The Pine Ridge Enduro

51B - Johnny del Fuego.  Itching to Go!

Team Johnny del Fuego packed up the pit vehicle and headed to Chadron, Nebraska for an “Enduro” race.  The Pine Ridge Enduro has been going on for years in Nebrasaka and it gets a good turnout of die-hard enduro enthusiasts.  The Manager/Mechanic, del Fuego’s barista, and the team videographer were in the cab, and del Fuego was in his “quarters” in the back.  Del Fuego’s personal burrito chef suffered a mechanical failure to his LC4 Adventure motorbike in route to meet the team, so the Barista would have to double as the cook.  The weather was cold, and when it wasn’t blowing gale forced winds, it was lightly snowing.  A small amount of precipitation would actually increase the traction, so the snow was welcome.  The wind was difficult though, blowing the truck from lane to lane and occasionally on to the shoulder.

del Fuego's barista behind the pit vehicle

The team arrived at the Nebraska National Forest at midnight and set up the tents.  After drinking a beer, they retired to the tents exhausted from the drive.  Morning was bitter cold and dry.

The mechanic changed the battery, and removed the center stand and sidestand on del Fuego’s bike in a last ditch effort to lighten the race bike.  Del Fuego and the mechanic left for a recon ride east of the campground.  The terrain seamed to be just what JdF wanted, but they still weren’t sure of what the course would be like.  It was mostly rolling hills in the forest, with rutted dirt roads.  The bike was running well and JdF felt like he had loosened his joints from the previous week where he hadn’t ridden, so 50 miles of riding seemed like enough.  They headed back to break camp and then to the fair grounds to check in for the race.

The Mechanic explains what he wants del Fuego

to accomplish during the warm-up ride

During check in, the mechanic started vomiting.  The sickness had the symptoms of a case of food poisoning, probably due to the barista not washing his hands after his morning constitutional and before preparing that morning’s breakfast burritos.  It was decide that they would check into a hotel rather than camping at the starting line of the race, so the mechanic could have a toilet to vomit in all night.  The loss of a team member had a domino effect to the rest of the team.  The chef also happened to be the most experienced desert racer on the team so his presence would be missed, and now the team might not have a mechanic, leaving all the support duties to the videographer.  The barista had to check in JdF, which turned out to be a daunting task outside of the barista’s skill set.  He couldn’t remember the team’s address, had to ask all the questions to find out everything JdF might want to know about the race, and find all the information that the team needed to know in order to support JdF.  Where was JdF during this process?  He was in the back of the truck.  JdF doesn’t like to see people before the race, or during the race for that matter but he is willing to put up with a little human contact for the sake of racing or making his sponsors happy.

Lots o' Gas.  Will JdF be able to find his can?

The team ate the spaghetti dinner prepared by the Lion’s Club of Chadron, which was actually really good; the best meal they had had all trip, especially since the chef wasn’t there to prepare JdF’s traditional paella.  At the hotel, final preparations were made.  Hydration packs were filled and del Fuego was put on IV.  Del Fuego watched The Muppets Take Manhattan, something he does the night before every race to get psyched up.  Del Fuego would also trade with anyone with a jacuzzi.

Because of the increased duties taken on by the barista, he only had time to make coffee for del Fuego, so the remaining members of the team had to get coffee at the race.  The Lion’s club, once again, didn’t disappoint with the pancakes and eggs provided at the venue.  Del Fuego had his traditional dozen egg yolks for breakfast.  The mechanic was feeling slightly better and was able to put in a clean air filter for JdF; a “race day change” that the mechanic didn’t agree with because del Fuego was always fastest with an air filter that is completely covered in sand and beer.  The tires were inflated to 20 psi, a pressure good for the tempo he rode, and JdF went out for a warm up ride on the fair grounds during which he wrecked only a couple of times.  Because it was cold, JdF wore his cold weather gear and paid no attention to the fact that he rode a bike twice the size of all the other competitors. 

