Day 6 and It’s All Unicorns and Rainbows

Big miles are always part of Iron Butt rides, but in the Rally, points are primary for competitors.  You can ride all you want, but the points DO matter.  Rally math says lower miles plus higher points equals more efficient routing.  Leg 2 was a routing challenge for a lot of riders.  Sometimes you just don’t “see it” and don’t pick the winning route.  But once committed, it’s hard to make course corrections without the pile-on potential of making an error and loosing even more points.  Riders chant the mantra, “plan your ride; ride your plan,” but when you start to feel the plan isn’t the best, it’s hard to keep the motivation up to keeping riding the plan.  IBR rally reports from the past couple of days tell the tale.

Kirsten and Wolfe at the Start Line, MN

And then sometimes rally karma just sneaks in and takes over.  Wolfe Bonham had a birthday surprise when he got into a tank slapper that had him underway one foot on the peg and one foot on the seat.  He has a sticker from his dirt days that says, “When in doubt, give it gas – it will either fix it, or end the suspense.”  So he gave it gas, got back on his seat, and carried on.  Kirsten, who hit some diesel fuel on an off ramp yesterday had the tank slapper problem, but the opposite conclusion.  When she gave it some gas to straighten up the back tire, the front tire found a huge crevice in the road and slapped the handle bars for a hard left landing.  The result was three lanes of stopped traffic and immediate assistance to get the bike back up and on the road.  But karma is sometimes funny – she was already on the way to the shop for a rear tire.  Guess if karma is going to put you into the pavement, it’s better on the way to the shop.  So, she was able to strap the left light back on and pulled in with a few other items for attention.  She’s fine, no helmet dings.  Her middle finger on her clutch hand is tweaked (take that as you will).  After talking with her from the shop, I gave the Rallymaster a call.  Lisa’s wise response: tell her Advil is a major food group.  

The RT's left light, needing some repair.

The Leg 2 checkpoint opened at 5:00 p.m. local Texas time, with Kirsten presenting herself for scoring.  Now’s the time to maximize rest and regroup for Leg 3.  It’s a rally now my friends.  And it's all unicorns and rainbows. 

Ron's repairs to the RT