My first ride report - Norwegian National enduro champions..

I rarely post here, but read most of the postings nearly every day. The time
has come to write my first ever ride report, and that is from the national
enduro championship in Norway held a few weeks ago.

I had to arrive at the start a day before, because everyone had to go
through the technical inspection and put the bike in a "parc-farme" over the
night. The bike could be taken out no earlier than 15 minutes before my
start-time, so the bike was prepared for the 220 KM's race.
The rest of the night I had to ask other more experienced rider about the
different "rules" in this enduro. The track was 110 KM's long, and we should
two laps. Each lap had three special stages (SS) where they take your time
from start to finish. The rest is actually transportation stages (TS) only
to get to the next SS. They held a drivers meeting the morning after
explaining what we could expect during the track. As it was my first ever
time to ride this type of event, I was really excited. I got my start time,
and all the time control (TC) "times".

My start time cam up, and I could go into the parc-farme and pick up my
bike. After a couple of hundred meters on the warmup track, it was time. The
first SS was only four kilometers long on a field where they had made a very
long kinf of MX track without any jumps. Off I went and it felt pretty good.
My friend took the time and it showed to only a few seconds slower than the
pro-class. The first TP was really short, only a few kilometers. The next SS
was about 8 KM's long mostly in the woods. Gosh I loved my Rekluse. In the
tight rocky stuff the bike ran perfect. The z-Start seemed to be a really
good investment. The feeling was even better on this stage, and I got the
answer about halfway in the SS when I caught up the rider in front of me who
had started one minute earlier. I passed him in a mud-section and to the end
of the SS I even saw the guy in front of me who had started even two minutes
earlier than me. After finish I had no idea of the result, but later (after
all of the 220 KM's) I discovered that after SS2 my time was fifth best
total.

After SS2 we had a pretty long TS, about 35 KM's long in the woods. The
problem was that it had rained for about two weeks non-stop, and I can tell
you it was really hard to get to the first TC in time. Everything went just
fine until it was about 4-5 KM's left of the TS. Then it happened. When
going fast in 2nd, I saw "something" down a really muddy path. I didn't know
what it was, but decided to just go a little faster as it looked like a
tricky mud-section. What I didn't see was some wooden boards they had put on
the left side of the section. I went to the right side only to discover that
the front wheel dissapeared in the mud (in 3rd). I found myself a few meters
further down the path from the bike, but I was ok. Nothing broken, just
surprised. I ran back to the bike and tried to get it up, but it didn't
move. I checked the time, and figured out I had about 5 minutes to get it
out, or else I will get problems getting in time to the TC. I actually had
to dig out the bike, but it took about 10 minutes. The rest of the TS I rode
like a maniac, but I missed my time at the TC with two minutes. That means
two points penalty = two minutes extra time. Darn !

SS3 was the worst of all. Very short, just 4 KM's but it was even more
muddier than earlier, just separated with rocky sections covered with mud.
Really slippery stuff, and I went down again. This time I was sort of
balancing on a rocky edge when the rear wheel started to slip and the bike
and myself fell of this "edge" (about 1 meter). Nothing scary, but I couldnt
get the bike up again or turn it around to give it another try. I was
strugling for about another 10 minutes to get the bike through some trees
into a sump. I had to drag the bike through the sump (only 10-15 meters) to
a better spot where I managed to get some grip under my tires and went up in
the rocky stuff again. After that incident I was so tired I hardly could sit
on the bike. In some way I managed to get to the finish of SS3 only to
realize that the next TS was about 60-65 KM's long starting with 30 KM's
nightmare stuff !
I was really really close to DNF at that time, but kept reminding me that
the other riders also had to go through the same stuff.

This long TS went pretty well beside one crash into a small river. They had
put several logs in it, but the problem was they were so slippery and I
couldn't get any traction at all. The bike went in the water but I raised it
very quick. When I tried to start it, it almost refused, but in the end it
started and I revved it so lot of water just sprayed out of the exhaust.

When I cam back to the start og the track, I got a couple of more penalty
points, but I had to discuss with my pal if I should try to finish the next
round. He said no, but I reminded him what we had talked about in the car
driving to the race. Never quit - never quit !. Well I headed out for
another 3 SS's and logn TS's. I'll skip the rest of the story, but I can
tell you that it was really bad out there on the second lap. I crashed and
got stuck several times, but I managed to get to the main-finish.
Remembering this was my first ever "real" enduro competition, I admit this
was just "a little" above my level and riding skills. Maybe I should have
started with something easier than the National enduro championship.

Now I'm laughing about it all, but I'm a bit proud too, because in my class
(amateurs under 45) more than 50% DNF and some of the were pretty
epxerienced riders too!

Next weekend I'm gonna ride another "real" enduro. This one is about 100
KM's long, so it will just be another sunday trip.

Wish me luck !

-Ole

BTW: I just picked up my brand new '05 400EXC today. I can't wait for
testing it tomorrow.

"RedBull" <olecg"removethis"@east.no> wrote in message
news:cjkqtc$73q$1@services.kq.no...
 > I rarely post here, but read most of the postings nearly every day. The
time
 > has come to write my first ever ride report, and that is from the national
 > enduro championship in Norway held a few weeks ago.

<snip>

Thanks for the ride report. Sounds pretty guelling.

 > Next weekend I'm gonna ride another "real" enduro. This one is about 100
 > KM's long, so it will just be another sunday trip.
 >
 > Wish me luck !

Good luck. Remember, any ride that doesn't end with a helicopter
trip is a good ride.

 > BTW: I just picked up my brand new '05 400EXC today. I can't wait for
 > testing it tomorrow.

Lucky bastard. Are you going to ride it next race? I'd spend some
time dialing it in first. What were you riding in the last race?

-Jeff Deeney- ©2004 DoD#0498 NCTR UTMA BRC COHVCO AMA
jldeeney@c om c ast d ot net '99 ATK 260LQ-Stink Wheels '94
XR650L-DreamSickle
We don't stop riding because we get old, we get old because we stop riding.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->