"The course started out like the others but, crappy rocks surrounded by deep sand but shortly changed to dunes. Looking back on it now and watching the tv coverage I am so glad to hear the professionals talk about how soft the sand is. There is nothing that comforts my pride in riding ability more than watching Cyril Despres and Marc Coma go over in the soft sand. My bike just didn’t want to work that day. I would bury it up to the axles time and again to the point where I just didn’t want to continue. Steve and I lost each other pretty early on in the dunes. A few times during the day I would be rolling along at 10mph in the sand with the motor screaming at redline in third gear. I was waiting for the thing to blow up, and sometimes hoped it would. If it blew that meant I could go home and have a good excuse. Fortunately, me and the Cycle Dynamics motor never gave up. The dune section wasn’t that long but it took me forever to get unstuck. Even the slightest incline would stop the 640 dead but 10 feet away a guy would come ripping through like it was nothing. The wind created these pockets of really soft sand that were completely hidden. Sometimes I would hop off and try to walk the bike along while going up through the gears, again all the way up to redline but to no avail. I tried lugging it but the air filter had already packed up so much that I couldn’t get enough air moving to find the power. I felt so bad for the bike. It had gotten me this far and all I could do to return the favor was to hammer it for the next 12 hours....

...The course was littered with small dunes they called “dunettes” on the roadbook for the rest of the day. The dunettes were sometimes a little fun but the wind could create some nasty drops and ridges that were undetectable on the road. You really had to approach with caution else be caught sailing off a 10ft drop. More than once I caught a few of these drops and the bottom would slam into the ground with the force of 600 flying pounds ..."