Monthly Archives: September 2010

What a day!  I imagine some of this will seem a bit far-fetched but I swear it’s true.  I have photos and witnesses to back it up if need be.

I made my way from Madison to Denver on Friday night.  I used to live here so it’s an easy, familiar trip.  I met up with my friends Scott and Richard at Richard’s house, caught up on gossip, current events, then eventually made a plan for Saturday’s activities.

Golden, Colorado’s Thunder Valley motocross track is the host of this year’s Motocross des Nations.  MXdN only comes to the US so often so when it was scheduled to come to the town I call home, I had to go.

AJ at Victory Circle Graphix hooked Scott, Richard and me with a VIP parking pass and paddock passes for the weekend.  We drove straight to a parking spot across from the main entrance.  Practice had started so we watched some of the big jumps from the paddock but mostly took in the sights.

Who knows how many people attended on Saturday but for sure Sunday's crowd will be bigger.

Lunch time rolled around and we smelled food coming from a big tent.  We walked in without being checked and helped ourselves with beverages.  Scott spied a buffet line so we made our way over.  The tent was huge and packed full of people. When we got to the buffet we were asked for our tickets.  We didn’t have any tickets but the lady asking had a handful so she helped us out and ushered us to the food.  When we sat to eat we realized we had somehow sneaked into the VIP tent and ended up with free lunch.  Dunno how we did it but we did.

Trek World Racing’s Andrew Neethling (see a vid of Needles here) made trip to town so we met up with him.  We were all walking past the Alpine Stars hospitality tent and Andrew stopped to say hey.  He’s an A-Stars sponsored rider and knew someone there.  After a few minutes he came back to us with hospitality passes.  Awesome.  Scott felt like ice cream so we ducked into the A-Stars tent and helped ourselves.  Thanks Needles and Alpine Stars!

Then the racing started.  Qualifiers today, main events tomorrow.  The fast guys are amazing.  The amount of time they spend in the air, manipulating the bike into position for the best possible line upon landing and the corner speed they carry made huge impressions on me.   The track has some massive jumps that not all the bikes and riders can easily do.  The dirt and weather were perfect.

We headed back to the pits for a quick pass through the A-Stars tent.  On our way we say John Tomac and his son Eli.  I know John from when I lived in Durango.  It was good to catch up.  Eli is riding a Trek road bike.  That’s good to know.

Team USA was being rushed to the post race press conference when we passed by the Honda and Suzuki haulers.  I saw Ryan Dungey’s agent, Tony, and he asked us to follow them to the press tent.  We talked and walked but then lost each other in the crowd.  Later we met up with Tony again and he invited us in to the Suzuki hauler.  Ryan was there and we chatted about all sorts: cycling, training, the MXdN track, Decoster, Lance Armstrong, Ryan coming to visit Trek, the works.  There were hoards of fans outside the hauler that all wanted a piece of Ryan but we soaked up his time inside the hauler.  We were spoiled and thanked him for spending time with us while the pressure of racing had to be on his mind.  What a super cool experience that was.

Ryan, me, Richard and Scott with Ryan's back up MXdN Suzuki RM-Z450. HA!

Scott, Richard, Andrew and I reveled in how lucky our day had been so far while we walked to the Alpine Stars tent.  They were serving dinner and we had learned from Tony that it was not to be missed.  Sure enough, it was quite a spread – farfalle pasta, salmon, tiramisu ice cream, fresh bread.  On top of that, the tables surrounding us were filled with heros: Mike Gooselar, Mike Alessi, Dean Wilson, Andrew Short, and certainly dozens of others that are surely big names that I didn’t recognize.

After we had soaked up as much superstar presence as we could handle we stepped out of the tent and found Roger DeCoster standing alone.  I know some of his fellow Belgian ex-pats so I risked it and struck up a conversation.  We all gathered around to listen to him talk of days gone by.  He was also very generous with his time.  At first it was hard for me to concentrate on the conversation because I know he’s one of the most influential people motocross has ever known.  Yet he’s standing right there in front of us, shaking our hands and sharing his life with us.  Wow.

