Trail Rider Magazine

30 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Stories of Six Days Stories of Six Days By Rachel Gutish By Rachel Gutish and mentally demanding races out there – but it's also my one chance to imagine and experi- ence a li le taste of what a successful athlete in a mainstream sport does. This is another good place to give a shout-out to An , the AMA and container crew, FMF, Trail Jesters, XC Gear and a whole host of oth- er people who donate me, money or product that allow us to have such a solid program. Usually there is a conclusion speech at the end of the week. I missed it, because I was helping Billy with my other job, tearing down course ribbon. Since I cannot report the con- tents of said speech, I'll instead close out with a point that I made earlier in this ar cle. I had men oned "bonding as a team" as one of the reasons we do these team camps. That may sound trivial, compared to the actual (some- mes literal) nuts and bolts of the work we do at camp. It really ma ers though. We are all par cipants in an individual sport. If minor misfortune (i.e. not a serious injury) befalls an- other rider, we're used to reac ng somewhere between a shrug and outright glee, depending on the sportsmanship of the individual and the level of the disaster. If we no ce a com- pe tor doing something badly, we don't offer construc ve advice for improvement. If we find a good line, we hope nobody else saw it. If we're having issues, we keep them to our- selves, unless we're using them to jus fy poor performance. But at ISDE, no rider can win alone, and no team can win without all their riders surviving the race. Some mes winning as a team means sacrificing a compe ve advantage you have by sharing it with another rider. Being a team means looking out for the team first, you second. Learning how to act and think as a team – how to be a team – that's something that doesn't always come naturally to pro motorcycle rac- ers. For me though, the camaraderie that can develop between you and your teammates at ISDE? That's something special, and one of the reasons I keep coming back again and again. So, cheers to another successful weekend at camp, and to another year of kicking ass on the world stage! Speed Trap Mike McCarren ('94 USA, '96 Finland, '02 Czech Republic, '04 Poland) Interview Date: 8/20/24 Mike McCarren is an old school enduro rider, and s ll races, though nowadays he's more o en seen on his Tenere 700, chase riding for his son Van ('17 France). I say this about a lot of people, but Mike is one of the nicest guys you'll meet at the track. At the last NEPG, he offered to chase ride for me since I was at the race alone and only one row ahead of Van, and when I had electrical issues, he kept trying to fix the bike long a er I had mentally resigned myself to the DNF. When my dad thanked him, he simply laughed and said: "Well, that's what we do" He was also very pa ent, being interviewed twice without complaint: once last year at a US Sprint, and again by phone a er the NEPG when I realized I'd lost the interview file. This background info makes his story – and the picture that goes with it - even more enter- taining. My best story comes from the ISDE I did in the Czech Republic. It was very nasty weather. From what I re- member it rained every day we were there.

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