Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1546787
Tyler Vore Tyler Vore of this dry spell and how it overlaps with my personal experience, it is my understanding that the Cord is generally a wet sort of event, given the me and loca on it occurs. This year, riders were blessed with near-perfect condi ons, truly a pleasure to ride. In fact, the Cord's name comes in a roundabout way from these wet condi ons. A corduroy bridge is the name given to an improvised bridge made of a series of logs laid down paral- lel to distribute weight across a low or swampy area and allow for the passage of vehicles. The name of the bridge is a reference to how it resembles the ridges on corduroy fabric. The event and this area of the world require so many of these bridges that the event was named for them. (A lot of these bridges are now made of defunct and repurposed docks from the many neighboring lakes. This is a win on many counts, because normal disposal of the docks is expensive and removing them for free endears us to local landowners; it is a good en- vironmental gesture, and it saves the promoter me and money…. However, the promoter was quite unimpressed when I jokingly suggested he should consider calling the event "The Dock" instead of "The Cord.") The last bit of trivia regarding the Cord is what most of our American audience would consider an "un- usual format" – best described as a mixture of ANEC and ISDE rules, with a li le of its own special sauce thrown in for good measure. The tests are similar in length and type to ANEC, though I would describe them as slightly more technical. Riders start several to a row and enter each test at the same me as their row-mates. Like ISDE, there is significant transfer mileage. Riders are required to impound their bikes between Saturday and Sunday, and are given only a fi een-minute window at the end of the day to work on bikes. And for the pros, another fi een-minute work period and an impound between the conclu- sion of Sunday's racing and the last test, which is a live-engine, head to head ba le in a "final moto" just like the ISDE. However, unlike ISDE, there are no marked parts that cannot be changed, and through- out the day – everywhere but in the final service before the final moto – riders may receive mechanical assistance. Lastly, unlike both ISDE and ANEC, riders are not required to stay on their original row. You cannot move forward, but you can drop back up to twenty-nine minutes with no penalty, and climb back forward all the way to your original row without pen- alty as well. Yet, like at the ISDE, at the thirty-minute mark, you "hour-out" and are disqualified from the event.