The race ended yesterday (sunday).

I had been in 3rd place in class, 4th overall with the ability to take 2nd in class, 3rd overall. Then that bastard cop sent me the wrong way on the race course. That cost me about 9-10 minutes, I think. After that, I was 7 minutes out of 2nd (if it werent for the cop, I would have taken over 2nd place by 2-3 minutes.)

So, with 2 days left, I decided to run hard and go for 2nd place. In the 1st prime of the second to last day, I was going FAST on cobblestone roads. I passed the guy in front of me who had a 1 minute head start (any time you pass somebody, it means you are moving). Then, I was going into a sharp righthand corner, hard on the brakes, coming down from about 60-70 mph, I would guess. The front wheel hit a rock or something, it went into an ugly side to side tankslapper, and I went down hard, probably at about 50mph. I remember sliding feet first on my stomach, scratching at the cobblestones with my hands trying to stop. My right knee hurt bad, but I got the bike pointed in the right direction and underway again. Further damage assessment revealed the left handgrip was bent up at about a 45 degree angle. The shifter was also bent into the case so i couldnt shift. And the 2 packets of chocalate GU in the thigh pocket of pants exploded in a huge sticky mess. I told my competitors the mess oozing out of the pocket was blood. I finshed the prime like that and only lost 40 seconds to the guy in 2nd I was trying to beat. I got the shifter straightened out but had to race the next prime with the handlebars still bent- not the key to precise control in slippery corners. In the pits we tried to straighten them but broke them in the process. The only replacement bars around were a hideous Harley Davidson style set which not only were terrible for control, but also put my wrists at a painful angle. I ended up losing about 4 more minutes on second place by the end of the day.

The other American, Ed Tarleton, continued to ride the wheels off his XR600 (litterally). He had an interesting crash late in the day when the spring broke on his kickstand in the middle of a lefthand turn. The stand swung down, caught a cobblestone and pole-vaulted both him and his bike. He also slid down the cobblestones on his chest but was also spinning the whole time as was his bike. He got it re-lit ad back on course with no damage and very little time left. The last day, Ed suffered not 1, not 2, but 3 flat tires. He also had a flat on the 2nd day.

On the last day, I was too far out of 2nd place to make it so I just rode slowly and carefully to maintain 3rd place. The last two primes were the best though. It was a tight narrow road down through a beautiful valley with waterfalls and dropoffs everywhere. i wish I had time to look around. Then we turned around and raced back up the same road. Ed posted the fastest time of anyone on the downhill prime.

After the last prime, we all road together into downtown Quito with a police escort. There, a huge crowd greeted us and we celebrated with much and food. For me, I was a bit disappointed i couldnt pull off 2nd, but it was still a lot of fun. Ed had a great time too, in spite of 4 flat tires.

I will try to post pics soon.

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Back on the road again.

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