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Mike Hutsal's Ride Report How to go from 2nd to 28th in several easy to duplicate steps! One of the best things about endurance events is that we all get to explain why we did so poorly in comparison to the winners after the event. I am no exception, as I am sure (tongue firmly planted in my cheek) that I'd have won this thing going away, if it weren't for the intervention of some obviously higher force. The rally looked to go fairly well for me, even though I was trying the R1150 GS for the first time instead of the ST1100. This was my 2nd rally. The first being the ButtLite II. Don't know why I don't get to more rallies, but it may be something to do with attempting to have a life outside of ld riding. Not a criticism of anyone else, it is just that getting to and from most rallies takes much longer than the rallies themselves, and that has been a problem for me in the past. Rode parts of this rally with Rick Sauter from Saskatoon. Rick is an excellent guy, and a good rider. We were mostly compatible, but agreed on the way home that the partnership had produced mixed results. Crashed at 30 - 35 mph in deep gravel at dusk on Monday near Dorena Missouri. We were going down the wrong road with sunglasses still on, at the wrong time of day. Being bull headed is a pretty common thing running rallies, I'm no exception. It was just dumb! Broke the left Jesse bag off the GS, and had to wire and bungee it on until Monticello. Also shook me up a bit, because that was the first time I've been down since 1979. Blew a simple clerical thing that cost me 500 points and was 21st instead of 4th after the first leg. Determined not to do that again! Leg 2 was a good one for me. Figured out a good route, got to see the restaurant of a personal hero of mine, "Mean Gene Okerlund" the famous wrestling announcer, and was in 2nd place at Post Falls. So what happened? Riding down 395 in Washington late Thurday afternoon, Rick suddenly exited. I don't think I was following too close, but I really had to haul down to make the turn with him,and I never saw what hit the rear tire of the GS. However when we got to the gas station and food mart in Connell, it was going flat. I had cut it in one of the tread ribs of the Metzeler Tourance. Over the next 4 hours I tried to plug it 4 times, each time the result was worse. Rick had gone on, as he should have. Fergus Hand slept in my room for a couple of hours before he was on his way too. Friday morning I got to Shumate's Honda/Harley Davidson when they opened. They would not patch my tire, but they did have a tire that would fit, if I would get the wheel off the bike. Not much of a problem, except that I had to borrow tools again to remove the broken Jesse Bag. It would have been easier if they could have put the bike on one of their hoists for a few minutes, but they weren't willing to do that. By 11 AM I was on the road out of Kennewick, about 18 hours behind where I was the day before. I tried as hard as I could to salvage some of this leg during the night in Nevada. I got far enough ahead of what I thought was a plan to go for Dante's Peak in Death Valley at 3 AM. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to get out the west side of Death Valley until I got there and realized how little real progress I was making towards Bakersfield. Finally I got on 395 south but decided not to take 178 over the mountains to Bakersfield since I thought it might be more of the same and put me even further behind. When I hit highway 14 I had the closest call I can ever remember having. There was no traffic moving south but quite a bit coming north on that two lane highway. The traffic against me seemed to be moving at at least 70 mph. I remember seeing some cars coming, checking the GPS for a second and when I looked back up a car was heading for me passing a line of 5 cars at once. I hit the brakes and pulled right as far as I could, and this idiot just made it past me as he cut off the lead car to get into his lane. It seemed like 5 feet, but was probably more like 25 - 50 feet, but at those speeds it was way too close! If I had waited a split second longer the result would have been much different. Needing gas, I pulled into a station at Tehachapi, and when I left the station the bike fell over. I had left the side stand down, and when I rolled off the center stand the side stand hit and knocked me to the right far enough that I couldn't hold it. Fortunately the 4 guys lined up to use the bathroom helped me get the bike up. So I got to the checkpoint 37 minutes late - losing 380 points, and I forgot to claim my Bob's Java Hut bonus. Otherwise, it was the most intense 18 hours of my riding life to this point. Considering, it was a good acheivement, but the tire problem killed any chance I had to contend for a top place. I was now over 5000 poiints back, dead tired, and down to 11th. I should have slept right there, but I lost focus and tried to plan the last leg. I eventually got a receipt to take the sleep bonus there, and left for Glendale