Wade Bootes: Official Web Site

WADE'S JOURNAL

Feb 27th.

The Australian National Championships weekend kicked off with the 4X. With ex-world 4X champion, Wade Bootes (Trek/VW), and South California's Tara Llanes (Giant - Pearl Izumi) in attendance, the racing was going to be top quality.

After an initial cull which decided a final 16 riders, both Bootes and Llanes emerged with clean runs while top Aussie favourites stacked into the finals.

With a superstar line up in the men's final of Jarred Rando (Giant - Pearl Izumi, Wade Bootes (Trek/VW), Mick Hannah (Haro) and Luke Madill (GT), it was going to be a rough-and-tumble start. An early jump from Bootes ruffled the ex-world champ's feathers and he moved down on Madill, who hit the deck after bouncing off Rando. Bootes eventually came through the tangle but couldn't beat Hannah to the first corner, while Rando was gathering his composure to round in third.

The race was truly between Bootes and Hannah though as the latter scorched the course with a clear path in front of him. Bootes threw everything at Hannah but couldn't get close enough to make a move and Hannah came through for a solid win over Bootes, who really had seemed unbeatable all day.

Hannah was ecstatic, saying after his win, "that was awesome, I had an awesome start. The others came together but I had the inside line and I was outta there!" Bootes was full of praise for Hannah and noted that "on such a fast course, after Mick got through the corner first, he was just too hard to catch."

Madill, who came of worst out of the bingle at the start gate, was not to unhappy.

"It was tough at the start - there was just too many people fighting for the one line."

The 4X was really well attended this year, both in terms of the start-list and the crowd. With some amazing skills on show half-way through the afternoon with the jump comp (won by U19 freak Brokov) the crowd were wowed all afternoon. And although the crowd were really stoked to see Mick Hannah take the win over the seemingly unbeatable Bootes, all were happy that the long time US-based 4X legend had come to contest his National titles - Mick was for sure!

Results
Elite Men

1 Mick Hannah (Haro)
2 Wade Bootes (Trek/VW)
3 Jarred Rando (Giant-PI)

Leading through the first corner.
(Cyclingnews.com)

Feb 13th.

A Day with KAMA.

Today Kama, Johnno and myself had planned on doing a road ride, leaving at 5:45am with the crazy bunch on the Gold Coast. Like always the ride was hard and fast. Later that day, Kama and I went to the gym and I got to see Kama do a few arm curls so he can look even better for the ladies. Now that Kama was all buffed up he wanted to go test ride his new bike around Broadbeach and also get a tan.... a full body tan..... I will most probably see more of Kama around my area, so you may have to stay tunned for more action.

Kama stopped at a light's on his road ride.

Soon to be Kama's new promotional poster.

Feb 12th.

Having a break during our motor cross day.

Feb 7th.

Round 4 of the National DH and XC series was held an hour from my place this weekend, so I decided to go out and have a few runs on the downhill course. The course was a lot of fun as I was riding my "free ride" Liquid Trek bike. I was having a blast and had a great time. Today they had a speed trap section sponsored by Tag Heuer. So I had a few goes to see how fast I could get up to and I ended up with the fastest speed at 76.59 km/ph. All day It was hyped up from the riders saying that the winner will get a $850 Tag watch for the fastest time and I was getting all excited.... until they mentioned that the Tag watch was going to be given away as a random draw of all entrance for the weekends race. So I ended up winning a hat and T-shirt for my efforts of high speed action. Mike Hannah was the next rider to come close to my speed at 10 km/ph slower. All in all I had a fun day riding and training on my mountain bike preparing for the National 4X championships at the end of the month in Eildon, Victoria.

Launching from the rocks.

Setting up for a the next corner.

On the way down.

Feb 2nd.

Today I started my new training schedule for the 2004 season. I have been training before this but more as a fitness base and having fun at the same time. Now it is time to put in the hard work and be ready for the first World cup in June. With less BMX racing this year, this allows me to give my body a complete rest from last year and focus mainly on the mountain bike season this year.
Also today I picked up my new Touareg from VW.... it is awesome. This was the first time I was able to see inside of one and this is a really impressive vehicle. I have to thank Heidi from Volkswagen USA for helping organize a car for me in Australia. Thanks to Brad, Amy and Derek from VW Australia for also making this happen.

Austral Motors VW handing over the keys to a 2004 Touareg.