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Let’s see; where shall I start? Oh yeah: I had a big race in Europe at the beginning of this month. This was my first race back on my bike after I broke my collarbone. I first flew to the Netherlands to visit my parents and sister. Every time I have a race in Europe, I try to go visit my parents as well; that way, I don’t have to pay for a trip to see my parents.
After a couple of days being in the Netherlands, I flew with the Dutch national team to southern France. The UCI SX race was in Frejus at the same location as the Roc d’Azur. It’s a big MTB event and a diehard MTBer has probably heard of it. The track looked good, but it was another story when we started riding on it. Somehow, the track didn’t flow too well. It was weird, because the track itself looked good. The UCI had to change the third straight a bit, but after that was done, it was all good.
I was having a hard time. Not being able to ride my bike much because of my collarbone killed my endurance. I was half-dead halfway through the first practice session. The track was super-long too, and that wasn’t helping me much either. Oh well, I had to deal with it, and that was it. After practice, I had to set a time to qualify. The first 64 riders would qualify for the race. Normally, that would not be a problem, but I was still tired from practice. The first lap was going well until the last turn. Coming out of the last turn, my legs turned into blubber. I 50/50ed the double and lost all my speed for the next double, which was right after the one I 50/50ed, and I ended up crashing. I was 71st after the first qualifying session. I tried to save my energy during the second qualifying lap by not going 100% until the last turn. This time I was able to jump the last straight and qualified 47th.
When we showed up at the track the next day for the race, it was too windy to do the second straight and the last straight. The jumps were big, so it was sketchy from time to time. I was saving as much energy as I could during the motos. I was able to make it all the way through to the main event. I was on the outside and had a good start. I bonked the first jump though, and that slowed me down a bit. This put me in fourth place and I wasn’t able to catch the guy in third. I was happy with my fourth place, but I was bummed that I bonked the first jump because I might have been able to get on the podium. Oh well, that’s how it goes sometimes.
After the drug test, we all headed back to the hotel. The weather was so nice we decided to jump into the sea. The water was a bit cold, but after 30 seconds, you were used to it. After dinner, I hit a big wall. I was so tired I could hardly walk. The whole team went to Frejus to a nightclub but I was too tired to even think about it.
The week after that, my coach and I did some tests on and off the bike. It was boring stuff, so I will not bore you guys with it. On Wednesday, I went out to dinner with the local guys from my old local track. After dinner, we played some pool at the local bar. We had a lot of fun.
I flew back to Cali on the 14th with my parents. My parents are staying at my house until November 7. I had a road trip planned for all of us. I will keep it short so it will not turn into a book. What I had planned was to drive to Yosemite, from there to San Francisco and we would take Highway 1 back to my house. We did all of this in six days. We had a lot of fun, and the weather was awesome.
I can try to tell you guys how nice Yosemite is, but that is impossible to tell. You have to go there yourself to really see and feel everything. The Sequoia trees are so big. I felt so tiny when I stood next to one. The valley itself is very beautiful too. You can go to Glacier Point and overlook the whole valley. You can see Half Dome and some waterfalls. We stayed in the valley in a small cabin. I had to fool my parents a bit to go with me to a waterfall. The climb is pretty steep and my parents are not that young anymore. I knew they could do it, but I had to fool them a bit. They made it, but not after a lot of complaining, ha ha. But they were happy they walked up to the waterfall. Like I said, I can’t explain how beautiful YSN is. We also saw some deer, a grey wolf and a small bear as well.
The drive to San Francisco was a bit boring when we got out of the mountains. I had never been to SF; I never got past San Jose. That’s about 45 minutes south of SF. We did all the tourist stuff, drove the cable cars, went to Alcatraz and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge.
On the way back from SF, we stopped in Monterey to go to the aquarium. I called Joey Bradford the day before to ask him if he wanted to go. He lives in Monterey, and I thought it would be fun to hook up. They had some big tanks in the aquarium. There was a little area they call the touch zone. You could touch all kinds of sea plants and animals. No big or dangerous animals, but slugs, urchins, crabs, anemones and more. Joey and I were touching everything. Some felt nasty, and some felt completely different from what you expected.
After the aquarium, we drove down 17-mile drive. This is a winding road right next to the ocean, and it will take you past some nice golf courses, and some big, and I’m saying BIG houses. I stopped at a small parking lot, and we saw a bunch of sea otters chillin’ on their backs in the ocean. We stayed that night in Monterey because it was getting dark, and I didn’t want to drive on Highway 1 in the dark. It’s a two-lane road, and it goes up and down right next to the ocean. You have to drive it in the daylight so you are able to see everything.
We left early the next day and the sun was just peeking over the mountains. The view was awesome and the road was a lot of fun to drive on. It would be a good road for rally cars. Going up, down, left and right. We stopped in San Luis Obispo to go by a Dutch bakery to buy some Dutch pastries. I had to race home because I bought some goodies that couldn’t be out of the fridge for long. The trip was long, fast and a lot of fun. If you are in California in the future you should go and check these places out if you have the chance. This was my little vacation because there was a new training program waiting for me which would start that Monday.
