Based on my listening to others about multi-day rides, my basic philosophy has been to start out easy and build to the end. I applied this to the first leg in the original Butt Lite and thought I had applied it to the second but I messed up. the second leg. This took me out of the running for the third leg but I got sufficiently rested in the third leg to try a push in the fourth leg. As a result my standings on the first BL after each leg were 38th, 16th, 22nd and 19th.

A couple of the lessons I learned from the original BL was to not go for the little bonuses that basically fall in the general path to the next checkpoint. This put me on a LOT of secondary roads, created a LOT of stopping and resulted in almost missing the opening of the checkpoint 2's window. I also watched as other people went for the large, more distant bonuses and did well. They rode more miles without stopping but collected larger bonuses with each stop so I resolved to change my tactics in the BLII.

In BLII the first leg was basically the same. Take a conservative route, get a good rest and pick up as many of the "straight line" bonuses as reasonably possible. This year it resulted in 29th position at the end of leg 1. In leg 2 we got a bit more aggressive going for some larger bonuses and going a bit more out of the more direct route. This brought me up from 29th to 9th place. Interestingly, when I did the points per mile calculation at the end, both legs 1 and 2 averaged 2 points per mile. In the third leg, when the points per bonus started to get larger the points per mile went up to 3 but I dropped to 11th place. Obviously, others got more aggressive than I did and got a better points per mile ratio.

On the fourth leg when we had 50 bonuses to choose from, I thought back to last year and opted to go for the big bonus including the super bonus. It meant that I rode 2200+ miles in the last leg and got 5900 points, almost the 3 points per mile ratio. Had I succeeded in getting the super bonus I would have gotten about 9400 points for the same 2200 miles or 4.5 points per mile. By contrast, Dan Stephens II got over 10,000 points for 2100 miles for closer to 5 points per mile in the last leg, thrusting him into third place in the final standings. Had I pulled off the super bonus, I would have finished in second place.

By contrast, Mark Kiecker, who finished first averaged 3.5, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.6 points per mile for each leg and rode the second most miles at 7759. So much for the stats. How would I change my approach for the next Butt Lite?

The single biggest change I would make would be to make sure I entered the last leg rested. I ended up with the equivalent of 2 rest periods BEFORE I cleared the last time constrained bonus. Next time I would look a bit closer at the distance to the last time constrained bonus and make sure I could make it before I committed to that route.

I believe points per mile has to be in the equation BUTT, you still have to do the miles. Points per mile gives you an efficiency number but you also have to consider the total points, total miles, the number of bonus stops (because each one will cost you time) and reduced average speed on secondary roads where you have to slow down for towns etc.

Admittedly, I am still very new to this competitive LD riding thing but based on my improved finish over last year (14th vs 19th last year) and with what I believe to be a stronger field this year, I do think I am learning.

I think there are four things that will make me a better competitor:

1) Making a mistake-free ride

2) Learning from my previous mistakes

3) figuring out how to choose the right route quickly and get on the road and execute it.

4) Making a mistake-free ride

I have some other ideas for how I can do better but they are related to me personally and may not benefit others.

Bottom line, as Mark proved it this year and Eric last year, you just gotta get out there and do it.....

Feedback is welcome.

Norm