Thursday, June 11
We woke to a classic early-morning Alpine frost and fog, and drove down to the track for a typical Eastern European breakfast: cold cuts with various tasty breads, soft-boiled egg and coffee. The croissant-expresso thing from Paris is simply not on with this crowd.

Cyril Despres shows a rally-spec KTM 690 similar to the one that helped him win the Dakar Rally. The all-important external tanks for the desert race have been removed

The KTM hospitality tent was connected to the factory race team enclosure, so the Pro riders hung around virtually all day. This meant that we could hobnob with God, aka Cyril Despres, past Dakar winner and here for a demonstration run aboard a Dakar-winning KTM 690 Rally bike, while the factory Rodeo riders were mostly aboard lighter 300EXC two-stroke machines.

Five Canadians, all from out West, were there to compete in the Rodeo or one of the support events. Turns out that three of them are crowd and organiser favourites, better known here than in Canada. Given that they are amongst the world elite in this type of event, the irony was biting, with Cory Graffunder (2008 Canada No. 1 plate holder for Enduro), Shane Cuthbertson and Jared Thomas receiving star treatment. As we will see further on, their results justified all this attention. Noel Bolso dislocated his shoulder in the Friday Prologue, while fiancée Jillian Kings had the time of her life in the prologue events.

The day ended with a team supper and a visit to the beer tent, where the atmosphere was pure joy. Most of us left around 10:30, after watching some crazies belly flop and slide from a running start onto two tables that had been lubricated with beer - in the nude! A great time was had by all.

Friday, June 12
Two big events took place on Friday, the first qualifying race for the Rodeo, and our street ride in the surrounding mountains.

With about 1500 entries and only 500 allowed to start in ten rows of 50 riders each, some culling must take place to select the cream, and then determine a starting position. The so-called prologues, run over a much shortened course on Friday and Saturday, determine a starting order based on the best result of each rider. Since the rows start the big race at one minute intervals, making the front row is considered essential to securing a good finish. Both Graffunder and Cuthbertson made it, as did our Mexican buddy, Homero Diaz. They were set for the Sunday.

Ten rows of 50 riders are "patiently" waiting for the start of the main event on Sunday.