8/22/03

Greg Row Solos the BITD Mex 300 & Places 2nd

When Greg Row crossed the finish line, just a few minutes back from his first place Alba team mate Wayne Matlock, he was done! His hands were covered with blisters and literally peeling off, his legs were shaking, his vision was blurry from heat and dehydration, and he had lost 15 pounds from the start of the race earlier that day. It was a great day!

First from the start
Having drawn the coveted first starting position, Row essentially started out in first place, and never looked back. Desert races start off with the riders leaving in 30 or 60 second intervals to space them out along the course. The advantage of first starting position is that you don't have to start out eating the other riders dust right away. And if you can hold them off, like Row did, you can avoid their dust the whole way.

Being an experienced desert racer, Row went into this race with a plan, which was to ride hard, but pace himself and leave something for the end. A strategy that seemed to work out perfectly.

"My Team Alba Racing Suzuki LTZ400 ran strong all day." Commented Row, "It was the same bike we took 3rd place in Vegas to Reno, and it's still as good as new and ready to ride another 300 miles."

The only real problem Row encountered along the way was at the 175 mile check point, Row noticed that his skid plate was missing.
"We did a bit of damage to it in Vegas - Reno that eventually caught up with me in Baja. I don't really even remember when it came off, but new I had to take it easy on the rough Baja course if I wanted my Alba LTZ to finish in one piece." It was here that Row got a new set of gloves, goggles and a full camel back and was ready for the rest of the race.

Right after the team realized the skid plate was missing, Row had to tackle one of the roughest sections of the course - known as the Goat Trail. The goat trail is a very steep and very rocky stretch of track that is known to eat up the underside of vehicles. Without the skid plate, Row had to ride smart and cautiously to not tear up the breaks, sprocket or motor.

After successfully navigating the Goat Trail, Row hit what he called the worst section of the course, that he described as 5 miles of 3 foot deep non-stop whoops. "If there was a part of the race that I wish I could have avoided, it would have been that whoop section. After 3 miles of these super deep whoops, I was getting delirious and thought I was either going to pass out or be sick!" Row lamented. "Because the ruts were so deep, you couldn't get much speed, so there was no air flow and I was super hot. I was really happy to get that section over with."

At the last pit stop, Pit 6, Row's Alba teammate came in just 30 seconds behind, and left at about the same interval. "I was pretty much spent at this point, and Wayne was fast as hell. I just didn't really have anything for him - my hands were raw, so I didn't put up much of a fight when he came up on me." Row ended up crossing the finish line in second place, just a few minutes behind Team Alba's Matlock - and was really ready to climb off his quad.

Row attributes one of the reasons he was able to do so well was his training. He's been mountain biking regularly to prepare for the race - and said that because he works construction he can tolerate the heat pretty well. And the fact that he just turned 40 he said gives him an edge over those young punks! His ability to ride both a fast and a smart race is the real key to his near win. Great job Greg!