WOW! This event completely blew my mind. I've watched the video from the 2006 race countless times, spent hour upon hour practicing on my home endurocross track, rode all the gnarly trail systems close to my home on countless weekends, paid my dues working out to toughen up & loose weight, rode all the local enduros this season (broke into the top 20 overall a few times) and a few hare scrambles....but I still wasn't properly prepared for the Las Vegas Endurocross. It was a real butt-kicker and tons of fun!
Turns out there was only one other woman from this great nation of ours who bucked up and entered the EX this year. (She beat me in one moto and I beat her in the other.) Since just two women wasn't enough for our own class, we got stuffed in with the Junior class, as in 23 years old & younger. Those boys are not afraid of the throttle.
First thing in the morning we got about 30 minutes to walk the track. It quickly became apparent that everything is bigger in real life than it appears in the videos. I'd been thinking for several weeks that the 30" log I'd been jumping on my home track was bigger than anything I'd be confronted with in Vegas. Wrong! Big logs, log piles (one that the real throttle jockeys turned into a double jump), a huge boulder pile (complete with a healthy size log in the middle of it), a really nasty rock garden, a water hole with a tricky climb out of it via a rock wall, tractor tires taller I am and almost no flat ground in between obstacles. This was going to be harder than I'd imagined.
Right after the riders meeting we were given a short practice session. I was in group #2 out of 21 groups, so I did not get to watch anyone ride around the track before riding it myself. Pretty much immediately I got killer arm pump and fought my way around the track three times, impressing no one. Managed to flatten the bottom of my pipe on a log jump in the process. Back in the pits I straightened out my pipe with the spare set of handlebars stashed in the van and then got a good forearm massage to ease the pumped up muscles. About 2 hours later me and my KTM were back in the arena and sitting in the starting gate for my first moto. Even with 15+ years of racing under my kidney belt, a starting gate is something I've dealt with only a handful of times. We just don't use them in enduros and hare scrambles, ya know?! The start freaked me out and locked my arms up again early in the first lap. The arm pump was so bad, that it was actually hard to shutoff the throttle. Somehow I managed to stay upright for three laps, but never really pulled it together enough to be in the fight. That put me into the Last Chance Qualifier in the afternoon. In that moto I finally got my act together, concentrated on riding rather than racing and turned some better lap times. That race was actually really fun and I wanted to ride more. However, it was too little too late and I missed getting a transfer to the main event in the Junior division by one place. Looking back over lap times, it appears that I would have made the main in the Vet class (I'm "well qualified" for this division). That's the class I really should be in, not fighting it out with throttle happy little boys.
So, as for the track.... The giant tires were intimidating at first, but really fun to ride over. The 3 foot diameter logs were a little bigger than I like to jump, but I'll work on it. The boulder pile with the log in the middle had a good line on the outside, but it was imperative to carry some speed to make it through. I felt pretty good on that portion of the track, however it was the location of my one & only crash (actually a tip over with no speed involved). The rock garden was the hardest part of the track for me. It was a bunch of soccer ball & bigger size jagged rocks with no dirt and we made a 180 degree turn in them. Riding that section successfully required more strength & throttle control than I was able to garner on race day. The water hole & rock wall were pretty cool, similar to some of the trail riding I've been doing recently. The long rollercoaster type log piles were cool, similar to but longer than what's on my home track and fun to throttle up & over. The rear Dunlop trials tire was a good choice for this race, providing killer traction on the logs & rocks.
Now that I've done this, I've gotta do it again and I've got to do better. The biggest thing I need to work on is motocross. Doing some of that should help me learn to deal with the starting gate and banging bars with other riders. Getting some experience with that should settle my nerves and help eliminate arm pump so I can ride at the pace I know I'm capable of. A trials bike may be in my future, too. Practicing on one of those would be a big help for endurocross. Plan is to race the Denver round in 2008 in the Vet class and make it to the main. This motorcycle racing is an obsession!
Here's a shot from my first moto. I'm the middle KTM, just coming off the big boulder pile.
Turns out there was only one other woman from this great nation of ours who bucked up and entered the EX this year. (She beat me in one moto and I beat her in the other.) Since just two women wasn't enough for our own class, we got stuffed in with the Junior class, as in 23 years old & younger. Those boys are not afraid of the throttle.
First thing in the morning we got about 30 minutes to walk the track. It quickly became apparent that everything is bigger in real life than it appears in the videos. I'd been thinking for several weeks that the 30" log I'd been jumping on my home track was bigger than anything I'd be confronted with in Vegas. Wrong! Big logs, log piles (one that the real throttle jockeys turned into a double jump), a huge boulder pile (complete with a healthy size log in the middle of it), a really nasty rock garden, a water hole with a tricky climb out of it via a rock wall, tractor tires taller I am and almost no flat ground in between obstacles. This was going to be harder than I'd imagined.
Right after the riders meeting we were given a short practice session. I was in group #2 out of 21 groups, so I did not get to watch anyone ride around the track before riding it myself. Pretty much immediately I got killer arm pump and fought my way around the track three times, impressing no one. Managed to flatten the bottom of my pipe on a log jump in the process. Back in the pits I straightened out my pipe with the spare set of handlebars stashed in the van and then got a good forearm massage to ease the pumped up muscles. About 2 hours later me and my KTM were back in the arena and sitting in the starting gate for my first moto. Even with 15+ years of racing under my kidney belt, a starting gate is something I've dealt with only a handful of times. We just don't use them in enduros and hare scrambles, ya know?! The start freaked me out and locked my arms up again early in the first lap. The arm pump was so bad, that it was actually hard to shutoff the throttle. Somehow I managed to stay upright for three laps, but never really pulled it together enough to be in the fight. That put me into the Last Chance Qualifier in the afternoon. In that moto I finally got my act together, concentrated on riding rather than racing and turned some better lap times. That race was actually really fun and I wanted to ride more. However, it was too little too late and I missed getting a transfer to the main event in the Junior division by one place. Looking back over lap times, it appears that I would have made the main in the Vet class (I'm "well qualified" for this division). That's the class I really should be in, not fighting it out with throttle happy little boys.
So, as for the track.... The giant tires were intimidating at first, but really fun to ride over. The 3 foot diameter logs were a little bigger than I like to jump, but I'll work on it. The boulder pile with the log in the middle had a good line on the outside, but it was imperative to carry some speed to make it through. I felt pretty good on that portion of the track, however it was the location of my one & only crash (actually a tip over with no speed involved). The rock garden was the hardest part of the track for me. It was a bunch of soccer ball & bigger size jagged rocks with no dirt and we made a 180 degree turn in them. Riding that section successfully required more strength & throttle control than I was able to garner on race day. The water hole & rock wall were pretty cool, similar to some of the trail riding I've been doing recently. The long rollercoaster type log piles were cool, similar to but longer than what's on my home track and fun to throttle up & over. The rear Dunlop trials tire was a good choice for this race, providing killer traction on the logs & rocks.
Now that I've done this, I've gotta do it again and I've got to do better. The biggest thing I need to work on is motocross. Doing some of that should help me learn to deal with the starting gate and banging bars with other riders. Getting some experience with that should settle my nerves and help eliminate arm pump so I can ride at the pace I know I'm capable of. A trials bike may be in my future, too. Practicing on one of those would be a big help for endurocross. Plan is to race the Denver round in 2008 in the Vet class and make it to the main. This motorcycle racing is an obsession!
Here's a shot from my first moto. I'm the middle KTM, just coming off the big boulder pile.
