Short View

of

Renegade Enduro

by

Will Hendrix

On top of the Caprock, just south of Post, Texas, the day dawned clear, bright, and 35 degrees. There had been a little rain a few days earlier and now the ground looked pretty good for a motorcycle race. Much better than two weeks before at the PBMA event (but hey, there was nothing PBMA could do about it).

After the riders meeting we placed the gas cans at the nearby Gas Stop and Emergency Gas - both of which were within walking distance of camp. It was still cold so I elected to use my special windbreaker: a garbage bag. Several people showed up at the starting line with their garbage bags on - Michael Wilson told his Dad Harold to stay away from him because he was "not cool" wearing the bag!

Right off the start we jumped into the rough stuff and really warmed up the old bods. They checked us after 3.3 miles of this just to see if we were awake yet. With the speed average at 18 we stroked along with another check at about 8 miles which was the beginning of a pretty tight 5 mile section. All the hot shoes zeroed the checkout at 13.5 miles but us old weenies all took a point or two here. Let's see…. Gas is at 18.0 miles, the check was at 13.5…. there is a 4.5 mile "free" section here. I wonder why the club didn't put their checkout closer to the last possible before Gas?

After gas we rolled out over the north pasture where if you had shed your bag you got cold again - but some of us were still in our stylish bags and warm and cozy. We started a timekeeping section with a check at about 24 miles. From there we were enjoying the ride and just riding "possibles" and looking for the check-in to the 24 mph section. There it is!!! We went in at the top of our minute and then got going! The section was only about 4 miles long but enough to give a point or 2 to the less skilled among us.

After the short test we were given five minutes free time, then a nice trail ride to Emergency Gas (Gas 2 for the Long Course riders) where we had another Free Time and a reset which gave us a total of 15 minutes of downtime and got us prepared for the final dash to the finish. As the riders dribbled out of the E-Gas looking for the next possible at 44.6 they soon came in sight of the check but far enough away that everything was "legal". Rolling in to the check at 35:02, it was a mad dash into some of the nastiest terrain I've ever seen. This was definitely a test just to stay out of those bike-eating gullies and washouts. The finish line was a short 3.3 miles away and I was glad to be done with that section!

The day just got better as time passed. The ground was near perfect, at least where I was, and there was enough wind to clear the dust most of the time. The trail was marked really well with the club making a lot of effort to keep us out of the nasty stuff. Some glitches occurred during the scoring process but Fredna Lair and her trusty crew overcame the problems. Our trip home was uneventful - after Jay Roy removed the Moose banner from the front of our overheated motorhome!!

See you all at Sidewinder and beyond.