decisions, decisions.....
August 9 2006 at 2:37 PM
By Rev. Eddie James
For my money, the skill most needed on an endurance event is simple—the ability to select the bonuses that will pay off in the time/speed/distance equation. Some riders never seem to get really good a this—witness the number of sit here-twist that approach riders that start out at the top of the standings early on in an event, only to fade away once things get turned up a notch. Other riders do just the opposite—note the Rick Millers, Mike Phelps, Rick Snyders, Eric Jewells, etc. and others as they consistently run quick, efficient routes that pay off well in the points-per-mile category.
That said, with every rally, we tend to hang out bonuses all across the spectrum.
From the nonsensical to the obvious, the no pointers to the “it’s worth how much” category, it’s always fun to bait the hook and see just who bites.
Sometimes riders are motivated by other factors as well.
On Route A of the first leg of ButtLite IIII, the largest bonus was a simple one—pick up a fuel receipt. The “catch” was clearly spelled out: “Pick up a fuel receipt from any station at the intersection of Florence and Normandie in Los Angeles”. For those of you thinking that this address rings a bell, recall the beginnings of the LA riots following the Rodney King verdict—we’ve all seen the graphic images of truck driver Reginald Denny being pulled from his truck by the group of angry youths as helicopters hovered overhead filming. That was the intersection of Florence and Normandie.
That was also 10 years ago.
Today, it’s more or less a typical intersection in a working-class neighborhood. I’ve been to the intersection more than a few times in the past year looking for something—anything—that could be seen as a reason to NOT use this location as a rally bonus. No problems. No hostilities noted. Never any safety concerns. So, if there’s a reason to stay away, I was not able to discern what it was. Hence, as the saying goes, it’s in there.
Member after member of the “Worlds Toughest Riders” elected to stay away anyways,
eliminating any reason to look at this route in the process..
C’est la vie, as Dirk what’s-his-name said a couple days ago.
A BL IIII rider doing well on the first leg will come in with around a 7000+ point haul once the smoke clears at the scoring table. The Florence/Normandie bonus is a key part of anyone looking at route A—a route with its own set of peculiarities. The bonuses on this leg (in no particular order) include the above mentioned gas receipt, another at Sturgis, SD (in the middle of the legendary Sturgis Bike Week), a visit to the Fosters Freeze in Los Angeles where Brian Wilson observed a young woman in a Thunderbird tearing through the lot and was inspired to write Fun, Fun, Fun; and a toll receipt from the Toll Bridge on MX Hwy 2—just south of Yuma, AZ / Algodones, MX area.
Once the rider wades through the geographical factor (can I go from NE to LA and still make it back to AZ?), they then still have to work their way through the minefield of what’s good, what’s not good, what’s attainable and what’s not. Lest anyone not clearly understand, the “obvious” stop along the way can often very well turn out to be the one that costs the most in terms of time, aggravation, and just plain old everyday problems.
Route B offers up its own set of quandaries. Just to see who has been paying attention and reading the BL archives, we’ve thrown in the ButtLite classic “Mother Cabrini” bonus—only this time worth a mere 141 points. Any rider going there for these few points just isn’t in the right place—but it’ll be fun to see how many riders make the same mistakes that others did in ButtLite 5000.
Other bonuses on the route include the Grand Canyon; riding US Hwy 64 from Dulce to Taos, NM; Lochiel, AZ; Model, CO; and my personal favorite: Have your photo taken “standin’ on the corner in Winslow, AZ” at the exact spot being referred to in the Jackson Browne song.
Route C might be a good choice for those riders looking to make an early statement.
More bonuses than any other route offered the riders a diabolical array of locations
to visit, nearby places to be ignored, and routes that should launch a skilled rider right into the 7000 points+ arena.
It’ll be no walk in the park, though. Riders on this route will expect to run everywhere from The Worlds Smallest Church (yes, but which one?); Holcomb, KS (ask Truman Capote about this one); Teec Nee Pos, AZ (where?); Pagosa Springs, CO; The National Solar Observatory; Smokey Bears gravesite; notorious murderer Charlie Starkweathers gravesite; and a particularly lovely section of road heading west from Portal, AZ.
