ZERO-IT...Good Luck at the Sawmill!!!!!
- Thread starter GETMETOCA
- Start date
Thanks Nat! We're headed out Thursday morning. Looking forward to some nice California weather and equally nice Mendicino riding. We drew minute 1, which means no dust :cool: , but a little scary if there's any non-event traffic out there on the trails :ohmy: .
Yep, I'll post a ride report next week, hopefully one with good results.
Yep, I'll post a ride report next week, hopefully one with good results.
The race was awesome. Fun trails, good special tests, nice weather and I kicked some butt! I'm still smiling about getting 2nd place in the 200 A class. We got home on Monday night and I'm not yet caught up with things around home, so the race report will have to wait a couple days. Hope you can stand the suspense!
olderndirtmom
Member
- Apr 28, 2007
- 424
- 1
zero_it said:
CONGRATULATIONS! :cool:
We'll be waiting.
Yip Yip!
The race report....
I’m a big fan of enduros, yet our next local enduro here in Washington will be in July, so there was a break in the schedule to fill up. The Sawmill National Enduro in Lakeport, CA was a good fit. I recruited my buddy Carol to ride it with me and we sent in our pre-entries. About a week prior to our departure we were notified that we were on minute 1. That caused a great deal of anxiety around here. I’ve always considered being on minute 1 a curse: you get to break in brand new trail that can be downright nasty and difficult to see (never mind finding the good line), miss all the turns that aren’t well marked by arrows or tire tracks and risk having a head-on with casual trail riders not entered in the race. Hmmm, just gotta deal with it.
The race was on Saturday. We arrived Friday and headed straight out to do shake downs on the bikes and make sure our jetting was correct for the elevation. Everything was sorted out and we familiarized ourselves with the terrain in a quick 12 mile ride. Then it was off to sign-up. Some of our fears were quickly put to rest when we learned the entire riding area was closed to casual riding with the entrances gated off and manned by BLM personnel. That ended the head-on collision nightmares I’d been having. That left us to worry a little about holding up the fast guys.
Saturday morning we learned that we were sharing minute 1 with Mandy Mastin from Ohio. This was going to be fun! When it was time to hit the trail, the Super Senior class gentleman who was the 4th rider on minute 1 seemed to think that he needed to show all of us girls how to ride. Guess somebody forgot to tell him that all 3 of us are former Team USA ISDE riders! I zapped him about ¼ mile off the start line, Carol & Mandy got him shortly thereafter; we didn’t see much of him all day.
The new format for national enduros is very similar to an ISDE qualifier with several special test sections where they take points from everyone and the other checkpoints are on a fairly easy time schedule. This one had 6 special tests varying in length from 4 to about 10 miles a piece, the entire course covered about 75 miles.
The first special test was the longest of the day. I hit it full speed and almost immediately got arm pump. It’s kind of my signature move at the beginning of a race, should have expected it. Still managed to score a good time in the test and got my head into the game like I needed to. The second test was a really fun one weaving up & down some cool hills on almost all singletrack. Carol, me and Mandy went nose-to-tail for probably 2 miles in that one until Carol augered a peg into a berm and got sucked to the ground. That was my opening to gap both of them although I slowed a bit at the finish. The three of us were within about a minute of each other at the finish of the test. Good times.
Mandy was riding in the Women’s A class for national points, which meant she rode the short course. Carol and I entered 4-Stroke A and 200 A respectively, so we rode the whole event. Short coursers peeled off after the 2nd test and we didn’t see them again until the 5th test. Mandy had to fly back home to hit a GNCC race back east the following day, so she was unable to finish the event. Too bad, it would have been fun to ride more with her. Anyhow, tests 3 and 4 were the toughest of the day. Both were primarily through fresh cut, extremely tight manzanita and pine trees. For those unfamiliar, manzanita is a bush that can be as tall as about 8 or 10 feet, most is a little higher than handlebar height and it is MEAN. We’re talking iron wood bushes that you do not want to veer into or even brush your arms against if you can help it. My arms are still covered with red welts and a couple bruises from riding through that stuff….and that’s without even crashing in it. We turned in good times in the 3rd test and then, while waiting to go into the 4th test, the guys on minute 2 behind us paid Carol & I some very nice complements on our riding ability and speed. That was nice to hear and helped our confidence a bit, too. In addition to the obnoxiously tight manzanita, the 4th test had the added pleasure of being covered with rocks running in the 3” to 6” diameter range. My specialty is tight woods, but this stuff was tighter than anything we run in up here in the Pacific Northwest. At least our bushes you can ride through and lean into without fearing for your radiator shrouds and the sleeves of your jersey. The rocky section is where minute 1 was a particularly bad draw. After 10 or so bikes went through, many of the rocks were pitched out of the trail making for easier going. With me having the distinction of being the very first rider out of 300, the trail was a war zone and beat the hell out of me. After 4 miles of that my arms were like spaghetti! It was tough, but I rode strong and fast, very few riders passed me.
