Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1528606
Larry Hamilton Larry Hamilton The only real drama came on Day 4 when ranch owner John Zink himself showed up in a helicopter with one of Tulsa's top orthopedic specialists to a end to US rider Carol Williams, who had crashed earlier in the day and separated her shoulder. The ortho doc taped her up really well probably slipped her a li le pain-killing elixir and sent her on her way on her 125 Honda. She was good to go and finished out the week on bronze. The various pit crews leapfrogged from one service area to the next. Once all their riders had come through and been taken care of, they'd pack up and scurry off to another service area to meet their riders again. The excep on to this rule was a lone van with a team from Argen na. Everyone else was gone, but these guys were s ll there wai ng on their rider, Sebas an Prieto, who was on a big 610 Husky. They had started the week with 5 or 6 riders, but at the end of Day 1, only Prieto was s ll riding. This was his first big off-road race. In fact, it was Argen na's first me at the ISDE. It was tough on Prieto, but he soldiered on and never gave up, liter- ally leading the sweep riders into the service area. He was so close to houring out that he could not risk the me needed to change res, so by the end of the week, he was pre y much riding on slicks! But he never gave up, and he took home a bronze medal, Argen na's first-ever ISDE award. With all the other service crews long gone, I would wander over to the Argen ne crew and hang out with them. Their team manager, Marcelo Giuliani, spoke enough English that we could converse while we waited to hear the big Husky in the distance. In the evenings, I found them back at the Parc Fermé and shared their joy as they celebrated each day's victory with their exhausted rider. At the end of Day 5, Sebas an climbed off his bike and literally kissed the ground. He would have a short ride the next morning on his bald res and then ample me to put new rubber on for the final moto. It was a great accomplishment on the individual level as well as for his homeland, and the celebra on a er the final moto was so exuberant that onlookers may have thought he just beat Stefan Peterhansel for the overall. It was a wonderful moment in history, for sure. Following the 94 ISDE, I kept in contact with Marce- lo, and he invited me to be on his service team at the 1995 ISDE in Jelenia Gora, Poland, and the following year in Hameenlinna, Finland.