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Erzberg 2010. Done.
Thursday 10th June 2010
Monday morning saw us return from our epic trip to the Red Bull Hare Scramble / Erzberg Rodeo and I can safely say it was one of the best, if not the best, trip I’ve ever been on.
Chris Dustow rode his way to 48th position in the main event, which features 500 qualified riders from an original field of 1,800. As you can appreciate, this is one hell of an achievement! The whole group were completely and utterly chuffed and proud of Chris’s efforts throughout the whole week and in particular the way he dealt with the hideous Carl’s Diner checkout.
Read on for the full (long) run down of our week.
We left for Erzberg last Monday morning at around 8 o’clock, heading for Dover where we took the Euro Tunnel to Calais, France. We then drove right through France and into Belgium where we had originally planned to stay for the night. After spending about 2 hours driving around a city we can’t recall the name of, we decided we needed to stop off for a bite to eat. We managed to find a sweet pizza place, which served good food and nice beer.
We then made the executive decision that staying in the city was probably going to be more trouble then it was worth, so we decided to plough on to Germany and find a hotel to stay in. Eventually we found somewhere, and despite major language difficulties with the owners we managed to get a half decent night’s sleep. The next morning we took advantage of what we thought would be our last “nice” shower for the week, grabbed a bit of grub and got back on the road to Austria.
We grew more and more concerned as we seemed to be driving into progressively worse weather conditions. By the time we hit Austria it was pouring it down and fog and mist wrapped the top of the mountains. We managed to get a few glimpses of the beautiful scenery that Austria has to offer, but not as much as we would have liked at the time. When we finally arrived in Eisenerz we met up with Cornish based Austrian, Hannes Tanzer, who Chris knew from riding enduros back at home. We got our first taste of Schnitzel and various other Austrian foods and beer in a small local pub. We didn’t realise it at the time, but we would be seeing a lot more of Schnitzel over the course of the week!
With the weather still showing no signs of backing off, Hannes managed to sort us out a room in the same hotel that he was staying in, just above where the Erzberg Rodeo was to be staged. We were so relieved and grateful for not having to put up a tent in the downfall!
Wednesday wasn’t too much better. In fact it was a lot worse. We went down to the venue to wrestle the other 1,800 riders and even more spectators for a place to pitch our tent. All I can say is I’m glad I decided not to film the construction of our tent. Piss up in a brewery springs to mind! Eventually we got it up and marked out our territory to try and avoid any invasion from other desperate campers looking for a place to pitch. Then we got ourselves back up to the hotel to dry off and sulk before making the decision to once again stay in the hotel, while the room was free.
Again this proved to be our saving grace as we really don’t know how we would have managed with camping in those conditions. We were basically geared up for hot weather and we were lucky to find a jacket between us! We decided to make the most of our time in the hotel and gave Antony a bit of a haircut. Our thinking behind this was to give him such a ridiculous haircut that it got him on the official Erzberg DVD. I’m not convinced it’s going to, but it was one of the funniest 30 minutes and I felt physically sick after laughing so much by the time we were done. Whether he makes the cut or not remains to be seen.
Thursday we returned to the campsite to find two collapsed gazebos that gave way under the weight of the rain water that had been trapped on the roof due to our poor drainage system. Unfortunately one of the gazebos was beyond repair, with a completely twisted frame. It almost looked as a motorbike had crash landed on the roof. Surely not?
Fortunately the weather was improving and we finally decided to stop beating around the bush and spend our first night in the tent. During the day was the first event of the Erzberg Rodeo, known as the Rocket Ride. This isn’t a compulsory event, but it’s a good chance for the riders to get a good feel for the whole occasion and Chris was also keen to tackle the steep slopes and ride in front of a fairly large crowd.
Chris didn’t disappointed, riding the hills with great confidence and actually qualifying for the last 48 in the super final. We were delighted and this put us on a high for the rest of the week! Chris eventually came out 42nd in this event after getting stuck with a nasty gate number in one of the final heats, but we were still pleased and considering the Rocket Ride seemed to favour the 4-stroke bikes, Chris did incredibly well to get himself in the final on his SX 250.
We popped down to the beer tent for a butchers in the evening and we came away completely dazzled! In fact, we were that dazzled that as we were walking away to go back to bed, Shaun and myself decided to let the others go on ahead, and turned around and went back to the beer tent where things got a little piggy! Topless people diving along rows of joined tables, with people chucking them along when they lost momentum and eventually chucking them onto the gravel floor. As well as some professional dancers, people snapping and dancing on tables, crowd surfing and just general seriously drunk people, made for a very entertaining few hours. Those guys know how to party!
Friday and Saturday was all about the prolog, which consists of two runs. One each day. The riders best run is then taken as their qualification time and the top 500 riders are then seeded for the final. Chris’s first run was going well until halfway up the mountain, where his tire popped off the rim meaning he couldn’t go on and finish. Luckily Chris wasn’t hurt, but this put major pressure on Chris the next day as he didn’t know the whole track like the other riders and he knew he had to make his second run count! Thankfully he did, qualifying in 181st position and on the 4th row. Chris felt he was going better on his first day until he hit problems, but didn’t make any excuses and went about his business and prepared for Sunday’s main event.
Sunday saw blistering heat and huge crowds hit Erzberg. This was it! Chris rode like a demon throughout the day and managed to ride himself through to 48th position come end of the day. I was particularly impressed with his efforts in the notorious Carl’s Diner. This checkpoint is renowned for it’s difficultly and it’s not unusual to see grown men in tears, collapsed against their bikes and just basically giving up on the race. This is where Chris demonstrated his superior fitness as well as his true grit and determination to push the bike through what must have been a mile stretch of sharp boulders. A truly awesome effort and this was pretty much where he pushed himself into the top 50, which was the original goal we set before the trip.
After this Chris ventured on to a few more checkpoints before eventually running out of time. What an effort though.
Looking back, the Erzberg trip was probably one of the best I’ve experienced. The whole occasion was completely awesome and blew us all away. Fantastic scenery, brilliant riding and spectacular partying. We came away with Chris achieving his goal of a top 50 finish and we will definitely be returning next year for another crack! Roll on Erzberg 2011! See you next year Austria.
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