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Home > Forum > River Valley Dirt Riders Forum > Ride Report > Last Man Standing Preview.
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Last Man Standing Preview.
Started October 26, 2006 @ 7:35pm by jgas
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| Last Man Standing Preview. | October 26, 2006 @ 7:35pm | Skyler, Chris, me, and some other folks got to ride with Elmer Symons and Brian Henson, two guys competing in the LMS event a couple weekends ago. These two are great pro riders. There is a big writeup done by Chris on KTM talk about it. Skyler got to follow Elmer quite a bit, and got a lot faster because of it.
Elmer is competing in Paris-Dakar in 07 and is a sand expert. Actually an expert everywhere. He and Brian also did all the obstacles at Last Man Standing in the rain! It was too easy for Elmer so he started looking around for harder stuff, and riding down stuff that they went up in the race.
These guys are as cool as could be, humble and down to earth. They camped with us, gave us bike and riding tips, and let us ride with them when they weren't doing hard practice. Me and Terry Poe, who used to be in ADR, actually tried to ride with them on some nasty single track. We could almost keep up until it opened up, then they disappeared! I almost tore my knee off trying to keep up. I did most of the stuff in the event, but no one was trying Triple Threat in the rain. It had gotten much harder after the race last year, and no one could make it. None of the pros were even trying. I chickened out on Joshua Tree. I know I could have made it within about 10 ft of the top, but there weren't any catchers up there to catch the bikes, and if your bike tumbled off that hill, it was a goner. None of the other guys practicing would try it in the rain, except for Brian and Elmer. Elmer probably did it 15 times, and Brian about 6 or 7 times, and, I have to say it again, it was raining! They were jumping straight up about 65 ft, over a vertical ledge, landing on red clay, and then sidehilling it back to the runoff trail.
Absolutely no one was riding down this stuff in the rain but Elmer Symons. He will be one to watch in LMS.
The last thing we did was play in a sandy creek bed, splashing each other and riding wheelies, climbing banks like a bunch of teenagers. Well, Skyler is one, I guess he gets a pass. Vernon got some of it on tape.
Chris' bike drowned out, and Elmer was the first to go and pull out tools and help him get it going. He was a mechanic in Dakar as well as a rider. He also helps wrench and ride for the Dirt Rider 24 hour shootouts.
Brian helped by constantly roosting and splashing everyone when they would drown out or fall over. Poor Chris got soaked first. Henson is an expert rider, but surely one of the best in the world at splashing. He has it to an art! @$$hole! I tried to climb a bank that no one else tried, did'nt make it of course, and he splattered me good. I could'nt even get my bike picked up it was so slick, so I just ran over and pushed him over in the creek. He was a better rider than me, but I'm bigger!
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| Nice | October 27, 2006 @ 12:59am | | Nice write up Jeff. Brought back good memories for sure! I cant wait to go back there and ride some more. |
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