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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127734
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I cou ld but I missed my check by like 20
seconds. But consid ering I started on the
15th ro w I think I got lucky."
Dahners sai d, '1 cou ld n't believe tha t
I lost three minutes in the downhill .
David (Rhodes) and I rode toget her and
the firs t time through we were like three
minutes early for the next check. Then
d uring the second time through I tried
to ride down like I did earlier and when
I went to u se the fro nt bra ke th e fron t
wheel w ou ld cross and down I' d go.
David ma de it by thi s one rider an d I
got stuck and could n't make it by. "
Both Rhodes and Dahners were competing in the Hea vyweight Two-Stroke
class.
Trolli, who was riding in the Heavyweight Four-Stroke class, sa id, "The first
loo p there was no problem at all. I was
abl e to ride the bike all the way down.
But the second loo p it became too slipp er y w ith n o tracti o n to stop . I was
behind Don Knapp and he shot in to a
predicament that was no good. The trail
was so narrow tha t there was only room
for one bike. He was tipped over and up
against a tree and he cou ld n' t move . I
w aited as long as I thought I cou ld but I
had to rid e over his bike."
Knapp said, "Because the trail was so
s tee p and slip pery you had to free-fall
d own each drop-off until yo u came to a
s top o n th e next ledge. I e n ded up
wedged betw een a tr ee wi th m y bike
blocking the trail. It was so slippery tha t
I could n't ge t a ny footi ng to pull the
bike u p the hill. The ha ndleba rs were
st icking into the mu d and because of the
step a ngle I couldn' t pull th e bars out
and lift up the bike at the sa me time. It
was almost embarrassing.
"A bottleneck started to form and the
ot her riders were losing points so eve ntu ally they jus t had to ride over me. I sa t
there helpless as the rest of the LOI riders used my bike as a berm."
Chris Smith sai d of the hill's di fficulty, "Some times these clubs try to put on
a real killer event because it's a National . But they have to rem ember that this
is an amateur spo rt and most of us have
to go to work on Monday, so they need
to back off a little. We had to deal wi th
an A sched u le and the rain. With th e
rainy weather predictions I w as surpri sed that the y didn't go wi th the B.
"After it s ta rted to ra in we d idn' t
even have time (at the checks) to change
jerse ys . I started to get cold . I was shaking so hard a t one of th e checks that I
could barely hold onto m y bike. Luckily
th is gal let me b orrow her jacket and
tha t really saved my butt, o therwise,
there was a good ch a nc e of getti ng
hypo thermia."
Chris' brother, ve te ran rider Drew
Smith sa id, "We d idn't have enough
ti me to do t he m a inte n an ce tha t's
required to keep things sa fe . If you
wanted to stay on sched u le yo u d idn't
ha ve tim e to replace things like brake
pads which are essential to negotiating
these down hills. But sometimes these
things happen. I guess tha t's all part of
the spo rt."
Lo bos Motorcycle C lub president
and event trail boss Barret Brown said of
the criticism, "We regret the fact that it
ra ined so hard today. During th e last
year' s eve nt we had a lot of DNFs when
it rain ed on day tw o so we tried to turn
d own the torture level this year."
Day two was much more casual. The
B tim e sched ule was used and the club
did reroute around th e steeper downhills including Psychopath.
. Where th e fi rs t d a y ' s t rails we re
made up of two id entical 68-mile loops,
wit h four d ifferen t terrain tests, the second day's sched uled trail, which used
p art of d ay one ' s course fo r the first
(Left) David Rhodes (215) and Scott Mclaughlin (310) mix
It up during the final MX test. Rhodes ended up third
overall and Mclaughlin sixth overall.
(Below) Keven Yarnell nego tiates the s lippery downhill. Of
the approximately 80 LOIentries, only nine ea rned gold
meda ls .
(Right) Don Knapp
leg-paddles his
Husqvarna through
the slick Oregon
mud. He had a run-in
with a tree that
preven ted him from
finish ing day one.
He came back and
posted good scores
on day two.
Ga rrahan (Kaw); 3. Bob Becht el (KTM); 4. DougLts Groff
!Hus); 5. Frank Kergil (!(awl.
H/W 4--ST RK: 1. John Nielsen (Hus ); 2. Da vid e
Trolli !Hon); 3. Michael Callaghan (Hon); 4. Jed Green
(Hon); 5. Scott Meyer !Hus).
S R: 1. W i.1liam Pe rkins (Ya m) ; 2. Ma rk Ruple
(K1M); 3. Ron Bums (KTM); 4. Tun Ebersole (CREJ; 5.
Keith Ratcliff (H en).
WMI LOI: I. Carol Williams !Hon); 2. Lori Taylor
(Suz); 3. Usa Gibson