at 1:15 PM. By the time I got to Dassonville's I was hot and tired. Even with a cool vest, the heat really got to me last Saturday. I slept for about 4 hours on their living room floor. That was much needed, and very appreciated! Thank you Brad and Laurie for going way beyond what you had to do for all of us! Sunday was a good day. The ride into and out of the cliff dwelling bonus at Silver City New Mexico was a hoot for a guy who sees nothing but straight roads all the time. At Las Cruces I decided I didn't have the time to do the southern loop through Texas and opted to go to Odessa and Luckenbach on the way to Corpus Christie and the famous Bob Hall on the Ball Hall pier. On Texas 290, just east of Fredricksburg I stopped for a couple of minutes to read my big map again, to ensure that I took the right road into Luckenbach. This is where it all fell apart! Richard Buber on the 1978 GL1000 roared past and screeched to a halt. He rode back and told me that he knew the way back to Navisota. I said that I was looking for a bonus nearby. He asked I he could tag along. I said "Sure!" When we were walking around the feed mill area about a mile from the real bonus I decided to check my route sheet one last time to ensure that I had the bonus exactly right. I was afraid that I might give Richard the wrong information. I had it right. The old post office (in bold letters). We found it and got our pictures, and then I was off to Fredricksburg for gas and the dash to Corpus Christie. It was at Fredricksburg, after I filled up, that I realized that the route sheet for the route I was riding, (4 pages) was not in my map pocket. So what do you do at a moment like this when everything just falls apart? I began my search. Back out to Luckenbach and then retracing all the steps I can remember. Finally back to Fredricksburg on 290, where at the intersection of Llano street and 290 there was a folded paper lying in the middle of the road. It had red writing on it. I got off the bike and ran, as best as I could, and picked up the papers. I had them! Or did I? I opened them up and they started at bonus 17 instead of bonus 1. I was still missing 2 sheets. For the next 2 hours I searched that stretch of the town, and seeing that some of the local ladies were picking up paper and depositing it in garbage cans I also searched everyone of those in the downtown area to no avail. Imagine what people must have thought. Here I was in dirty, sweat ridden clothes, searching garbage up and down the main street of Fredricksburg at 8 AM on Labor Day! Some ignominious end to a rally that started out quite well! The consequences were to lose all my points for that leg, which with the Bob Hall bonus would have been around 7600. Not good enough for a top 10, but good enough to hold position and not drop to the bottom. I'm not blaming Richard. This was my doing. But I can't help but think about the two chance circumstances that changed the rally for me. The tire incident in Washington, and the meeting with Richard that changed my normal routine enough that I forgot to check something that I always checked before riding off. So it wasn't to be, and now I really have to wonder if I have the ability to do this stuff as well as I thought I could. We are all busy in our other lives, I'm no different. Other areas are sacrificed to do this and while I enjoy the ride and the company of the others, I am competitive and had hoped for a much better result. The notoriety of failing in a very public way is not such a terrible thing, but the self doubt about whether I can truly compete at the highest level has nagged me all the way home. Todd, Grady and Paul were in a class by themselves in the rally this year. I had hoped to have the chance to contend with them at the end, but lost that chance when my tire got cut. However, losing the route sheet really calls into question my ability to manage the fatigue that is part of these events. I'll have some thinking to do this winter. The rally itself is great! It is tough, highly competitive, and a real test. I can't help but think that it will become tougher and tougher to get into future ButtLite events. Finally, a couple of very good riders asked me why I didn't ask to photocopy their route sheet. They said they'd have been glad to give them to me and weren't even sure if that would be against the rules. I admit that I thought about it, but ruled it out because it would have been against the spirit of the rules. A lot of our sport is like golf. Self policing. We do things and submit the evidence. The receipts are there, but most of it depends on the veracity of the claimant. It just wouldn't have felt right to have copied someone else's sheets, but I sure appreciated the offer of a couple of great guys to do that for me. No, I'm never telling who. It was a philosophical discussion after the rally. So only another 102 weeks to go until the next round of Adam and Eddie's special brand of punishment! Mike Hutsal Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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