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Writer's pictureJonathan Binnington

The GoldRiver400 - Les Chemins Sauvages. The write up….


Four days of roadbook navigation trials in the Gold River - Sayward Junction - Woss triangle


As wide a range of terrain as I could find.


And everything in between….


The preamble: Thursday evening.

We now have twelve entrant riders, half a dozen support riders/drivers. All fed courtesy of the omnipotent event sponsor Cedar motorcycle Riding School.


Readying for an 0700 start tomorrow, a minor matter of 330km


GoldRiver 400 - Les Chemins Sauvages is about to begin


THIS IS NOT A RACE!


Friday, day one.

GoldRiver 400 day one. The story so far…

Wednesday - torrential rain, pub unexpectedly goes bust. (Really!). Omnipotent event sponsor Cedar Motorcycle Riding school (Katrina Leonard) steps in to fill the breach (and the growling bellies). The Kove Canada people (who were to be showcasing their road legal 450’s) are unable to attend as Transport Canada haven’t got round to allowing any into the country…. The Gold River golf club provide an alternative finish line with beer, Sharon at Uptown cappuccino cafe continues to provide most excellent breakfasts.


Thursday - weather improves. Campsite opens. Someone drops their iPhone which sends a Crash Crash Crash emergency alert. Alert cancelled but not before emergency contacts receive worrisome messages. All was well.


Friday. Good weather. Minimal dust. Twelve event riders plus four support riders. Tricky opening section up Saunders Main. Liaison (transfer) to Sayward Juntion for a triple loop. All survived the “maze” moonscape section. All safely return for another most-excellent dinner cooked up by Katrina. 333km done and dusty for the return after a dry day…


Results. Sasha Sabinin leads (following up on his success in the opening April event), followed by Robin Black and Owen Partaik. Then (Sir) Geoff Homel, Jay Nadler riding in a pair won’t count for the solo competition, Matthew Roddis and Peter Francis.


Sasha leads day one and continues leading the season overall event. More to come tomorrow - Gold River to Woss, up to the Inside Passage before returning via another moon-maze. And bears!


Weather tomorrow might not be so good..,



The ice cream never really stood a chance!


Day two, the day the event stood still. Wet Wet Wet. Very wet! Start delayed by a couple of hours to see what the weather would do.

The decision, faced with 300 wet kilometres followed by two further days was to curtail the course to a timed run up to Woss, call the result and prepare for days 3&4.


Results for day 2 on the second photo, powder dry ish for tomorrow.


Day 2 GoldRiver400 amended results. After Sasha, Owen Geoff and Robin had decided to call the day’s results in the Shot in the Dark cafe (over beef burgers and coffee) Matthew’s phone was found to have malfunctioned.


The field magnanimously agreed that he could have a second go (so long as they could stay indoors in the dry…).


Matthew was re-equipped with a timing phone that was functioning correctly and he went and had another go…. Well he recorded a score and it was a record score, but not for the hoped-for reason.


Four non-Richta riders elected to ride the full route. They discovered one of the logging companies had taken one of the roads away between testing the route a month ago and event day - an increasingly common occurrence.


Fortunately there was a reasonably obvious, freshly ploughed (really) workaround beyond which the route was plain but very wet sailing where the original railway bed had been repurposed as a flatter logging road one it has been compacted.


The weather forecast for Sunday - day3 is better than today so we are lining up for a full route from Sayward Junction.


Day three. GoldRiver 400. 1116. All out on the course - well all but two…. Robin C and Jay haven’t taken the start. Technical mechanical issues on day 2.


After a marginally miserable day 2 there was an excellent dinner c/o Cathy, a cool wet night followed by a brightening morning. Now in full sunshine at Sayward Junction drying my boots out (they wouldn’t fit in the tumble dryer…)


The route today has some technical tricky climbs and descents which will probably be made easier by yesterday’s rain, keeping dust down and sticking gravel together.


I’m off for an early lunch now, more later….


Day 3. A day of adventure and upset! Perhaps the most technical routes of the event. One rider came unstuck on one of the descents and though he was able to ride out, his ride/day/weekend/event was done and he and his bike was recovered by trailer.


Kelly lost a wheel axle nut, which was fortuitously replaced by the one from the recovered bike.


Owen sacrificed his timed leg to help with the upended bike, he had the presence of mind to take screenshots of his phone to quantify his lost time and the day’s results were adjusted accordingly.


The end result is the result is too close to call… two minutes between first and second place and five between second and third.


It will take day four to decide the event.


Sasha continues to head the season-long competition with Peter second - because the others weren’t there!


Day four - beyond majestic, the Schoen Lake loop.




Day four, the last day…

Aaaaaaand we have a winner! Sasha Sabinin from Owen Partaik and Robin Black.


That’s a wrap from the GoldRiver400.


See you in September for the Sayward event. 20-22 September. Friday to Sunday



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