 3rd A-Senior.  A pretty good day and slightly better than I've done before if those scores stay.

UPs:  I think my cardio is definitely better than the end of last year.  My timing is definitely better thanks to the practice rides.  I felt like I stayed in race mode pretty much all day instead of falling into trail riding.  And, as always, the free beer at the finish.

DOWNs:  Need to get my legs in shape...those whoops at the end let me know where I stand.  Even though I was riding pretty sharp and just a little hot (on purpose), burning that check could have been the difference in a place or two in a NETRA enduro.