If you missed this months District 37 Race
you missed out! This was my friend Khris's first ever race and he had a blast! Another
buddy of mine made it out to race as well and I am sure Kritter had just as good of a
time! There were over 500 bikes out there competing against him including some big name
riders such as Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld.
DMC, thanks for a great
race.
Okay, this was my first time ever
at an all bike desert race or a District 37 event. I'd never even seen video of a Bomb Run
let alone real life. I entered Novice Open Class running both loops. I watched the bomb
run of the 1st line from the downwind sideline out about 200 yards. All I could do was
laugh out loud at how crazy that was. The length of the line was mind blowing!!! This wa.s the first
National Hare & Hound race for 2004 and all the big name pros were there, Destry Abbot
(won o/a), Ty Davis (2nd place), Johnny Campbell, Steve Hengeveld, etc…
My bomb run went smooth. Thank god my bike started 1st kick but I was still in the dust, I pretty much was cutting trail the entire way to the bomb, never really got on a “line” or when I did I’d be getting roosted so I’d hop off into nothing and go for the pass. Once I got settled about 45 seconds into the bomb and realized I probably wasn’t going to die, I passed quite a few riders but also got my share of passing. I am glad that I did do one practice run down the bomb because right near the end probably 1.5 miles into it the run we crossed the MDR coarse and the road was deep and rutted, a for sure kicker if you didn’t know it was there and being in the dust made that quite possible!!!! For those of you that are used to the truck scene, prerunning is not allowed in this type of racing. The loops are about 40 miles each, the first being more beginner and FAR different then the 2nd which is setup for the pros, and the only part that you’re allowed to prerun is the first two miles or so called the “Bomb run”. Basically the start…
1st lap was great. I felt good until the final charge across the valley into the pits. The whoops in this section just ate up my energy. 1st loop, stalled it twice and went over the bars once and I'm VERY confident that if I'd had a stabilizer it would of saved me. Am I the only one without a stabilizer? Seemed like it. On the 1st lap once I got out of the bomb rush and things kind of cleared out not a single rider passed me while I was moving. I was able to catch and re-pass all of the bikes that passed me the three times I came to a hault. Sooo, I come into pits, pulled off the gear to shed all the layers except the jersey. According to my parents and friends I was about the 17th green stripe into pits (Novice Class). I was in no hurry, my goal was to just finish because of this, my pit was probably 10 minutes long. Drank an energy drink, looked over the bike thoroughly, refilled fluids, and took off.
2nd loop, the 1st major downhill out of the pits was CLOGGED with riders, hung back and waited because you really had no choice, on these downhills there was only one line open, it was basically a cow path across a boulder field across the side of a steep mtn. At the bottom there was a road jam there. I hung a right and cut a new trail that got me past it all, looked back to see about 6 more bikes following my line. A couple miles later somewhere up on top of a ridge there was a pretty bitchin little like 2' waterfall thing to climb, got up it and stalled at the crest, kinda pissed me off, you don’t realize how much energy it takes to start the bike when you’re REALLY tired. If you could stay on the bike and not stall you conserved tons of energy!!! All was good but my energy was running low. No gym definitely showed on this 2nd lap. I think while running on the 2nd loop I only had three riders pass me, the catch though was that I had to stop for a breath 3 times before the last GNARLY hillclimb, I'll get to that later. There was also one part where the trail came down a tight canyon and there was a pile of rocks/waterfall that was all jammed up. I once again attempted to cut right and side run the hill side, this time my gamble didn't pay off. Probably 10 riders got by while I manhandled my CRF off the hill. Had to take a break after that one too cause it winded me. I never have gotten tired of starting my CRF and always thought it was easy but I’d never been in this situation. 1st lesson learned was stalling sucks!!!
Okay, and then there was
the damn hill climb near the end, this thing had riders scattered all over it. I’d
guess it to be maybe 150 feet high and basically, there was no trail, just a jumble of
about 20 guys picking up there bikes and fighting to get up this thing. The climb was just a silted out hill side strewn
with rocks from soft ball to soccer ball size sitting loose on top of the silt. I sat at the bottom with about 5 bikes for at least
5 minutes just waiting for a line to remotely open and discussing strategies on how to get
to the top. In that time 2 riders said screw
it and went back down to ride around the mountain figuring they'd probably be DQ'd but to
them that was better then what probably lied ahead on the climb. Finally, I get a breath
and a line opens up... I start chugging up, took the left line off the bottom of the hill,
not the right one that seemed to loop around the lower boulder pile because I had yet to
see someone get even kind of far up the hill. I made it up there about 1/3 of the hill
before loosing it. Didn't lay it over but lost all forward momentum. Worked my way up to
about 2/3s of the way walking/clutching. While doing this your rear tire is just shooting
rock and silt everywhere on riders below. At
the same time you’re getting pelted from riders doing the same above on the hill, you
really had to pay attention and sometimes just duck behind your bike to use it as cover
from the roost. I'm now on the far right side
of the hill climb and realize the prime line to ride the rest of the way up instead of
walking it is cutting across the face on the far side. I turn the bike around and get over
to it. I'd guess from attacking the bottom to cresting the top was a 10 minute adventure
along with a minimum of 5 minutes just sitting at the bottom and a 2 minute break on top. I’m still in awe that my clutch is still
functional. Then there was this downhill just
before the final rock canyon. I had to stop at
the bottom of that for a rest too. This down
hill made me feel like I was holding myself in a pushup position for about 3 minutes while
in the bed of a prerunner flying down a wash or something.
Just after this down hill they sent us through this rock crawling canyon
where the smallest rocks were beach ball size, it was unbelievable. I would have never
even thought of taking my bike down that if the arrows hadn't pointed me through it. I
made it through, stalling once but didn't dump it and I swear my entire radiator dumped
it’s fluid right there. I can’t wait
to fill it up and measure how much I lost, I’m grateful for my bikes sake that the
section after that to the finish was relatively fast and open so that I could get some air
through it. At one point in the canyon there
was about a 3’ waterfall to ride down, fresh this wouldn’t have been an issue
but I can barely grip the bars at this point. They
know it’s crazy so they’ve actually placed spotters in there to catch you on the
fall!!! Funny thing is you come out of this
canyon and they’ve got a BBQ setup there and are offering $100 to any rider that can
eat 10 hotdogs. I stopped there to let my bike
cool and had a drink of water. I cleared the
2nd loop probably stalling 10 times (not counting the hill climb from hell) but didn't lay
it over once. I'm anxious to see how I
finished in the end for my first race ever.
I'm going in this Friday
(Jan 30th) for knee surgery from a torn ACL and Meniscus that I've been riding
with for 3 years now so I’ll be out for a while. My goal, start using my gym
membership again and as soon as I've got confidence in my knee I'll be back to rock it
again...
So, there's my story, I had a
blast this weekend and I’m already looking forward to a future D37 race!!!
Khris Kading