Like the bulls of Pamplona, the thundering flock descended on Laramie, WY for the Laramie Enduro with nothing but thin air and hate to power us. Josh and Jaime got to town ahead of everyone and secured camping. Waller and Stamper arrived in Laramie after picking up Brad Reed at the Cheyenne airport on Friday. Zach Dubas arrived Friday too.
Waller, Brad and I crashed a
roller derby party in Laramie, but were up by the crack of dawn non-worse for the wear, feeling spry, and ready to ride.We all lined up and proceeded up a big climb to enter the singletrack. Corey told us to try to be towards the front early as things quickly backed up once you hit the first singletrack section. I got a good start and made it less than 300 yards before I heard the grind and crunch of flesh and carbon hitting gravel. I just kept motoring and hit the singletrack in the top 50 with Zach D running lead for me. Patterson and Waller were not far behind.
After we popped out of the singletrack we hit the open dirt roads of the medicine bow NF. Waller took a bad digger early on when he hit a huge water bar at about 28 mph. Patterson was right behind him when it happened and described it as a glorious explosion of speed and abraded flesh (bike hurtling through the air and waller skidding across gravel). Waller soldiered on for another 30 miles then pulled the plug.
Dubas lead the big ring foray into the open vistas of that were reminiscent of the Texaco hills section for the DK 200 (except the cattle were more docile). I managed to catch zach as his shifter failed and left him running a 3x1.
I was working hard but did not feel like I was doing anything unsustainable, Zach slipped by me as we hit the singletrack section. At the 2nd aid station I saw zach as he was leaving, and I decided to wait on Joe Fox, as I had caught a glimpse of him behind me earlier. Joe stopped to take a break a few minutes later and we saw Patterson rolling towards us.
We all proceeded to motor on towards the 3rd aid station through the swamp grounds. Then like a switch my legs just shut down with cramps. I made it to mile 52 before cramps ended my party. I did earn some good behavior points by handing off my chain to a young lady that was having some mechanical issues (she would finish and hunt me down to give me back my chain).
Zach D would continue his 3x1 hate fest to finish around 60th.
Josh and Joe would continue onward together and finish within a few minutes of each other.
Brad Reed finished later on a SS despite not having ridden a SS in over 2 years (and having the lowest BMI on our team).
Afterward, we sated our thirsts, found that we had quorum, and proceeded with a BGR business meeting to plan our fall endeavors.
Despite many breaks for refreshment, we got a few things hammered out. Then they started raffling things off, Brad reed was sent down to enter all of us in the raffle, and despite some name confusion (Zach Patterson?) we all scored some loot.
Waller and Stamper scored some sweet
Feedback Bike stands.....and then proceeded to behave badly.
