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Nevada County Woods Riders
an off-road and dual-sport motorcycle club

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NCWR/RUTs Moonrocks Ride

Published on 3/7/2016
Date: March 5th - 6th
Participants - 30 riders / 2 spouses / SOs
Saturday - Group Ride:

Ride leaders:
Kirk, Marv, Joel, Ryan, Steve
We had groups that ranged from novice - intermediate to advanced.  A very special thanks to Marvin and the RUTs ride leaders (Joel, Ryan) for both helping map the course and for leading a group on Sat.
The local knowledge that this group brought as well as their leadership made a HUGE difference.  Riders experienced outstanding conditions as the area received rain on Friday late afternoon so it really couldn't have gotten much better in terms of conditions.
It was dry on Sat throughout the day and riders experienced a wide range of terrain from single track, two track, sand washes, hill climbs and descents and even some black diamond conditions that raised the pucker factor considerably.   
The overall group led rides ranged between 70-80 miles in the area.
Sunday - Match Race / Quick Draw:

The skies opened Saturday night and the area saw both steady rain and even snow at one point.  However,  we had dry conditions in the a.m. and throughout our events.  The additional precipitation made for 'dust free' riding. 
The weather reports on the Sierra were grim to say the least and we saw +- 10 participants choose to leave Sat night or early Sunday.  That said, Anson, Joey, Brianne and a friend of Joey's showed up Sunday a.m. to join us.
Anson is recovering from an injury he sustained at the Las Vegas WORCs race, but Joey, Bri and friend jumped right into the match race and quick draw.
1.  Match Race:
Kirk and George setup the match race course and we learned that more was definitely better when it comes to setting ribbons!   Dave, Gary, Wayde and Troy helped improve marking prior to the actual match race which definitely helped.  The course was ~ 6-7 miles and it ran a bit faster than we had originally thought.  
Clockwise elapsed times =  11 minutes to 25 minutes 
Counterclockwise elapsed times = 11 minutes to 18 minutes
A.  Top 5 results (elapsed times) Clockwise:
1.  Joey @ 11 minutes
2.  Gary J @ 13 minutes
3.  Troy A @ 13.30 minutes
4.  Kirk L @ 14. minutes
5.  Wayde @ 14.3 minutes
B.  Top 5 results (elapsed times) Counterclockwise:
1. Joey @ 11 minutes
2. Troy @ 11.15 minutes
3. Kirk @ 12 minutes
4. Brianne @ 12.15 minutes
5. Gary @ 13.15 minutes
C.  Match Race Winners (top 3):

1.  Joey @ 11.00 / 11.00 = 0
2.  Gary J @ 13.00 / 13.15 = 15 secs
3.  Wayde @ 14.30 / 13.30 = 1 minute   /  Brett L @ 18.00 / 17.00 = 1 minute
As you read above,  Brianne proved that she can run with the boys by posted a blazing time of 12.15 minutes on the 2nd lap on her KTM 150 XC.   She finished ahead of all but 3 riders here.  She's currently the D36 women's champion.
A huge shout out to Kirk who designed the course and took ownership for setting it up.  It was a huge success and the feedback was very positive even by our AA / pro rider.
2.  Quick draw contest:
For the quick draw contest,  we paired 2 x riders that stood in front of their bikes with a dead engine.  At my hand signal, they had to mount their bikes, start them, and race 100 yards to an orange cone and  do a 180 turn.  The rider that crossed the start / finish line first won.  
This was an exciting event to watch and participate in!  We had some very close races here.  
The overall winner, not surprisingly, went to Joey, however, he had to earn it.  Both Troy and Kirk gave him his moneys worth.  Kirk even got the drop on him and pulled him to the cone, but Joey just edged him out across the line!  It was exciting.   
There were a number of other exciting contests here.
Overall summary:
I want to acknowledge and thank a few people that went above and beyond to make this event a success:
Marvin Small -  group ride course design / mapping
Marv, Kirk, Ryan, Joel - group ride leaders
Kirk - match race design & overall lead
George - event preparation / pre-ride / tear down
Also,  thanks to ALL participants for making the trip over the summit despite the reports.  We could not have done this without good participation.
For those of you that missed this, you missed a great outing and one we should look to do on an annual basis.