Trail Rider Magazine

Photos by: Travis Duncan Photography www.travisduncan.com fun of being out in the woods on two wheels and this sounded like the perfect chance to do precisely that. The Off Road Cup March 30, 2013 The Training Grounds, Eldon, MO Story by Jeff DeBell The Training Grounds is smack in the middle of Missouri and the riding there is typical Black Jack Enduro Circuit fare… mostly single track through brush and woods, plenty of elevation changes but nothing too radical, and decent traction on a soil and gravel mix. Long-time Trail Rider readers will recall Charlie Williams and crew hosting the motorcycling portions of the World Police and Fire Games a dozen or so years ago in Indianapolis, and the mid-Missouri terrain reminds me a lot of central Indiana. Decent traction when it's dry, I might add, and that would be the defining factor in this year's Off Road Cup. A nine and a half mile course was laid out and was to include an endurocross section and a grass track section. Preliminary course info estimated the pros taking 20 minutes plus per lap. The rest of us spodes obviously would have to settle for something a bit slower, but all the pre-race info indicated a good time would be had by all. And then good old Mother Nature stepped in. n a whim, some buddies and I entered the 3rd Off Road Cup race, sponsored by KTM of St. Louis and MotoEuropa, held at a site called The Training Grounds in Eldon, Missouri. The format is basically an all-day team hare scrambles with several divisions for 3-person teams as well as solo Ironman classes. Teams were entered from all across the Midwest, ranging from Texas and Louisiana up to Illinois and Wisconsin. Of the 140 entries, about two dozen were solos in the Ironman classes with nearly 120 3-person teams in everything from Pro to Family divisions. The plan was for the Pros to head off the line at 8AM and the checkered flag would drop at 5PM. Central Missouri was "graced" by several unusually heavy late winter/early spring snowfalls. The weekend before the race they got between 8 and 12 inches of heavy wet stuff shortly after a foot and a half of snow had just finished melting off. Milder temps during the week melted it all away, but the ground was already saturated and the ingredients for a disaster were all in place. The weather forecast for race day was temps in the 50s with a 40% chance of showers moving in during the late afternoon. Needless to say, that didn't turn out exactly like the weathermen said it would, and by 11AM everyone was cussing their local weather forecaster. What better excuse for a full day of riding than to sign up, right? So 3 of my buddies made up a plus-50 class and I (foolishly) entered the plus-35 Ironman class. Our plan was to just go ride and have fun. We're all way past our riding prime and any dreams of trophies evaporated years ago…we're just in it for the We pulled out at 4AM for the three hour drive to Eldon, arrived just in time for the riders meeting but were directed to an alternative parking area almost a mile from the pits. The organizers had 4-wheelers with trailers circulating around to haul EZ Ups, gas cans, coolers and chairs down to the pits, so all we had to do O 26 Trail Rider www.Trailrider.com

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