Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1546340
Chuck Sun Chuck Sun but it's physical. If you're not in shape and need mul ple rest stops to recover, you could miss the 11:30 lunch stop at mile 47. I rode the AA loop at about 80% of my race pace, fast enough to reduce my chance of crashing but also fast enough to make the lunch stop on me. There's a lot of new terrain and some tall grass and weeds along the narrow, single track. Years ago, I broke my bia when my boot caught a stump I didn't see in the weeds. With that said, I rode nonstop to lunch, only stopping to relieve myself and drink a lot of water, with trail tempera- tures in the mid/high 80s. The Beta 250 X-PRO worked excellently at my pace, as I only got in trouble two mes, mostly my fault, for picking the wrong lines. Because it was a li le moist in some of the trail sec ons, I kept the bike in this slippery map se ng. First gear on the bike is like trials-bike mode: not fast, but it tracked and pulled every hill, no sweat. Once we le the pavement, it was a rocky two-track for about three miles before we started the climb, with a mix of rocks and dirt, and two-track for another two miles. Then we pulled over to regroup; the single track started, a mix of rocks and dirt, and now we had roots, some short downhill, and short creek crossings. One had an uphill with rocks and large roots; it was a li le bo leneck, depending on your speed and line selec on, requiring leg pushing on and off the bike. The trail would open up to get some speed before another uphill or downhill. The slowest sec on was along the creek, with rocks and roots dicta ng your line, and it was a li le slick. Once through that sec on, the trail was fast and flowing to lunch. A er lunch, the next 23 miles did fea- ture some eye-opening off-camber to keep you focused, not a good place for daydreaming, but overall the sec on was fast enough to get us back early for any bike maintenance and to clean up for the banquet dinner. I ended up taking a li le longer to ride back to base camp, riding in with Chuck Sun as he got a flat re; the Army in me leaves no one behind. Being a motorcycle race historian, one of the weekend highlights was talking to Chuck about that 1981 Motocross of Na ons win. All the be- hind-the-scenes of how they surprised the hell out of the Belgian team on their home soil and the