Test 5 was a blast. Mostly singletrack and fast. It was the only test where no riders passed me or Carol. We were pretty pumped! The final test of the day was ran mostly on a river gravel bar and in the river. We’re talking 4th gear flat out on the gravel, lots of water crossings, long runs right down the stream and one or two piles of big river rock to negotiate. All of this, of course, it taking place at the greatest speed you can carry. Once in a while they routed us up the bank, did a little grasstrack type stuff and then back down to the water. That test was huge fun and a great way to finish a very fun enduro. I crossed the finish line with a big smile and believing that Carol and I had really held our own all day. It wasn’t a difficult event, but certainly had a few hard sections to deal with and plenty of speed to keep me entertained. Well worth the trip down south.
When all was counted up, I ended up 2nd place in 200 A and 50th-ish overall. Carol was 9th in 4-Stroke A and 62nd-ish overall. The final tallying of overall positions hasn’t been posted yet, so those aren’t for sure. We both had tough company in our classes. The winners of 200 A and 4-Stroke A both placed in the top 15 overall.
We headed north after the race and spent all of Sunday afternoon trail riding near Medford, Oregon. Monday morning we hit a motocross track at a friend’s house for a couple hours where Carol was able to teach this hard core woods rider with two bad knees how to do tabletops and double jumps over 25 and 30 foot gaps. I was terrified at first, but figured it out and had some fun doing it. Around noon we had to load up one last time and make the final push north toward home. It was a great vacation with lots of really fun riding. To celebrate, I’m treating myself to a brand new 2007 KTM 200 this weekend. Sure is nice having a supportive, understanding husband who puts up with my antics!
I’m a big fan of enduros, yet our next local enduro here in Washington will be in July, so there was a break in the schedule to fill up. The Sawmill National Enduro in Lakeport, CA was a good fit. I recruited my buddy Carol to ride it with me and we sent in our pre-entries. About a week prior to our departure we were notified that we were on minute 1. That caused a great deal of anxiety around here. I’ve always considered being on minute 1 a curse: you get to break in brand new trail that can be downright nasty and difficult to see (never mind finding the good line), miss all the turns that aren’t well marked by arrows or tire tracks and risk having a head-on with casual trail riders not entered in the race. Hmmm, just gotta deal with it.
The race was on Saturday. We arrived Friday and headed straight out to do shake downs on the bikes and make sure our jetting was correct for the elevation. Everything was sorted out and we familiarized ourselves with the terrain in a quick 12 mile ride. Then it was off to sign-up. Some of our fears were quickly put to rest when we learned the entire riding area was closed to casual riding with the entrances gated off and manned by BLM personnel. That ended the head-on collision nightmares I’d been having. That left us to worry a little about holding up the fast guys.
Saturday morning we learned that we were sharing minute 1 with Mandy Mastin from Ohio. This was going to be fun! When it was time to hit the trail, the Super Senior class gentleman who was the 4th rider on minute 1 seemed to think that he needed to show all of us girls how to ride. Guess somebody forgot to tell him that all 3 of us are former Team USA ISDE riders! I zapped him about ¼ mile off the start line, Carol & Mandy got him shortly thereafter; we didn’t see much of him all day.
The new format for national enduros is very similar to an ISDE qualifier with several special test sections where they take points from everyone and the other checkpoints are on a fairly easy time schedule. This one had 6 special tests varying in length from 4 to about 10 miles a piece, the entire course covered about 75 miles.
