Smithy1 > Smithy1's Blog Posts > Vegas to Reno - race day (part 2)

August 26, 2008 05:56

Down the first straight and the first few turns. Mostly hardpack with lots of grapefruit size rocks. I have never ridden terrain like this with any sort of aggression. Just a couple of miles down the trail I make my first pass. Not sure what position this guy started in but he is falling back fast. Another mile or so I catch the rider that started on the “minute” ahead of me. I am feeling good and all of the stress of the Vegas scene has vanished. Within a few more miles I get my first taste of silt. Literally my first TASTE of silt. The course takes us down the center of this small valley over a very worn trail. Deep sand. Ruts. Silt. No other rider in front of me. Several pro-truck drivers advised me the day before that I should be able to ride along side the trail to avoid the worst of it. I choose the right side and it is a bit better although now I need to jump over and dodge pucker bushes. This crap trail seems to go on forever. And ever. I am sure that we must have seen some more hardpack in the first 40 miles but I don’t remember it! By the time I passed pit #1 I was questioning weather I could ride this crap for another 420+ miles!

I do see my pit crew waiting at pit #1, give them the thumbs up and keep riding. The trail improves dramatically after this. Wonderful scenery and some nice small mountain passes. Mileage and time are a little blurry in my memory after this point. I think it was about halfway to pit #2 I was following real close to another rider waiting for a clean opportunity to pass. We crested a peak and started heading down a real slow, narrow, winding trail. I am talking real slow, second gear stuff. In a real tight 90 degree right hand turn he stumbles and stalls the bike. I hit the brakes and slide, into his rear wheel and begin to fall to the ground. Before I hit the ground I am rear ended by a quad! This whole circus act takes place at a walking speed so no damage is done. I am the only one that ends up on the ground, my first face plant in the desert! The other riders head off down the canyon and I pick up the bike to chase them down. I catch the guy on the bike about a mile later.

I approach pit #2 and once again just show the thumbs up as I pass by. Between 2 and 3 we hit more deep sand and silt. This is where I get my first real toss off the bike! Deep silt can really swallow up the front end of the bike and send you for a ride. No harm done but this off does remind me that I need to slow down if I have any dream of finishing this race. By this time I have been passed by several bikes and several more quads. I have also passed a few more riders that started on the line ahead of me. I have also seen a couple of bikes broken down on the side of the trail.

Pit #3 is my first scheduled pit and I am looking forward to it! I pull in and find a very flustered crew! Jen and Loren scramble for whatever it is I need in near panic fashion. I am actually glad to leave the stress of the pit area and get back on the trail.

My next scheduled pit is #6. I based my scheduled pits on the fuel range but my crew would be available at all of the first 8 pits in case I needed anything. As I got a few miles in front of pit #3 the temperature really started to rise. I always drink plenty of fluids but I did come across several riders that where clearly overheating. A couple of these next valleys had huge dry lake beds. I had never seen a dry lake bed. The big ones are kind of like riding on the moon! The trail is pretty torn up but I take a line way out over the lake bed where it is hard packed. Nice. I look forward to each mountain pass to get out of each valley floor. I see several more riders stranded out in the middle of the desert in the now brutal sun and heat. This has me thinking that maybe I should stop at the next pit (#5) just to top off my hydropack. I can’t imagine being stranded out there with very little water left and no shade. I pull into pit #5 and surprise my crew. Jen and Loren rush to my aid as does several guys from Flueger’s crew (big $$$ trophy truck team). Just some water over my head, banana, and fill the hydropack and I am on my way. See you all at pit #6!

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