i swept.
i arrived to do my duties but i guess i was on my own. i caught up to Golarge and Bark on the trail fixing Golarge's bike. Shortly thereafter, a rider came down towards us wanting 'out'.
Well, we could not send him on the course in the wrong direction as we thought pros would be coming soon to start their second loop. Ironically, no pro did a second loop so had we known this, it might have changed some decisions made from this point on (we were only 5kms in).
Anyways, Golarge aired down the riders tire which made a big difference. With some encouragement, off he went.
After the 3 of us provided a 2km escort, we agreed that the spirit of sweeping was to not babysit every rider. We were under the impression that at the 30km spot, there was a live check and a road for those that were 'done' to escape.
i went ahead form my two mates as i thought it was important to have one sweeper moving forward on the course to see if any injured riders were in need.
i came upon 2 more riders at the 10km mark. i encouraged them to make it to the 30km mark as it was a live check and a road escape. Off i went as i also knew the 2 sweepers were behind me and there were at least 2 more sweepers coming out after the pros went through.
i came upon another rider. He was moving along so i also encouraged him to make it to the 30km mark.
The reality is i honestly had no clue how to exit the course before the 30km mark.
i kept riding and i came down a hill into white ribbon and what was the 30km mark. It turned out to be a dead check and no road visible.
Well, at least i knew there were 4 more sweepers behind me and as it turned out they took care of all those riders and got them to the road that was just out of sight at 30kms.
i then caught up to a gentleman that was puttin along with a big grin. He was ecstatic to have made it 5kms of which i now mentioned he was about 32kms in. He was pretty stoked. i went ahead and then started wondering if maybe make sure that this guy (a young 62 yrs old) keeps ploddin along as i thought for sure the other sweepers would have been close by now.
i sat and had lunch and here comes mr.smiley. He was out of water but still a big grin on his face. i gave him half of the water i had left and sent him on his way.
it was about 43kms in when i came to the first 'out of fuel' motocross bike. i gps'ed his co ordinates and carried on. i knew that the 2 other sweeps i was with momentarily had 2 strokes with big enough tanks to share. i continued and ran into another out of fuel motocross bike at about 43.5kms. i lent him some tools to fix his handlebars, gavce him the same spiel about other sweepers with gas coming. i continued on.
i then ran into Mark D (markvfr) coming the opposite way. He had 1/2 liter of gas he was bringing out for someone else he thought might have needed it. i told him of the two bikes i passed and we decided he would ride to the furthest bike and give him gas so that guy could ride up and stay together with the other guy.
i continued on and came upon my old friend, smiley. He was out of gas. i told him to stay put and marked his position on gps. i then ran into Aaron B and he went back on the quad trail to get his 300 with a full tank of gas and make sure those 3 riders were good to go and lead them out on a quad trail. i continued back onto the course. It was lonely. No one was on the course that i knew as per conversation with Mark (he had cleared the course from finish line to gas check.) i came to some very well traveled bogs and had a moment of chuckles thinking, how bad would this suck if i got buried and could not get my bike out? No one was coming my way. i choose wisely and made my way through everything.
at 50kms in, i saw a road through the woods. i also saw a sweeper go riding by on that road. Only one rider could possibly be on the trail between me and the gas check (per Mark and my conversation). i bushwhacked my way to the road and made my way to the gas stop. i asked about any rider that recently had come through and needed gas? Yes, one did. All were accounted for.
My only regret was not finishing the entire loop as a sweeper.
Racing that course? my hat is off to each and everyone of you that finished.