Red Bull Knocks Me Out

Just as I began to figure out how to ride the beach sand I fell again and this time my gas cap popped off, dumping out most of my gas. This caused me to run out of gas on my next lap, but luckily, the 400EXC did have a reserve and that left me enough fuel to make it back to the pits. So when I got back to the pits and found my crew for the day, they filled her up, asked if everything was ok and got me right back in the racing action. Well, then I proceed to crash a few more times and ride like I have never ridden a dirt bike before. My gas cap popped off again, this time while I was still riding, and it splashed all over my goggles, chest and arms. So, I put the cap back on and even though my better judgment said, "don't take off your goggles in the sand no matter what." I took my goggles off. It shouldn't have been that bad though because I only had about half a lap to the pits where I could grab an extra pair of goggles. Well that didn't end up happening because as I was making one of those alternate lines around a pile up, I tangled with another rider at the top of the berm and pulled a huge amateur move by burying my bike up to the exhaust. I then spent the next 20 minutes digging my bike out of the sand, and in the process burnt a hole in my jersey and melted my glove to my finger. Just grand!

The time I was going to use getting a pair of goggles, was now just wasted digging my bike out of a life sized sand castle. So now, believing that I am out of qualifying, I decided to ride the last laps without my goggles. I crash a few more times, I think, coming out to a grand total of about eight or nine times, and after riding another five laps or so without goggles, I can't take it anymore and decided to pull into the pits to get a fresh pair (First rule of a sand race: don't ever take your goggles off. I am still getting sand out of my eyes to this day). As I am getting ready to pull out of the pits, I look over to see that they have just ended the first moto. That was great; I just wasted another lap, so now I didn't even think I qualified for the final moto. Well I did, I ended up 150-something and that put me into the final with ease, considering they were taking 325. So now I had about 45 minutes to eat a sandwich, a couple of goo packs and down a couple Red Bulls for the final moto.

The start of the second 90 minute moto was a lot like the first. Close your eyes and pin it down the beach! The only thing different; as if the track wasn't hard enough after having 650 riders ride around it for 90 minutes, was a new element: The tide was coming in and slowly shrinking down the once-extra-wide start straightaway.

Each lap the tide would get higher and the track would get skinnier. I felt great though, picking guys off and finding better lines around the track. I felt 100% better this moto. I was riding smooth and due to half the riders on the track, it was a lot easier to get around the pile-ups. This feeling didn't last for too long though. Only a few laps into the final moto, my bike started smoking like a locomotive. This was definitely a bad sign. The bike was getting slower and slower as I nursed it back to the pits. When I pulled into the pits the guys told me that my race was over because they didn't want to blow the bike up, which is understandable. I figured my race was over; I wasn't going to fight them on it because it wasn't my bike. The funny thing was though, that right after they said that they started looking over the bike to find the problem. And it's a good thing they did too, because as it turns out, it was only a radiator hose that came loose. A simple problem that should have been catastrophic for the bike, but luckily, the KTM was sturdy enough to go half a lap in the deep sand with no coolant. They tightened up all the hoses, put water in the bike and topped it off with gas. They asked if I still wanted to ride and of course I said, "Hell, yeah!" I mean after all, I didn't come all the way to Netherlands to DNF.

However, they did tell me that if the bike started smoking again to come in because they still wanted the bike back in one piece.

So, after losing about 15 to 20 minutes (which is probably about two laps) in the pits, I was able to get back on the track and continue racing. By this time though, the tide had made up a lot of ground and riders already started making alternate lines around the flooded start straight. Every lap I came around, there would be a new alternate line around the track. The riders would make the line and then eventually the track workers would put up stakes and ribbon to line the new course. Eventually, heading back down the start straight we were all just wide open down the center of the infield, dodging tractors and photographers. It was so bitchen! They even built a berm during the race to keep a section of the course from flooding completely. I had never seen a track change so many times throughout a race. I still felt great for the rest of this race and I only crashed once in the final 90 minute moto. This was a major improvement over my first moto mayhem. I finally passed the checkers and was pumped for finishing the race after all that I went through, I didn't even care what place I had finished, sort of.

Red Bull had once again pulled off a stand alone event. It was amazing how they could be so organized with that amount of riders and spectators in a public location. Everyone involved kept the event running smoothly. I had never seen a track being changed that drastically, with no hold-ups, in the middle of a race, to compensate for the elements. I don't know how they did it. My hat is off to them.

As for my finish, the results right after the race had me finishing in 103rd place, which made me the first rider not to finish the race. I was so bummed out. It was almost as if I wasn't even there. However, now that the official results are in, it turns out that I ended up finishing 97th. This made me a little happier; at least I had finished the race. I still wonder how I would have finished if I didn't lose those two laps. I don't know, maybe next year. Thank you Red Bull, KTM and everyone involved for putting together this outstanding and memorable event. I can't wait to see what Red Bull pulls off next.