Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1544609
12 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com because so many people had messaged the En- duroGP and FIM social media accounts asking why I'd received a penalty. There was only one thing le to do, and that was to show the world what a champion is made of. I stayed calm. I rode my heart out, and clawed my way back into second place… with a minute pen- alty. I finished forty seconds down from first. So it was bi ersweet, but at least I now felt pride and disappointment in equal measure. Loud Pipes Save Lives Cost Wins I am rested. I am recharged. I am trea ng the clock as though it were my enemy, eyeing it like a hawk regarding a snake. I really can't afford to shoot my- self in the foot today. As the cross test gets more and more polished, I perform worse and worse in it. Jus ne Martel, yesterday's winner, and I are ba ling back and forth. She takes ten seconds out of me each cross test. I parry back, taking ten from her in the enduro test. In the extreme test, we are o en milliseconds apart. This race has become a nail-biter. Exi ng the extreme test, around a blind corner, FIM officials with a sound test meter appear. I line up to be tested, no alarm whatsoever. I'm on a two-stroke! Twice, I've nearly hit pedestrians because they didn't hear me coming. But they rev the bike hard. They read the meter, look- ing concerned. They repeat the test, calling over the supervisor. I squirm with discomfort. The bike does sound kinda loud, revved up. And the bike is hot. Really hot, coming right out of the extreme test. The exhaust flange sounded a li le leaky too. I meant to ask them to change the O-ring. I forgot. And I teched it cold. That might have been a mistake. My brain is yammering at me in a panic now. But surely the mapping, maybe ge ng a li le lean, wouldn't cause a six-decibel difference?? The FIM official no fies me that I've failed the sound test. I ask for a re-test to be sure. I fail again… thirty-second penalty… This weekend has felt like a game of Chutes and Lad- ders. I get ahead briefly only to be dragged backward again. I have been handed out (jus fied but ohhh- hhh so frustra ng) penal es like a kid ge ng candy on Christmas. I will admit, dear reader… Rachel, as