Toughest Hare Scramble I Ever Raced...
 

wasn't even a hare scramble! It was the 2006 NETRA Rocky Mountain Enduro in Alton, NH. Not much need for timekeeping at this one, unless you're one of those AA riders.

The start was kind of fun. Maybe a 1/4-mile grass track with logs scattered about. Then the club dumped us into the woods, 28 miles of it to be exact. Rocks, roots, loose dirt, logging debris, uphills, downhills. Of course I messed with my suspension clickers a couple days prior and had everything screwed up. It was not a smooth ride. At 18 mph there was no way for me to stay on time and found myself 13-minutes down at check 2.

Somewhere around mile 13 my silencer fell off. Talk about loud. I stopped to check the damage. The forward mount on the silencer body had worn through and the rear bolt had either loosened or snapped. I had no spare bolts and no way to physically carry it, so I took off. Right before check 3 they dumped us into some really tight woods littered with boulders. It was first gear all the way to the check, where I dropped another 12 points.

Then we got a brief rest, one of the few all day, with a known control restart for check 4. From that point the trail opened up and I found myself running hot, so I backed off just in case there was a sneaky check waiting for us. There wasn't, of course, and we had more rocky trails to pound through until the gas stop, where I dropped another 6 points at check 5.

At the gas stop I refueled the bike and opened up both the compression and rebound clickers on the fork. Would've messed with rebound on the shock, but I ran out of time. The known control (restart) after gas was the same spot as the start. The second loop was the same as the first, only the speed was now 24 mph. I couldn't zero anything at 18, so it was a struggle just to keep from houring out.

The clicker changes I made seemed to be working out and I wasn't fighting the bike as much the second loop. By check 7 I was down another 12 points, but I kept going. At check 8 I came flying in WFO, scattering check workers, one minute from houring out. Then a short trail section and reset brough me to another known control, check 9. When I took off I knew there was no way I'd make check 10 within my hour so I tried to keep the rubber side down.

Eventually I reached the finish. The last check had closed, so I turned in my scorecard and thankful I didn't have to ride the A/AA loop. At this point I was just numb. Everything hurt and I was just happy to still be in one piece. After loading up and changing out of my gear I checked my score and found I had 2nd in the B-Heavy (Open) class. That has to be the hardest I've ever worked for a trophy.

Congrats on the great finish and thanks for the write-up.

Good write-up. It sounds like I did the sweepers a favor by not showing up.
Congrats on your finish.

Brian - It wasn't an easy enduro, but it was all 100% rideable... some may disagree though. The key was carrying enough momentum to get you through the tough stuff.

Most people get too hyped up before the start then go all out. That won't help you finish. I try and ride the easy stuff as fast as possible. In the gnarly stuff I'll settle down and maintain a comfortable pace. One kid passed me three times only to crash his brains out, less than a half-mile later, all three times.

When you get to a spot where a lot of riders are struggling it pays to stop and take a quick look for alternate lines. If you know what you and your machine are capable of, you can pass a dozen riders in less than a minute.

A vid from this event.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...16961981497573

The first two vids on the side menu are from this event. the next one down is from a harescramble that was held on the same property. They try not to use the same trails but there is a little cross pollinations.

Here are some pics from the enduro.

http://www.mvtr.org/events/rme2006/rme2006photos.htm

Note that most of the first pics are start line shots. You gotta scroll way down to get to the good trail pics.

Google vid link has been updated with a nice 10 minute vid of the easier c rider friendly section of single track. This would be a good link to save and then open up when there is 2 feet of snow on the ground!!!