|
|
|
Quicksilver Enduro It rained hard all week leading up to the Quicksilver. I really thought the race was going to be cancelled because of the weather but I got my bike all ready to go and then waited until 5 when the hotline said it was on! I jumped in the box van and was on my way. Brian didn't race this weekend. He was waiting for some parts so he stayed at home and worked on getting things organized for him upcoming trip to Florida. I signed up on row 11 along with Brian Jelich, James Partiski, and Dave North. I was riding the 200 and was looking forward to a good ride in the mud. The third loop was cancelled due to weather. I talked to Jordan Brandt who laid out the third loop and he said it took four hours for a couple guys to make it halfway through so it was eliminated. I knew it was going to be a muddy race since the parking lot was pure slop. I was ready to go in the morning and was feeling good right away. The first check was easy to make and led us onto the pavement road. There was a reset then a little ride down the road. Leaving the road I readjusted my milage and saw I was twenty seconds late. I knew this was the start of a test so I started to go fast. I only rode average and made a few mistakes leading into the next check where I dropped a point by about ten seconds. After that I started to get into a bit of a grove and felt like I was riding pretty good. About fifteen miles in I hit my right foot on a rock and it immediately went numb. I knew it was pretty messed up but I wanted to have a good finish so I tried not to let it get to me. I came up a little hill and there were a couple of guys stuck in a mudhole. I zig-zagged around the ruts and was making pretty good progress. Near the end of the mudhole there were three guys stuck. I aimed for a bush in the middle of them but got stuck . The guy next to me wasn't stuck too bad so I helped him out. We went back for my bike and it was burried so I told the guy to go. I pushed and pulled on my bike but it wasn't going anywhere. I had never been so stuck in my life. There were about fifteen of us stuck in the mud. I was on row 11 and had passed about half the field which meant that not more than five guys probably made it through the mud hole. It was only about fifty feet long but had up to a foot of standing water over bottomless clay. After a few minutes of trying to get my bike out about six of us that were stuck agreed to help each other out of the mud. We knew our races were over but we just wanted to get out bikes free. It took the six of us over an hour to get six bikes out of the mud hole. No one made it through after us. Everyone started to make lines around the mud hole and most of them got stuck in the process. When we got out James and I bee lined it back to the truck. Near the end of the loop people started running out of gas. I gave Rich Lafferty gas twice and someone else gas once. When I got back I loaded up and took off my boot. When I did I saw the toe nail on the toe on my right foot next to the big toe pop off from the back. I cleaned myself up a bit then had Spearle clean up my toe. I ended up breaking the tip of it and they put a few stitches in to hold it together. Billy Russell managed to put in a smart ride and took the win! It was good to see a local win the race and neat to see Billy step up stay out of trouble all day. Matt Stavish made the trip from Minnesota and had his best ride at the Quicksilver for second. David Lyke ended up third as a result of a protest that moved him up ahead of Lafferty who ended up fifth and Hatch who finished fourth. |