I’m still reeling a little from the day.  How can you top a day like that?!  The racing was pretty exciting but it took a back seat to the people interactions we had.  I can hardly wait to do it again tomorrow.

Here’s a video from the day the Trek World Racing team rode Vesrah Suzuki motos.  The moto segment starts at about minute 8:

Thanks again to the Parkins for making the video and taking the pictures and thanks to Jon Sonnenburg for helping us with our day at Dyracuse.

Quick and dirty here (busy with work and family).

I raced at the Uren family owned Valley Raceway hare scramble this past weekend.  I hadn’t raced let alone ridden in way too long so my expectations were low.  High on my to do list was having enjoying the races and soaking up the long laps and technical trails.  I succeeded, I think.  Joe raced too.

Mark Junge graciously loaned my family his mammoth Renegade hauler for the weekend so with wife and kids on board we drove the 5 hours north to just across the WI border to Crystal Falls, MI.  The weather was clear for the drive but it rained hard in the wee hours of the morning and was forecast to rain all day.

I’m fine with mud other than the massive clean up it makes for.  I looked forward to taking it easy in the early laps and picking off stragglers as the race wore on, or at least that was my plan.  I didn’t even try to beat the other six AA riders to the first turn and instead was nearly the last to leave the line on my RM-Z450.  I picked off one guy in the first turn then passed JD and Mat a few turns later.  That immediately put me into 3rd but knew that JD and and possibly Mat would come charging past at some point.  No matter: my mind was at ease enjoying the ride and playing in the mud.  I finished 4th but that might have been by default since an unlucky Eric Uren broke his chain right after passing me in an open field section.

The trail was so wet that it hardly got muddy.  I was soaked after the race but my Suzuki wasn’t as bad as I expected.  I washed it with a garden hose (thanks, Urens!), put in a new filter, sipped in some new Vesrah brake pads, flipped my rear tire around and called it race ready.

The only negative on the day, and it’s a biggie for me, was that Brandon Houts was on the starting line wearing a florescent yellow WIXC tee shirt over his riding gear.  I interpret that as a statement against AMA District 16.  That’s disappointing to me.  Woods riding and racing  in WI is not as strong as it could be.  We need to work together keep land open and land owners interested in holding events.  The current divide between WIXC and D16 is a reality but it doesn’t need to be pushed farther apart than it is already.  I don’t claim to know everything that has happened between WIXC and D16 to make it so that we don’t have one strong race series here in WI but I believe woods racing would be better off if we were working together.  Brandon, I think you did the wrong thing by wearing that shirt the way you did.

On day two of the double header the weather had cleared and the course was drying fast.  We did nearly the same loop as day one so the variable was learning how the grip had changed.  I entered the woods in third position with Mat behind me, Eric and JD in front of me. JD faltered in a slick rock section then Eric stalled in a tight turn so I lead for a while until I stalled and Mat rode past me.  JD eventually hunted me down and put lots of time into me.  JD eventually caught Mat and they diced it out until the final few minutes with JD taking the win.

The grassy fields didn’t have the grip I expected them to have so I was timid on those for a few laps.  The woods had such good grip that my 450 was a handful.  The more tired I got the harder it was to meter the throttle and the easier it was for me to shoot off into the woods or take the crappy line.  I spent a full lap at 60% pace just trying to get some strength back in my hands and learn more about the grip level.  Then I had moments of brilliance in the woods but by that time there was no way I would catch the front guys.  I considered it a small feat just to finish without any huge tumbles with how poorly I was riding in the woods.

I suspect I’d do better on an RM-Z250 but I’ve really enjoyed riding a different, more powerful bike lately.  I just need to ride it a lot more to get stronger so I can keep up with the front guys for longer.

Dyracuse is next then the humdinger finale at the GNCC Ironman.  Those races should be good as long as I get some ride time in between now and then.