Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125981
.J .J UJ III c. :; c( o UJ Z C( ..J rn ie Schreiber took first overall. Here , he's got one foot ulled back, struggling migh t ily t o avoid that extra dab. o or e inners h o ur's grace at a tenth of a p a in t penalty per mi n ute. For the 10 0 starters, it seemed simple o n the surface- 36 m iles in five hours? No sweat. It was n't until just past the hal fw ay point o f the fir st lo op that it r e all y hi t yo u . T his w a s no ga rden-variety t rail. Picture, if yo u will, a good , challenging Nov icelAm ateur sectio n- on e t hat has mud, wat er, all varie ties of roc ks and so il, so me wet, so me dry , several th re e and fo ur foot rock s t e p s, l o t s o f lo ose -trac tion sidehilling, an d a puc ke r-power downhill o r two . Neat sect io n, huh ? With th e ex ception o f a co up le m iles of fast firebreak , th e lo op was a to ugh section that wen t on fo r the whole 18 mile s. Strung along it were 20 sec tio ns, rid de n by all classes (with, at so me, a particular ly di fficult entry o r ex it for Experts onl y). To a No vice, so me o f the tr ap s we re a shade easie r th an th e loop. Th e trick was not to arrive at a sec tion so exhausted from the loop th at you fived th e tra p out of sheer fatigue. Most o f the sec ti ons had nam es, like " Boyd's Pile" , "Bo's H ole", " Slip 'n Tri p " a n d -os, No" . Prett y self-exp lanatory , most of them . " Slip 'n Tri p", trap seven, was a sta ircase cli mb up slan te d wet ro cks, frigh te ni ng in appeara nce, bu t wit h a deceptively easy line up it if yo u kept mo mentu m up and charged th e worst parts of it.· Hom e after the first lo o p ; it 's 1:3 0 already, ba rely time t o wolf do wn a san dwich an d chec k t he bi ke be fore go ing out agai n . Th ere 's less th an an hour an d a h alf, p lu s t he h o ur's grace, to fi nish th e seco nd lo op. This time yo u know more of wh a t to expect , other riders have sm oothed the wa y in spots. an d cu t it up badly in o th ers. Still, it goes m or e q uickly and th e t ra ps see m easier, eve n th ou gh by th is time yo ur eve ry muscle ac he s. It's a pity the re's no time to noti ce th e sce ne ry, wh ich is specta cu lar in sp ots, like th e view ac ro ss a bu rned-o ff area o f a gian t undercu t, .head-shaped A section ? No , pa rt of the loop . rock , realizing th ose little dots at the base of it are people at a section. Or the rolling vistas of hills gree n with fresh moisture th at can be seen before yo u d rop into a long an d in creasingly steep descent o f almost 800 feet . Much o f it is solitary beauty , as the riders are started o ne a minute and meet each ot he r seldom except at sections . At the end of the first da y, Bernie Sch reibe r an d Marland Wh aley lead t he Experts. Steve Dar ro w d o wn from the B a y Ar e a , is bu mmed a t hi s performance, an d Do n Swee t (Yam ) with his bike striped o ut in factory colo rs, is still hangi ng in, tu ning for the natio na l rounds. Bob Nic kel sen, lying ab out eighth o n Saturda y , will tell . people he conside rs t h is run better than any of the nati onal ro un ds. Nearly everybody has late p oin Is against his score, and some have to bypass sec tions to get in un der the h o ur's grace . Ex ha ustion time. Second day It begins with rain an d occasio nal hail beating o n the roof o f th e van . Ou tsid e, c o l d, w et, m i s erable people were begi n ni ng to st ir. To m Burman co mes down fr om chec kin g th e lo op and says, " Yo u gu ys are goi ng to lo ve it, today . There 's already tw o inch es of snow at t he to p of th e m ountain." Su nday 's lo op wo uld go all the way to the fire lookout at 5 0 00 feet. Later in th e day , with six inc hes of sn ow accu m ula ted .in t h e shady spots, skies wo uld cle ar brie fly and reveal the world be lo w, sparkling cle ar in spots with o ther place s sh rouded in d rifting mist. At the 5 0 0 0 fo ot level , Don Swe e t turne d in th e day 's best ri de, with a clean an d a two in traps 1 i /18, m ostl y "ribbon ro ck " with patches of sno w. For CN 's rep orter, the da y ended ab ru ptly in section t wo with a broken arm. Many than ks t o the paramedic an d to all the people who helped, retrieving the bike an d lo ading th e van fo r th e trip out. The res t o f the ride rs, though faced with radi cal te m perature changes and co mb inations o f mist, rain, hail and snow, fo und Sunday 's 22-mile loop faster , wi th mo re open ridge runn ing an d les s strength-tax ing gully cli m bs. Nearly every body finis he d on time. Sidel ights On Saturday 's lo op , rid ers passed a keg party by one o f the st re ams that just kept growing until it see me d every frat ra t in So uthe rn Califo rn ia was th ere. T hey set o u t a h uge qua d ste reo sys te m an d soon it was wall -to-wall music. wi th co-eds cavo rting abo ut. quite a dist ract io n for a p oor t ired trials rider. A sta rte r bo th day s. an d apparen tly a finisher with a respec tab le Novice sco re was "The Spee d way Machine", ~like Bast. Result s Pending. • 9