last entry

We are home, so this will be the last entry for this years blog.
I had a wonderfull time, amazing group of people, everybody worked, eat and had fun together, long time ago since we had such a nice group of support and riders.

I want to thank everybody for the amazing time.

Hopefully we will have the same great time in Portugal next year.

Bettie

9 finishers

Finally time to write, yesterday (saturday) was pretty hectic between the final MX and packing the container. Day 5 wente well for our riders, Stephen and Regis took it the easy way and took their time to get around, they wanted to be sure to finish. The western riders enjoyed the course of day 5. Looked a lot like home they said. A long day again with dinner at 08.30 at our pasta place.
The final MX started early for our 3 clubriders, they had to pick up their bikes at 08.35 with their first race at 09.00. Our Throphy riders started around noon in several B heats. In between we had the Sheepskull race which was hilarius. We started packing the crates right after the club heat was fninshed. Also the riders washed their bikes right after riding. Dave had a great race finished 4th in his heat. According to the experts and long time ISDE support persons Larry and Butch (Muriel) this was the first time that every rider finished. The race had a surprising finish with the dnf MX for Yuha Salminnen his fell and broke his trothle cabel. The Finland pit was right besides us and everybody was very dissapointed with this outcome. After the races we saw the Sheepskull purple helmets performe at the start grit. GREAT show. Started packing the container right after the race, were finished at 19.30 went with most riders and support for dinner in town, after dinner almost everybody took off to the party in Serres, arriving back at the hotel around six this morning. Mr. Fryberger did not look very good this morning when the taxi came to pick him up at 09.00.
Today was a rest day for us, saw some awesome caves and went to the beach.

day 4

Hi,

Day 4 started cool at 06.45 it was only 19C we needed a sweater to stay warm, after just an hour, it changed to bloody hot. At one time it was 42C in the pits, we have the garage doors open so the wind can blow through and makes it feel cooler. Our riders are doing fine, up in the moutains it is approx. 10 degrees cooler. The problem for them is still the dust. They are all doing fine, and enjoying themselves, a few complaints of painfull muscles, and they feel tired too. Just as the support crew, it was hard to get out of bed this morning for most of us, just one more day to go.
It is wonderful to see how much energy goes into changing tires at the end of the the day, Dave seems to have abslutley no trouble changing 2 tires in 5 minutes, also Craig is a true expert. Scott is turning into a pro too. Brian and Trent practiced a lot and that shows. Paul, Guillaume and Regis get better during the week. Stephen is used to his tire balls and is still adjusting to the moose.
Only Stephen had problems yesterday. He was exhausted from his tire change in the morning and did not drink enough during the day, he lost another 26 minutes.

day 3

No drama for the canadian team on day 3. There were some troubles at the end of the day with the clubriders in the last enduro test, the dust got so thick that they had to stop riders go on the course. Stephen and Regis were affected by that and lost a couple of minutes, during the jury meeting was decided that the last check would be cancelled so the minutes were deleted again. Also the endurotest for today will be cancelled, so the day will be shortened by 20 minutes today.
Unfortunately Kurt Caselli ended up in hospital with a concusion (? spelling). And the top Spanish rider broke a leg. There were a lot of clutch replacements in the workarea this morning. Spectaculair to watch.
Last night we had the complete Canadian team at dinner at restaurant Central in town. People in town are still not used to our presence. We feel like we are some kind of zoo animals, being checked out a lot.
Back to this morning, it is very hot this morning. Around 09.00 we are all swetting already, looks like it is going to be a hard day for the riders. Still B schedule, but the heath may be more of a problem. All riders got off good this morning, except for Stephen, he was strugling to get his front tire on. He was 7 mintues late for his start. Hopefully this will not effect him so much as last tuesday.

MANAGER HARD AT WORK

September 3rd, 10.30 - 11.20

Day 2

A nice day yesterday, our riders did good. All came in on time at impound in the evening, exept for Scott, somehow he messed up his times and was 2 minutes early and at check 5 he ended up 4 minutes late so 6 minutes on his account.
Stephen did not drink and eat enough yesterday, at check 5 he "hit the wall" and had to be feeded and loaded up with water before he could go on. Luckily he realized he did not drink enough and he did much better this morning, he ate and drank till it was time to start. Looked much more relaxed than the other days.
No exiting things happened this morning no tire changes or spectaculair problems. The weather is still very nice, hot in times. They expect even warmer weahter at the end of the week.
Today is going to be a long day for us and the riders. Because of the dust the jury decided to start 2 riders a minute (first 150 riders) to give the top riders a change to stay out of the dust. Our last rider will be in the pits around 18.40 this afternoon. We arrived here before 07.00 this morning. Hopefully we will be in time for dinner.
I will load some picuteres from this morning. I forgot to take a picture of Dave this morning. Hopefully I will remember tomorrow.

pictures day 1

I had to see some riders out. All six trophy guys went out on time, Brian changed his front in 6 minutes. Other riders were just fiddling around. Stephen is now preparing his weener `moose` for his rear tire.

Take a look at the pictures and try to find our French Connection Michel in his Michelin man suit.

The weather seems to be cooler than last week, this morning we even had to put on a jacket, we are now pealing of layers. Blue sky´s a little bit of wind will heat everything up again. On top of the mountain it seems to be much cooler, checkcrew that was up the mountain yesterday did not take off their long sleeved yerseys. Stephen changed his rear tire in his allowed work time just now, he had 10 seconds to spare of his minute. Must give him some confedence today.