Experience from the Roadbook Rally: At first, you might “miss the mark,” but later, you’ll be riding smoothly through the forest!
“Why are you going to race with a motorcycle?” my newly five-year-old daughter asked on Friday afternoon as I tried to pack and find all my motorcycle gear that had been unused for two years. “Good question,” I had to admit. “Probably to feel alive, to challenge myself, to shake off the home routine a bit,” I continued, but I kept pondering it for a long time.
Story by Maria Karumets, photos by Eva Koger, Tuljo Martin, and Maria Karumets, event report from Estonia
Indeed, why? Why go racing on a motorcycle? Besides, I hadn’t ridden a single meter on a bike since my last baby, almost two years ago. The newly purchased Yamaha WR250F was waiting for me on the trailer, and I had no idea how we would get along. Honestly, it would be much easier to stay at home, clean, tend to the garden, and do all those endless tasks that always need doing. But no! That’s not life! Life is about shaking yourself out of your comfort zone and feeling truly alive!
The goal was to reach the shore of Lake Võrtsjärv in Estonia by five o’clock on Friday, where the first stage of this season’s roadbook rally series, Tour de Võrts, was taking place. We hadn’t had time to prepare the bike or ourselves. At least we managed to attach a phone holder in a hurry. In fact, I hadn’t even thought of participating and had planned to just watch the event over the weekend and then head to Põlva for a motocross event where my partner was supposed to race with a sidecar. However, Põlva was off the table for us because the sidecar passenger had not yet fully recovered from surgery. So, we quickly revised our plans, and I decided to compete myself! I had no clue about road books or anything, but luckily, the 37-kilometer prologue on Friday evening was meant to get the hang of it.
I started the evening stage at 18:13. To participate; I needed to mount my phone on the handlebars and download a special roadbook rally reader app, where the route instructions keep rolling. I received a quick, roughly one-minute training, but I still missed some information on how to use the app.
I set off from the start – the first instruction indicated to keep left after 850 meters, then left at the intersection after 150 meters. After 340 meters, turn right off the road, then a right turn after 300 meters, a left turn after another 300 meters, and turn onto a small forest path after 240 meters. Somewhere around here, I got completely confused, as the forest path didn’t seem to match the roadbook instructions. I started doubting myself and turned around to start again from the intersection where I turned off the main road.
I pressed various buttons, but nothing worked, and the roadbook kept rolling further with its instructions. I’m not very tech-savvy, so it seemed simpler to return to the start to figure out how to restart. It turned out that swiping the screen didn’t help; instead, you need to tap on the “tulips,” or direction markers, to move them up or down. For this purpose, many handlebars had special buttons connected to the phone, which could be bought or rented. I had signed up for the less competitive tourist class, so these buttons weren’t really necessary, as the roadbook scrolls automatically when auto-scroll is enabled, which is allowed in this class. In the rally class, you need to figure out for yourself if you’re in the right place and manually scroll the route at the right moment.
After several attempts, I finally started to understand how to handle this, but I didn’t know how to reset my journey. The route was now making sense to me, but since I didn’t know how to reset my start, the app showed random kilometers. So, I stopped at every turn to tap my next instruction and mentally calculate when I should reach the next tulip. For example, if the app showed the route at 12.17 km and the next turn was at 390 meters, I calculated that the turn should appear when the distance was 12.56 km, and I repeated this for each direction marker.
The forest trails and the journey itself were really awesome and perfectly suited for my bike, but unfortunately, instead of enjoying the feeling of riding and the roads, I got caught up in calculations. It took me a total of two hours to cover those 37 kilometers of great forest paths according to the roadbook, but the most important thing was that I finally understood the route and started the actual race the next day. I already felt much more positive!
On Saturday, my start time was 11:13, and ahead of me was about 350 kilometers around Lake Võrtsjärv. There were four different timed stages and neutral zones of 20 minutes in between for refueling and eating. The finish closed at 20:00.
The bitterly cold wind howled by the lake – it was April and pretty damn cold in Estonia! Considering the enjoyable forest paths from the previous evening, I left my jacket’s warm lining on the bus—those thick forests aren’t ideal for cumbersome layers. The first nearly hundred-kilometer stage went quite smoothly with the roadbook; I managed to stay on track without straying.
Gravel roads of all sizes, occasionally some asphalt. By the end of that stage, my rear end felt seriously squared off. Well, that’s Estonian terrain for you; I guess long straights and asphalt are necessary to reach the sweeter spots. I bet on finding some forest trails on the second stage.
I rode and rode, and my backside was so damn sore that I found myself taking more and more frequent breaks beside the bike. Cruising at 90 kilometers per hour on the highway with this small engine is sheer torture; it’s just not built for that. I looked with envy at the big bikes of other riders, imagining how comfortable it must be to sit on those!
I pushed and pushed through those kilometers until I encountered a person at an intersection, asking when I’d get into the woods and find some warmth. The reply hit me hard: ‘You’re in the tourist class; tourists don’t go into the woods.’ My face dropped half a meter. Seriously? I’ve endured nearly 200 kilometers of this square seat only to realize I might be in the wrong class. My fault; I should have delved deeper into the event’s details. Then again, maybe the rally class trails would be too challenging for a mom like me. Maybe I need a different bike for the tourist class, or maybe the other option, rally class, to go and learn.
In any case, in summary, it was incredibly thrilling to rediscover myself on the saddle! Learning to navigate by the roadbook (which definitely requires more practice) is just fantastically enjoyable. It’s wonderful that we have such passionate moto enthusiasts here who organize events and dare to start something new. Applause to them, and applause to me for making it to the start! Perhaps someday, I’ll make it to the finish line, too! (After finishing the second stage, I turned Mürru’s nose towards the headquarters and the sauna.)
Other stories from MotoMari you may find: https://motomari.com/