The first special test was the longest of the day. I hit it full speed and almost immediately got arm pump. It’s kind of my signature move at the beginning of a race, should have expected it. Still managed to score a good time in the test and got my head into the game like I needed to. The second test was a really fun one weaving up & down some cool hills on almost all singletrack. Carol, me and Mandy went nose-to-tail for probably 2 miles in that one until Carol augered a peg into a berm and got sucked to the ground. That was my opening to gap both of them although I slowed a bit at the finish. The three of us were within about a minute of each other at the finish of the test. Good times.
Mandy was riding in the Women’s A class for national points, which meant she rode the short course. Carol and I entered 4-Stroke A and 200 A respectively, so we rode the whole event. Short coursers peeled off after the 2nd test and we didn’t see them again until the 5th test. Mandy had to fly back home to hit a GNCC race back east the following day, so she was unable to finish the event. Too bad, it would have been fun to ride more with her. Anyhow, tests 3 and 4 were the toughest of the day. Both were primarily through fresh cut, extremely tight manzanita and pine trees. For those unfamiliar, manzanita is a bush that can be as tall as about 8 or 10 feet, most is a little higher than handlebar height and it is MEAN. We’re talking iron wood bushes that you do not want to veer into or even brush your arms against if you can help it. My arms are still covered with red welts and a couple bruises from riding through that stuff….and that’s without even crashing in it. We turned in good times in the 3rd test and then, while waiting to go into the 4th test, the guys on minute 2 behind us paid Carol & I some very nice complements on our riding ability and speed. That was nice to hear and helped our confidence a bit, too. In addition to the obnoxiously tight manzanita, the 4th test had the added pleasure of being covered with rocks running in the 3” to 6” diameter range. My specialty is tight woods, but this stuff was tighter than anything we run in up here in the Pacific Northwest. At least our bushes you can ride through and lean into without fearing for your radiator shrouds and the sleeves of your jersey. The rocky section is where minute 1 was a particularly bad draw. After 10 or so bikes went through, many of the rocks were pitched out of the trail making for easier going. With me having the distinction of being the very first rider out of 300, the trail was a war zone and beat the hell out of me. After 4 miles of that my arms were like spaghetti! It was tough, but I rode strong and fast, very few riders passed me.
Test 5 was a blast. Mostly singletrack and fast. It was the only test where no riders passed me or Carol. We were pretty pumped! The final test of the day was ran mostly on a river gravel bar and in the river. We’re talking 4th gear flat out on the gravel, lots of water crossings, long runs right down the stream and one or two piles of big river rock to negotiate. All of this, of course, it taking place at the greatest speed you can carry. Once in a while they routed us up the bank, did a little grasstrack type stuff and then back down to the water. That test was huge fun and a great way to finish a very fun enduro. I crossed the finish line with a big smile and believing that Carol and I had really held our own all day. It wasn’t a difficult event, but certainly had a few hard sections to deal with and plenty of speed to keep me entertained. Well worth the trip down south.
When all was counted up, I ended up 2nd place in 200 A and 50th-ish overall. Carol was 9th in 4-Stroke A and 62nd-ish overall. The final tallying of overall positions hasn’t been posted yet, so those aren’t for sure. We both had tough company in our classes. The winners of 200 A and 4-Stroke A both placed in the top 15 overall.
We headed north after the race and spent all of Sunday afternoon trail riding near Medford, Oregon. Monday morning we hit a motocross track at a friend’s house for a couple hours where Carol was able to teach this hard core woods rider with two bad knees how to do tabletops and double jumps over 25 and 30 foot gaps. I was terrified at first, but figured it out and had some fun doing it. Around noon we had to load up one last time and make the final push north toward home. It was a great vacation with lots of really fun riding. To celebrate, I’m treating myself to a brand new 2007 KTM 200 this weekend. Sure is nice having a supportive, understanding husband who puts up with my antics!
olderndirtmom
Member
- Apr 28, 2007
- 424
- 1
Congratulations!!!! Very Awesome!
I got me one of those... and I ain't never gonna be able to write me a report like that......
That is way cool. Way cool.
Congratulations to you and your buddy Carol.
(Can I be one of you next lifetime???)
Yeow.
zero_it said:
I got me one of those... and I ain't never gonna be able to write me a report like that......
That is way cool. Way cool.
Congratulations to you and your buddy Carol.
(Can I be one of you next lifetime???)
Yeow.
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