I know that there is going to be a lot of pressure next year when I take over for David Knight in the factory KTM team so I thought I would take a riding school and see what I can pick up.  In reality how do you teach a snail to run like a rabbit?  The basics are missing.  Most obviously the legs, but I digress.  So school began Saturday morning and in no time our excellent instrucor, Paul Otto, had gone over some of the basics and we were ready to move on to practice downhills.  Being at an old ski resort there were plenty of hills to practice on.  Paul showed us a few things and then sent us off, encouraging us to go faster with each pass.  Things were progressing well until I pushed a bit too hard for my scant ability and washed the front at the bottom of the hill.  I rolled like dried tumble weed through the desert, as did my bike.  I stood up just in time to see my bike come to rest upside down, as if I needed to make sure that there was no mud stuck under the motor.  I took a bow to club members, now applauding with intermitant laughter, that were setting up the course for Sunday.  It started raining at luchtime and got worse as we headed out to the trails to learn some more.  We set up a loop so that Paul could watch us ride through some corners.  I crashed again.  It happened on the trail that looped us back to where Paul was watching.  There was a log on an uphill that was protruding from the face of the hill.  Like if you were riding across the chest of a giant and then had to jump his chin.  Or like a retaining wall running along parralell to the hill.  I don’t really know what happened.  I think I wheelied over the log (like Paul had suggested), but completley cleared it and slammed the rear wheel into it, which spit me over the handlebars like a sissy.  After that we rode some trail and practiced a bit of what we learned before the rain was streaking down and Paul decided we should call it a day.  On that short trail ride I did get the honor of watching two others crash so I was not the only one to toss it in the weeds during class. 

Race day began cold and dreary.  There was a fog that was hanging over the top of the hill as if it were Mount Everest.  There was talk of rain and I was a bit concerned since the trails that we were on yesterday had gotten slimey.  The rain finally hit shortly before my race began, but thankfully stopped before the shotgun blast.  The sandy soil was what I believe you west coast guys would call “loamy”.  I just call it sweet!  My starts that I practiced during the school paid off and I was second, but only by a misquito’s wing, in the first corner.  I lost a few positions early before coming to a bottle neck on a hill in the woods.  I blasted up and around the side of the hill, by passing many who wished to be somewhere else.  At home watching paint dry.  Walking their dog.  Maybe even going shopping with their wives or girlfriends!  Once up the hill I found that there was another hill with another even slower moving bottleneck.  I bonzied up and got hung up a shortway from the top.  The view here was definatley more grim than the last one.  I am certain these guys wanted to be shoe shopping with their honey.  They were not happy to be here.  Me and my olympic like trained body did not want to be there either, but unlike everyone else, I was going to do something about it.  I hopped off the bike, pulled the back tire around so that I was in line with an opening at the top of the hill, clicked it in gear and let it fly.  I didn’t bother to count how many people I passed, but I am certain that I made up some positions on those two hills.  It took me some time to settle down into a rythem and attack again.  I made a bunch of mistakes and didn’t ride very smooth but I pushed on anyway.

The course was very demanding and didn’t give much time to relax or even grab a drink.  Around every corner there was another hill.  Every other hill had the beginings of ruts or was rutted.  Every fourth hill had roots strewn about.  Every eighth hill was rocky.  Every sixteenth hill was all of the above.  I kept very close count on all of it. 

After lap one I was seventh and my now no longer olympic like trained body was saying “Hey you idiot!  What the hell are you doing?”  My brian would answer “RACING!  Now shut up and do as your told!”  This would go on for the rest of the race as I had to periodically tell myself to keep pushing.  The next two laps were quite uneventful.  Fun but no bottlnecks or crashes.  As I can down the old rope tow section and neared the scoring tent at the bottom, I glanced at my watch and saw that I would either be a couple minutes before or after the two hour mark.  As fun as it was, I am not too sad that it was after the two hours and I was done.  Another lap of that demanding track and I would have been tired. 

In the end I took home fourth place honors.  My best of the year.  Each race has bred a better result.  I am sure Paul would say this one is because of him and his expert teachings.  I wouldn’t disagree, but I do see a pattern.  Surely an overall is not out of the question for the next one!