Finishing touches on the race bike

The race was a time keeping enduro, which is becoming a lost art:  most enduros are now “restart” enduros, which are a lot like a hare scramble.  A conversation with some other experienced racers informed JdF of the chance that a time check could be close to the start, making it quite easy to “burn a check” or come into the check early which would give the rider a hefty penalty.  This afforded del Fuego the chance to get his legs under him during the first part, but also annoyed him because it was the only part of the race where he could actually go as fast as he wanted.  There didn’t happen to be a check after the easy section and then the course went in to a wooded single track that wasn’t the best for JdF’s giant bike.  Despite suffering from irrecoverable forearm pump and many wrecks, one into a barbed wire fence, he found himself all alone and as far as he could tell, he was winning the race.  At one point JdF stopped at the top of a steep drop off, to mentally negotiate how he would maneuver “El Negro Gordo” (his racing machine) down the drop.  He put his right foot down after stopping and felt nothing but free air.  The bike started to tip and went down.  Del Fuego and his machine went sliding down the drop and came to a stop, the bike turned 180 degrees from its intended direction.  He couldn’t turn it around by himself because the ground on the right side of the trail dropped steeply and on the left side was a sheer wall.  A good Samaritan happened along and helped JdF turn his bike around, saving his chance to win the race.

At each check station, panting vigorously, JdF asked how big his lead was over the rider behind him.  The check station people just laughed in reply, and del Fuego understood why: there would be no way for them to know because the other riders hadn’t gotten to the check yet.  This made JdF laugh and think about how great the volunteers at the race were.

At the first gas stop (the only one for del Fuego because he was in the “Sportsman C” class, the class reserved for only the fastest competitors) JdF found that his crew wasn’t there.  This, as far as he could reason, was because at the speed he was going there was no way they could get there in time to meet him.  This was unfortunate because they had his replacement hydration system and he had run out of water well before the arriving at the gas stop.  No matter, del Fuego filled his gas tank and headed out for the last half of the race.

Still waiting for JDF at the gas stop...  Did we get here too late?

A common problem for racers when they are all alone, presumably having left the rest of the field miles behind them, is getting lost.  JdF took a left turn on the course and after not seeing any course markers for a while, decided that he had taken a wrong turn.  He went back to the turn, went the other way, and still didn’t see any course markers.  Luckily he had the route sheet in his pocket and determined that he had been going the right way originally.  He booked it back to the course and still didn’t see anyone, indicating that his lead was greater than he imagined.  After the long section of straight roads the course plunged into wooded gullies that plagued him during the first half of the race.  The course would wind through a gully, jump over a ridge into the next gully, then wind the opposite direction.  It did this three or four times.  At just under 70 miles, the course ended for the C class.  Del Fuego had finished.  He headed back to the starting line and turned in his scorecard.  There were many competitors already at the scoring table, probably racers that DNF’ed and were able to get back to the starting line before del Fuego.  He handed in his score-card, ragged from the numerous wrecks into barbed wire fences, and waited for the woman at the scoring table to enter in his times.  After the times were entered, the woman wrote “DNF” on the card.  This perplexed del Fuego.  He had finished the race, and as far as he could tell, he had won the race.  A short, civil conversation ensued and it was decided that the scoring laptop had broken, probably because it couldn’t compute the extremely fast times that del Fuego had done the race in.  JdF would check in later to see if the problem had been resolved.

The team drank a beer, JdF got out of his racing gear, and the team ate a tasty Lion’s Club burger (they had run out of cheese).  When they checked back in to the scoring table it was found that JdF had “houred out” which means that he arrived late to every check, and the time that he was late to each check added up to an hour, thus “houring him out.”  This didn’t bother del Fuego.  He blamed the “adding machine” as he called it, and calmly did his post race stretches with confidence that he had won the race despite what the official results were.  He had come to Nebraska to race, and that’s what he had done.