Honestly, I don't know where to start. I'm sitting here at 4 am, at home jet lagged after gettin ghome late last night after a 24 hr something day of travel.
Firstly thank you's.
Jedi and Parts guy for arranging my ride, a Roland Orhn prepared Fe450. Did I feel like a rock star rolling that bike away from the Swedish compound. It worked flawlessly and I couldn't thank Thomas and Roland enough for their efforts considering that my effort was at best club level.
My wife Terri for her love and support. Love ya babe and oh ya, no more Red Bull and vodka!!
The rest of my family for their love and support.
My many sponsors here at home, too many to name
And a special thanks to Jan/Bette, Dave and Hazel, and Mike and Butch whose efforts in organising our countries team and support system go often unthanked. Jan and Bette are from Holland and maintain our support facilities such as tents, tools and gas cans. I can't imagine the stress, thoughts and feeling some of my US friends endured since their container did not show up until monday am. They save us from all that.
Now the Six Day.
Tough is all I have to say. For the average guy like me to go to a world class event is a unearned privilage. The guys who regularily ride the WEC are in a class all thier own and an event such as this years, only spreads the gap. I've been to four six days now. Last year I actually had time to prepare and train, and I was very happy with my results until I was injured. But at the same time Poland was a pretty easy ride and this year I got to ride and earn a real medal.
Yes I was slow, the lack of training a majority of the reason for that. But this Bronze medal means twice as much as my other two.
Even the first 3.5 days were tough. Conditions were dry, except for some mud holes and some ugly downhill roads the were drainages, w/water, mud, rocks, stumps, logs, and what ever the locals threw into the mix to provide entertainment.
The trail was relatively easy, wide and lots of traction on the dried clay, until you add ruts, roots, scattered rocks, some water, oh and an accelerated time schedule to maintain. It was taxing, and even the fast guys were showing strain at the end of the days.
My test times were so so, I just didn't find my zone until late day two and three. I also learned more about bike set up. I set up my biek to the same specs as the bike that I ride here, and it seems to work fine here. But to ride grass tracks with wet offcambers is a whole different story. So I struggled with set up and I know my mistakes. Thomas Gustovsson helped me lots and had great insight, although I wanted to argue with him on some points, I realised he had to be right. Many of our ideas here in NA really don't work once I thought about it, ok, next year.
I had just a simple little brain f@&t on day two I think and I was left with a speared rad. Knowing my limits/boundaries on engine temp I was very confident in being able to ride to the next check and intalling new rad. Now this is another reason I love riding a berg at the six days. Guy Perrett told me in 01 that berg was the bike to rent simply due to their support. With every bike that I have rode, I get a tour of the "box". The "box" has everything, save a piston clip perhaps to get you out of a bind. So I changed my rad and threw away what I had a hoped was going to be a silver medal.
Derrick rode half of his last day with the separated shoulder, so kudos to him for having some guts.
My brother broke himself not 5 feet from me when he tried to drop into a ravine. Poor luck and I wish him a speedy recovery.
I'm also much better at riding ruts now. Uphill, downhill, rock filled, water filled, log filled, short endless, I won't profess to be an ace but I will confess that I 'm better than I was. My second brainfart of the week was not long after my rad wreck and I footed in a rut and heard the dreaded pop sound in my right knee, so hense the duck walk that Bette spoke about. Both my knees have had their fair share of truama so they have a little more 'tolerance' than most.
oh, can I mention monkey butt!!
And don't cutoff a canuck in the tight confines of a very small and congested pit. The guy got off lucky, actually, most Aussies say anyway. They claimed the *** should have gotten a "Liverpool kiss". It was a ugly scene for Clint, as the local had travelled many times through the check area, so he knew the traffic level was high, it had rained, the schedule was A, so the pace was fast. Clint was just entering the check area when dude pulled out, knocking him down, Thank god he wasn't travelling much more than idle speed as he tweaked a lever and bruised his elbow. They incedent happened in front of our team manager/jury member and a great number of other respected individuals so yes, Clint got off lucky, both monetary wise and healthwise. But that brown eye could have killed someone with his neglect and maybe having to replace a window will make him think next time he does something stupid. There, end of rant.
Day 4 Same basic hammered trail. I was simply riding my own pace, looking at the long term goal of finishing when it started to rain. Wow. Take packed clay, almost blue groove, like plastercine when soft and add a light rain. Instant whale sh!t on an iceberg. I missed most of it, but Shane and Clint said it was ugly.
Then in the evening it rained, then it rained harder, and then it rained some more. Thankfully it softened up the ground deeper than just the surface so there was some bite. Thankfully day 5 was 'fresh' trail, which would have been a sweet ride if not for the rain. We were all worried, I was just plain scared. This was going to be the toughest day I'd ever spent on a bike, the type of day that I had read about when I was young, about the gruelling six days.
In reality, I had come to realise that anouther dnf loomed large so I started the day, wrapped in a vest and a .29SK (about a buck) poncho with the attitude that if it were to be my " last " day, I'd best keep a smile on my face and enjoy it. And I did. I have never riden any thing as slippery. We used may long pastures to connect tree sections, some well into 6th gear and I wonder how sane it is to maintain that speed with both tires wondering, but no wobbles and no high speed cartwheels.
We had been warned of a Terrain test that had a 'hill' in it, so as I carved around a clump of trees in the last test, a huge rut appeared in the grass. As I said before, ruts are good, especially when it is mondo slippery. So the rut became my friend and up into the trees I went, into the 'hill'. It was fully treed on the right, offcamber, a ten foot ravine to the left and not a square metre that didn't have a root of some sort in it. Oh, and people hanging over the ribbon, willing to watch the carnage, but no willing to help, *******s.
So I climbed most of the way into the hill before a root slowed my ascent and I attempted to go back down, then I fell down and I got run over by, I think, Daniel Persson, a Swedish trophy rider on a berg. Thank god for big bones as the collision only slowed Daniel and he had to try agian as well.
It was ugly, steam, revs much of a nightmare really and this where it became obvious that Merriman, Knight, Aro, etc were not just fast, but masters of finding traction and maintaining balance. I felt like my daughter looked, a number of weeks ago when she rode for the first time, idling around offcamber turns, barely moving, afraid to do anything but knowing that I had to to move.
I was very elated to impound my bike that night. We still had 60 km and a moto to ride, but the majority of the work was done. Shane watched a guy roll his bike up to the start platform to start day 6, he was given the start signal, he started his bike, put it in gear only to have the chain break without even moving!!! This all after 25 minutes of work time. Just another example about how ruthless the six day can be.
So thanks to all who looked out for me and your thoughts. My hats off to my friends and fellow teammates. To Clint for being tough and showing your strenghts and to Shane, for showing the world that Canada has talent.
regards
fry
