Pat, who's 250r is a tireless and absolutely reliable starter failed to start! after at least 20 kicks he fired it up and brought up the very rear of the pack.
It was tight racing and I caught up to Rennick on his predator and we duked it out for the whole first lap team passing several riders.
As we approached the sand drags at the completion of of lap 1 we were neck and neck and then it was 5th gear wide open for the 1/2 mile or so run to the check station. I edged rennick out by a few bike lengths, hit the check station adn was back out into the desert.
I quickly developed a problem. I could not feel my hands. I had battling with my hands going numb the whole first lap. I thought it was arm pump and just tried to stay loose. I was losing the battle, I Litterally could not feel my right hand and my left was going numb as well. Panic was starting to set in as my hand came off the bars 3 times in a row hitting small jumps. I was into my second lap and was not going to be able to finsih the race!
Then I realized that it wasnt arm pump. I was wearing some winter style gloves that are waterproof and are great at fighting the cold. They were too tight and were simply cutting off the circulation in my hands.
I was approaching the 2 mile long whoops section and needed to be able to hold onto the bars. I quickly put my left hand in my mouth and bit down on the glave and ripped it free. I repeated the same with the right moments later while negotiating a corner.
A huge improvement! My hands tingled back to life. I hoped that I hadnt traded one problem for another, racing without gloves in 30 degree weather for another 30 miles could be interesting.
I got through the whoops and caught another bike struggling badly. As I passed he kicked up a huge glut of mud from a wet spot and hit me right in the face, my goggles were trashed, I pulled them free and continued on.
Snow hitting you in the eyes at 50 mph feels just like sand. It was brutal and my lap time suffered, but it took my mind off my hands.
I passed paul who was broken down off the side of the trail with a broken steering stabilizer that had jammed his steering and taken him out of the race.
I rode as hard as I could , And came into the check station in a miserable state. It was another 5 minutes of riding to get to my pits and I was in rough shape not having goggles. I hit the gas and was tearing out of there when Paul came running up, took his goggles off and put them on my head! Teamwork! I pinned it and was off, amazingly refreshed now that I could see!
Here I am tearing past the pits. This is the ONLY picture of me actually racing, Kim says it's because I was so fast.... I'm not buying it