If done right, riders taking this route will enjoy a 6700 point run in less than 2400 miles, with other opportunities to pick up additional 500+ point bonuses if they are able to add another 100-200 mile side trips along the way. Due to the crisscrossing nature of this ride, opportunities to cut parts off should the need arise due to time constraints made this the most frequent choice of preferred routes by staffers who ventured an opinion. If done wrong, however, route C can leave a rider with fewer points and more miles that if they’d simply taken an easier, less bonus-intense route.
Which then brings us to route D. Remember Route D? This was the sole route given to riders on the eve before the event. In a bit of an attempt at something, route D included a substantial bonus at the legendary Bruno’s Country Club in Gerlach, NV. Bruno’s is where another multi-day rally will be starting this week, and we thought it might be a bit of fun to remind riders with the route sheet that there was the other event going on. In the event that someone did go there, it might have been fun for the rider en route on one event crossing paths with early arrivals at the other. Bruno’s was worth some 4000 points—more than twice that of anything else on the rally so far. The only problem with this bonus was (we thought) obvious: Niobrara to Bruno’s to Tombstone came in at better than 2500 miles, with virtually no other bonuses along the way.
Riders could add another 500 points with a side trip to Winslow, AZ; 409 more with a jaunt down to Gringo Pass on Hwy 85 at the AZ/MX border; or, for the real risk takers, 985 for a venture to Boise, ID. None of these D route options are exactly “along the way”, none had "cut-out" provisions if the rider found themselves behind schedule, but all of them combined might add up to slightly better than a less aggressively ridden C route points-—if the D routes additional 600+ miles are doable. In a nutshell, while the points were there if things went “just right”, we really didn’t expect anyone other than a rider wanting an easy route for the first leg to go to Gerlach.
Eyebrows were raised early on when rider after rider indicated to us that Route D looked the best to them. Had they spent too much time looking at it on Monday night and now just couldn't see anything else? Was there some typo 12,000,000 point bonus none of the proofreaders had caught? Was it the scenario where the riders were finally snatching the pebbles from the rally masters hands and they really did have a better grasp on this one than we did? …..<shrugging shoulders> I dunno…..
A long-time rider felt that this scenario was not unlike the 1st leg of the ’05 IBR when riders were offered the Key West or all this other stuff routes. Rider after rider focused on the huge points and simplicity of a 1 or 2 stop route and lost site of the fact that the finishing score was the actual goal.
Others disagreed and pointed out that a 3000+ mile route of bonuses including Sturgis, Boise, Gerlach and Winslow could fetch a rider better than 7800 points on a route that included waiting for the first bonus to open, dealing with the legendary Sturgis crowds at gas stations, the typically scorching NV ride from Gerlach to Tonopah to Vegas, and still having enough time to pull in a sleep bonus. Their route works out to about 1100 of the miles being on 2-lane hwys, and a timeframe of less than 60 hours.
Another factor jumped in with the opinion that every rally has the opportunity for someone to jump out to the early lead, but how much should a rider push themselves for the first 2.5 days simply to have a 1000 point lead at the end of leg 1? Surely, they argued, there will be bigger individual bonuses larger than the 1000 point difference on later legs of the event.
Your friendly rally masters stood off to the sides and watched the drama unfold.
Adam likes to use the story of consequences of life choices. Will we see that here? Have the riders become dazzled by the big number—or do they see something that the others were overlooked? Are some willing to try to do too much, too soon for the early taste of glory? (A glory that others feel can’t be held onto). Are the rally masters simply a couple of louts that couldn’t even fare well on their own event (always a strong possibility!!)?
It is possible that a rider from any of the four routes can be on top of the hill when the scoring ends in Tombstone. It’s equally possible that the rider in last place could have run the same route.
This is the part of the ButtLite that many riders tell us they love the most--the knowledge that you can win it or lose it with every route depending on how you play it—and it’s all up to you.
For the spectators, this is always a time of great interest.
Who's doing what?
Who's doing it wrong?
Who's making a statement?
Who will be the next unknown to show that they can run with the big dogs?
We’ll know more about who has done what by 8pm Thursday.
You’ll know sometime after that.
Rev. Eddie