A Suzuki-pusher pushing his Suzuki.
enduro
What's this - a helmeted Euell Gibbons?
far fr om yo ur own h ouse. The sup port
on the co urse was also pre tt y great. It
seemed th ere we re URA clu b me m bers
everywhere yo u loo ked , an d I noticed
severa l fo ur-wh eel-drive radio o utfi ts o n
th e co urse, most belongi ng to Service
Search an d Rescue. I believe. There
were also loads o f people at each of the
· 10 checks.
As competition, the enduro didn't
.' sco re quite as high . There were mistakes
on the ro u te sheet that we re
"corrected" by a sign that told yo u to
"wait 3 minute n at the sign. This was on
the first loop. On the seco nd loop, there
was a five-minute break to "enjoy a
fantastic view" but since the y ran out of
schedules and some riders didn't have
any, t hose riders didn't kno w anything
abo ut t he f i ve -m i nu t e b reak.
Supposedly th ere was anothe r sign , but
I didn ' t see it. If I were a rider wit ho u t a
sche dule I wo uld demand a refun d of
the entry, b ecause yo u sure didn't have
a reaso na ble chance to compete.
The URA is actually a hyb rid
organization, an amateur club hoo ked
up with a commercial organization. A
few years ago th ere were just the
pro m oters and I wasn't very impressed
with their effort. Now I am very
impressed with the spirited URA club;
but st ill not too impressed with the
.pro mo ting gro up. With so mething o n
the order of SIO,OOO gross, acc urate,
well-printed sche d ules and finisher p ins
at th e finish should be taken for
grante d . Th e exc use o f fin isher p ins
being h eld up in customs is only valid
fo r ahou t eigh t consecutive eve nts. Th en
it sta rts to show signs of wear. In all,
tho ugh , it was a beautiful ru n that was
unfort unately marred by a tragedy and
by some sloppiness.
Results should be avail able in a
couple of weeks - if they can figure out
how to cope with "wait a minutes" and
"fan tastic views."
•
• Ridge trails were nice , if you had time to notice the scenery.
Cross-traffic at the one really rocky uphill.
