mx775

So tomorrow marks two months since my last day on a motocross track, which ended with my 450 throwing me onto Mustang hardpack with a thud and a Care Flight helicopter whisking me away for a prompt surgery for a broken left femur. The injury was bad, for sure, but what's bothering me now is not my lingering limp or the weird, dragonfly-like scars on my hip. What's bothering me is how this lack-of-riding thing is starting to really affect me.

Because this is my worst injury yet, I am not prepared to go this length of time without riding. Sure, I have gone without riding for two months or so from a broken collarbone or broken foot or something, but the four-month waiting period that a broken femur requires asks me to abstain for twice as long as I have for any other injury. And this is difficult.

These days I find myself daydreaming non-stop about riding, and making excuses for riding my 450 up and down the street. "That'll spread some oil over the engine," I say after blasting down the road, as though there was some reason that oil needs to be spread over an otherwise dormant engine.

I also wait breathlessly while my wife rides her XR100 around Deer Run Road, hoping when she stops that she'll ask me if I want a turn on her mild-mannered trail bike. "Um...sure," I say, a little too eagerly, just before I swing my leg over the little beast and start grabbing gears like I am trying to holeshot the 450 class at Glen Helen.  

I think the reason I cope so poorly with no riding is that I've been conditioned so long to have riding as a part of my life. I started riding at 5, and it was then that my still-forming brain must have started treating riding as a foundational activity--one that would shape not only my obession with everything about motocross, but how I live the whole rest of my life too.

So it's easy to imagine how things seem a little incomplete when I cannot ride. I have all kinds of unused energy (which, if stored for too long, turns into irrational anxiety;) I am finding myself looking for other sorts of thrills (I am riding shopping carts at speeds they should never be ridden;) and I am even finding my urge to write is decreased (for whatever mysterious reason, I have a much harder time writing about motocross when I am not actually riding it.)

So you'll surely understand why I'll end this entry now. Check back with me for more after I am able to catch a few more laps on the XR. 

Posted by beaupre716 at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Because most of the racing was a little dull this year (thanks a lot, Villopoto and Stewart,) my focal point at this year's Hangtown was how local riders Nate Tiearney (173) and Ryan Ferris were doing. Both did very well in qualifying, as Nate earned the 13th fastest time in Saturday's session and Ryan took an impressive win in Sunday's consolation race, which was packed with 40 riders. So I was eager to see how well they would do against the world's best in the motos.

The first moto went badly right out of the gate for both Nate and Ryan. Nate got ran over on the first lap and Ryan's 450 lost a hose and shot hot coolant all over Ryan's leg (which, on the bright side, at least alerted him that all his coolant was gone so he could stop.) Nate returned to salvage 31st  place in the moto while Ryan returned to the pits with a 40th. 

The second moto went slightly better, as both Ryan and Nate managed to stay in the race and even battle together a little bit after a mishap cost Nate a few places in the middle of the moto. In the end, Nate earned 30th place with Ryan just behind in 31st.

But while their results show them mired in the pack, we should not forget just what kind of pack it was. For those who've never seen a national or raced at a high level themselves, it is hard to explain just how tough it is to even qualify for the main events. Even riders who dominate on the local Pro level face a serious challenge in making that 40-man field, as nearly everyone on the gate--even in the qualifiers--is a local dominator. And that is to say nothing of the upper-tier racers like Stewart and Villopoto, whose speed is so out-of-this world that even the best local riders cannot fathom it.  

But Nate and Ryan (382, shown here passing for the lead in the consolation race) made it with room to spare, and rode very respectably against the fastest guys in the world. It was no small deal.

I've never raced a national myself, but I have raced against a lot of guys who have. And trust me when I say that the pace these guys run is amazing. Being able to run that pace requires mountains of experience, strength and dedication, and Nate and Ryan made the grade this day. Nice work, guys.

Posted by beaupre716 at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)