WADE'S
JOURNAL
April
20th
Laguna
Seca Race Way was the host of the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California this
past weekend. With the Sea Otter Classic being the first big festival race for
the Mountain bike season, riders and teams get to dial in there new products and
show off their new team colors for the year. The Sea Otter Classic is a huge bicycle
festival which has all kinds of racing from Road, Cross Country, Downhill, Slalom,
Mountain Cross, Dirt Jumping events and a lot of other activities for the spectators
and kids to participate in. The weather was fine all weekend which made for a
dry course for all. Sea Otter is also known for the Omnium event which is the
combined points of all 3 activities in your discipline. The Gravity Omnium consisted
of the Slalom, Downhill and Mountain cross events. With the thousands of spectators
and racers during the week made for a fun weekend for all.
Mountain Cross
was the main focus for me this weekend as I was testing out the new Percentage
Designs Mountain Cross frame. The course had changed slightly from last year which
made for some close racing. I managed to qualify 3rd which put myself in a tough
bracket for the day. I made it to the final by beating out the likes of Bas De
Bever, Mike King and Steve Pete to finally meet up with Brian Lopes and 2 other
Aussie boys, Jarrod Graves and Bryn Atkinson. Lopes had the inside lane, which
seen him get to an early lead. Graves and I had a great battle back and forth
which eventually seen me pass Graves on the down hill section of the Mountain
Cross course. I was not close enough to Lopes on the line to take the win which
seen Graves and Atkinson battle it out for 3rd and 4th.
1st Lopes (USA), 2nd
Bootes - (AUST) TeamWBR, 3rd Graves (AUST), 4th Atkinson (AUST).
The Slalom
course was not as favorable to me this year as the top section of the course was
built a lot tighter than the years past. I have been a winner and a consistent
finalist at this event for many years, but this time I only managed to qualify
16 which seen me eliminated early in the final rounds.
1st - Rennie (AUST),
2nd - Atkinson (AUST), 3rd - Bariel (FRA), 4th - Houseman (USA) 17th - Bootes
(AUST) TeamWBR
Downhill at the Sea otter has also been a great course
for me as I has placed in the top 10 for the past few years. I did not get to
race this event this year due to building and dialing in the new Percentage Mountain
Cross bike, as I only received the frame at the Sydney International Airport on
my was to Monterey. There for I was not able to better my 3rd place in the Gravity
Omnium from last year and had to settle for 28th position.
1st - Jared Graves
(AUST), 2nd - Steve Peat (UK) 3rd - Fabien Barel (FRA) 4th - Mick Hannah (AUST),
5th - John Kirkcaldie (NZ) DNS - Bootes (AUST)
Australia has been producing
some great results in the gravity scene for the past few years and 2005 looks
like it will be no different. I will be going back to my BMX bike this week and
getting ready for the next 2 UCI World Ranking Rounds in Australia and then heading
back to the States in June to defend my Jeep King of the Mountain Series title
that I won last year.
I
would like to thank all the guys at Jamis for letting me pit with them and helping
me out during the week. I am also excited working with all the new products I
am using this year. I also lined up a few more sponsors while over at Sea Otter
for myself and TeamWBR. I would like to thank Bell Helmets, Funn Products and
Truvativ for supporting our program for the year.
My
new race bike for Mountain Cross.
Out
front on the new bike just hours after putting it together.
On
the podium at Sea Otter.
April
16th
Slalom
racing at Sea Otter.
April
5th
For
the past 7 weeks the Shanghai BMX race team have been in Australia gaining experience
from racing and being coached by some of the best BMX riders and coaches in the
world. They head back to China this weekend and prepare for their National Championships
next week. It has been an experience also for me as I have enjoyed working with
the 4 riders. It looks like I will get to go to China in the future to conduct
some more training and coaching to these riders and hopefully some others while
I am over there. It has been amazing to see the difference from when these riders
arrived here in Australia till now with their skill level... Remember that these
riders do not even have a track where they live and to now see them jumping big
doubles and going through rhythm sections at high speed is a credit to there commitment
and dedication to learning. I wish them all the best for next week and I hope
to see them again soon.
Shanghai,
China race team.