On one of my rest days, my parents, my wife and I went down to Laguna Beach. The weather was nice, but not nice enough to go in to the ocean. But my dad has been telling me for a couple of weeks now that he wanted to swim in the Pacific Ocean, so today was the day. I know how cold the water is and I’m not going in there at this time of the year, and I told this to my dad as well, but he still wanted to go in. When he was walking in the water I could tell the water was cold, but my dad didn’t want to admit it. I asked him how the water was when he got out, and he told me it was fine; yeah, right. After that, we walked up and down the beach.
I’m going to stop now, or this will turn into a book. Next month, I have to go to Las Vegas for the first race of the season. Yes, you are reading this correctly: this is the first race for ’07. See you all next month.
I want to thank my sponsors: Maxxis, Troy Lee Designs, Oakley, Shimano, Sun Ringle, Ogio, G3 and Sponsorhouse.com.
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Hello everybody. I have been traveling a lot this month. I had to go to Canada twice and to Pittsburgh. I collected a lot of air miles; I’m going to use them for a nice vacation to either Hawaii or Alaska when I have the time.
The first race was in Aidrie, close to Calgary. I was supposed to arrive around 2:00 p.m., but I got stuck in Denver for ten hours. My flight got canceled, and I had to get on a later flight. I had just bought a PSP a couple of days before, and it came to good use that day. I was able to get the last seats for Thomas Fernandez and myself on the last flight to Calgary that day. Thomas was on my original flight that day. I played so much on my PSP while we were waiting that my eyes were hurting. We arrived at midnight. John Purse picked me up from the airport. Purse and I were sharing the rental car and hotel room for the weekend. I couldn’t sleep in as long as I wanted because I had to be at the track before 9:30 am on Saturday to show my membership.
My eyes were open but my brain was still asleep. Practice went terribly. I was all over the place, and I almost crashed a couple of times. The track was good and a lot of fun to ride on when my brain was awake, ha ha. The moto’s were rough on me, but I was able to qualify for the main. I had an awesome gate in the main, and I was able to put in a good consistent lap for the first time for the day. I won with Lebel in second and Purse in third. Later that day, Purse and I went to Calgary for some food and to check it all out. We were still wearing our sunglasses at 9:00 p.m. The next day started the same as the day before, slow and all over the place. I was able to crank out one good lap for the main, and I was able to win on Sunday. I had a lot of fun at the track, but I was happy that I was going home so I could sleep in my own bed.
The next weekend I had to go to Pittsburgh. I needed some good scores to gain points because this was the last chance to get points before the final race in Louisville. I flew out on Thursday afternoon, and I arrived in Pittsburgh at midnight. I normally fly on Friday, but if I had done that, I would have missed practice. I could sleep in anyway, so getting in late wasn’t a big deal. They changed the track a little bit compared to last year. The track was good and really fast. Mike Day and I hit up the early practice so we could go back to the hotel early and chill for a bit.
The weekend was like a roller coaster ride for me. I had good and bad results. I won class on Sunday and that helped me to close the gap with the leaders for the NBL title. I didn’t do so well in the UCI races. I didn’t make it on Saturday, and I blew my gate in the main on Sunday. This was the last weekend before the NBL Grand’s. I’m 12 points behind the leader. It’s going to be tough to win the title, but there is still a good chance for me to win it. The flight back was nice and smooth for a change. I arrived on time in Orange County.
The weekend after Pittsburgh I went back to Canada for the last UCI North America Continental race. The race was held in Grabtree, close to Montreal. I went to this race last year, too. The track was good, and the atmosphere was great last year. Sean picked me up from the airport again. Last year, he drove me around for the whole weekend. It was good to see him again. John Purse arrived a couple of minutes later. We went straight to the track to check it out. The track looked good. Dylan the track operator was there, too. He took care of our lodging, food and all the other things we needed for the weekend. Thank you, Dylan, for taking care of John and me.
The weather was nice on Saturday and Sunday. It was a bit windy at some moments, but we all managed to stay on our bikes. I won both days, and John got a third on Saturday and a second on Sunday. The best part of the weekend was Saturday night. Dylan booked a wrestling team to perform on Saturday night. It was so much fun. The crowd got into it, and the wrestlers played it good. I almost lost my voice from yelling too much. John has never seen a wrestling match, but he knew a lot of the moves they were doing. At the end of the show, one of the locals jumped onto the field and climbed on the ropes in his underwear. The organizer didn’t like it too much, but the crowd went wild. The local had to run for his life because the staff was chasing him down the baseball field. He made $60 for doing it. On Sunday afternoon, Sean dropped me off at the airport; thanks for driving John and me around, Sean. I had a great time, and I will go back to Grabtree next year, for sure. I want to thank Dylan, Sean and his girlfriend for taking care of John and me.
I have one more thing. The Tuesday before Pittsburgh, I split ways with my bike sponsor, Staats. Staats wasn’t able support me for the ’06 season so we had to split. We had a good talk before we made the decision. I want to thank Staats for their support over the years, and I had a lot of fun riding for them.
I want to thank my sponsors: Maxxis, Troy Lee Designs, Oakley, Shimano, Sun Ringle, Ogio, Ciari, G3, and Sponsorhouse.com.
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