Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1536785
July 2025 29 So we went and rode literally bike-deep ruts. There was a sec on of trail where I put my bike on one side of the rut, stood on the other side of the rut, and walked it all the way through. The rut had go en too deep to even ride. The forests there were weird, they do a lot of agriculture, they farmed the trees. So a lot of these were planted rows, meaning you couldn't get out of the row you were in. I wince a li le, imagining the difficulty of keeping your foo ng without you or the bike ending up down in the rut. Terrible as it sounds though, at least he wasn't alone. "Anyways, long story short, Sperle and I teamed up and end up making it through. Luckily we were there together. We get to the next check, and by the me we're there, there was only two people le at the Team USA tent. They start talking: 'We thought you guys were gone! Everybody else is back at Parc Ferme. Nobody knew where you were at, you weren't supposed to start that sec- on!' I understood why, even walking the bike through the worst parts I broke my shi er and brake pedal off. I had nearly smoked my clutch as well. They had us ride to road back to Parc Ferme and it was miserable – we'd go en hot and taken out coats off at the check before and didn't put them back on. Freezing cold, soaking wet, riding down the road. Then we get back and I change a clutch, shi er and brake pedal in my final service. It was intense. Yeah. Intense might even be an understate- ment. Even under the best of circumstances, the fi een minute service at the end of the day is stressful, and frozen hands plus an ex- tensive list of repairs are far from the best of circumstances. But Jon's story isn't done. The morning of Day Six, all we have is the final moto. Thankfully the track is right there. But I pull my bike out of impound and I couldn't get it to fire. Has a Rekluse auto-clutch, so you can't bump-start it. My moto is heading out. Miss the parade lap. S ll trying to start the bike. It finally fires up with, like, twenty seconds to go before the gate drops. But I rip it and wind up third in the final moto! Almost got the holeshot!"