WADE'S JOURNAL

March 1, 2001
I arrived back to the States Monday, February 5th, and that afternoon I went to Sheep Hills to work on my bike skills. I needed to get to the trail and to a BMX track that week, as I had to race my first BMX race that weekend in Wichita, KS. I was having some trouble as that Wednesday before the race was my first gate start since the 3rd main at the ABA Grand Nationals. But somehow, come Saturday I pulled it all together with a win overall in the AA Pro class with a 3rd, 2nd 1st in the mains. I was a little surprised, as I did not spend a lot of time on my BMX bike in my off-season. But I did have a lot of strength as I was still in my strength phase of training for the first part of the year. I ended up a 3rd overall on Sunday as I had some trouble in the first main out of the gate with Jason Carnes which kept me with a 6th, 3rd 2nd in the main. The weather was cold as it was snowing and had ice on the roads, but that did not stop Robert (MacPherson), Grant (White) and I to have some fun skills sessions in the rental car.

The following week was my last week of strength work and I may have went a little to heavy on Thursday which may have started my problem in the top of my back. I lifted a whopping 500 lbs doing squats on the smith machine and dead lifted 390 lbs (Both a personal best). That Saturday I did sprints and then went to the Ontario BMX track for practice, for the National the following weekend. I started to feel my back getting a little tight and had trouble moving freely. I thought it was just a tight muscle and it would go away. I headed off to the Trek/Volkswagen Mountain bike training camp on Monday the 19th of February with still a sore back. I had it worked on by the team soigneur's but it was not recovering fast enough for me to race at the ABA National in Ontario, CA. So I rested most of the week and did some easy road rides with the team.

Our training camp was in Solvang, CA, just north of Santa Barbara. The team was there for 2 weeks, we all did some training, worked on our new bikes with the new mechanic, take team photos and have time for some team bonding before the mountain bike season starts. We have a killer team this year with Mike Mayer - Team Director, Sherie Nelson - Team Coordinator, Chad Moore - Team Manager, Gary Wolff - Head Mechanic, Sean Langeheine - Primarily my Mechanic, Karen Stubbs - Head soignuer, Patty Spiller - Primarily my Soignuer, Travis Brown, Roland Green, Matt Kelly, Ruthie Matthes and Alison Sydor as the Cross Country riders for the team and then we have me as the Dual slalom and Down Hill rider. We all had a bunch of fun, and all look forward to start off the season at Sea Otter in a few weeks.

Travis and I had some free time at camp as it was raining a lot and we started to mess around with my XR 50. We ended up mounting a Pscylo Rock Shock fork on the front with a 20" wheel. We added a fender and some cool handle bars and now it is even more fun to ride. I think I am going to put a 16" disk brake wheel in the front and try and put a triple clamp Rock Shock fork up front and a Fox rear shock in the rear. Then this bike will be sweet and have a super plush feel. I think nearly every one who rode the bike at camp crashed it, with Roland and Chad being the best as the flipped it going in a straight line on the side walk. There will be many more adventures on the 50 during the season as it now stays in the team truck all year.

I have 2 races in March, El Paso, TX for BMX and the Sea Otter Classic for mountain bikes. I will race 3 events there, Dual slalom, Downhill and Mountain cross, which is 4 riders on the same course.

So keep in touch as I will soon be doing more journals as the season starts rollin' and new photos will be posted soon.

See you soon,
Wade Bootes

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February 1, 2001
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December 1, 2000