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WADE'S JOURNAL May 31st Practice day. Course was tight but fun to ride, it does not seem there will be much passing as the straights are very short. The dirt held up really well due to all the weather we had all week here. It was dry most of the day so we all did not get wet. May 30th Happy Birthday to me!!!!!!!!!!! May 29th I
finally got to bed around 11:30pm and ended up being wide awake at
4:30am. So I turned the TV on and there is rally car racing on. This
is one of the good things about Europe, rally car racing is always
on TV.
May 28th I
am now in Glasgow, Scotland after a long flight from LAX via London.
I met up with Gary and Allan at the airport in Glasgow. It has not
stopped raining, and the weather through to the weekend looks like
it will be the same. Scotland is definitely green but also wet. We
went into town tonight for Dinner and I was trying so hard not to
fall asleep. I received an E mail from my parents regarding there trip around in the Motor Home and they are having a blast, visiting a lot of their friends and hanging out in the outback of Australia. Here they are at one of their friends property in Tarra riding horses. Giddy up!!!!
May 24th Today was pretty crazy.... Neil and I were on our way to film some more for his video and we heard this big explosion. First we did not think to much of it until we seen the smoke that was up in the sky. We decided to do a detour and go check it out.
One of the Apartments in Encino was on fire. We got a closer look and seen that about 4 apartments where just gone. They suspect a gas leak which I first thought it was Gas leak explosion. They started to block off the area and they would not let us get my car out. Neil Jumped over a few fences and ended up getting in my car and driving it out while I was watching our bikes. Then we went off to film and had a good time at the trail. Neil had to move a snake out of the way of the trail one time, he thought he was the Crocodile Hunter, and wanted to pick it up and chase me!!! I will be off to do another photo shoot in the morning at Sheep Hills for a last minute ad and catalogs for IRC. I also seen the Velo News cover, it turned out really good and should be at Bike shops next week. May 23rd I stopped in at O'neal on the way to the Simi BMX track, here is a picture of the front of the building up in Chatsworth.
The last 2 nights I did gates on my MTB to get ready for the new 4 cross format at the World cups and Norba races this year. I leave for Europe on Monday and wanted to get some last minute gates in.
Simi has changed their track, it has turn out really nice. They even added in a bridge, go check it out next time you need to practice. I am slowly going to add more video clips, I have 2 up at the moment, keep on checking back to the video section for new clips. May 21st With a few weekends off from racing I can get to ride a lot more as I don't need to rest up for a race. Today I went back to the whoop trails near Sunset Blvd. and the 405. The view is amazing up there as you can see the Beach one side and the City the other.
I ended up getting a flat on my 3rd run down. It is a 8 minute climb with a 3 minute down hill. It is a bunch of fun. May 20th I road out to the Simi trails again and did a little session out there, it rained that morning which was good as the trails needed water bad.
May 19th I had a pretty nice relaxing weekend, it is always nice to have a weekend off from racing. I ended up doing some riding and went on a cross country ride in the hills and came across the old M.A.S.H. site where they filmed the TV show. I used to watch that all the time and still do when I flick through the tele. There was some old Jeeps there and the view were exactly the same. May 17th I finally caught back up with Neil from Super Hero's and we did some more filing today at the "U" trails out in the middle of no where. The jumps were fun and we had a blast doing some 4X4ing in Neil's truck. I have to say that I wanted to get out sometimes as I could not see where we were going.... Neil handled it well and I am here to tell the story.
Those guys headed up to San Francisco to do some more filming on the weekend as I headed back to the Simi Trails for another session. May 16th The last few day I took it easy after a great weekend in Big Bear, still did a little riding and training but basically caught back up with things at home. Today I found out that I will be on the next cover of the Velo News, and also in the win ad for IRC. Later this after I did a Photo shoot for the up and coming Trek BMX catalog and also took some photos for IRC for BMX as well.
May 12th Downhill day.... I did a few runs Sunday morning to see how much the course had changed and then I went up for the qualifying run. There was about 130 riders and only 70 qualify to the main event. I did a run of 3 minutes and 30 sec and qualified 57th. Chris Kovarick had the fastest run of 3:10sec. I was having so much fun riding down the hill at the pace I was riding, so in the finals I was going to step it up a little but still not push myself to much to where I could crash. I had a OK run down the hill jumping all the jumps and just plain having fun. My time was a little better with a 3:26, I was fine with that as I made it down the hill with no damage down. Chris Kovarick ended up winning with a time of 3:08sec. A lot of guys started to crash towards the end as the course was getting really dry and slippery. The best thing for the day for me was that I beat the World Champion........ well the Female male World Champion Anne Caroline, by just over a sec.....lol. I will race the next Norba Downhill in Wisconsin and have just as much fun as I did today in Big Bear. After the races where all done we started to pack up and organize equipment that was going to Europe as the Cross country riders and staff were leaving Monday morning. I will meet up with the staff in 2 week in London as I will race the first 4 Cross World Cup in Scotland June 1st weekend. May 11th I did not do any Down Hill practice today as it was from 8am - 10am. I rested up and went to breakfast with Travis, and then we rode to the truck for our scheduled autograph session for the weekend. I had practice right before the Dual finals and just dialed a few more section in before the race started. The course was getting worse due to all the other races they run on it, you had to be careful as it was getting slippery. The races started and I won my first 2 runs and then I hit Mike King in the round of 8. King was going fast and beat me on the first run. (I started every run on the side I did not qualify as good on). In the next round I stepped it up and edged out Mike just enough to move to the round of 4. I met up with fellow country man Chris Kovarick. Again I was bet on the first run and come back to win and move into the finals against Kirt Vories. Kirt Qualified 2nd on Friday and was looking good all weekend. Again I was bet in the first round by .33 of a sec. For me to win and take the Norba Dual Slalom Title I needed to beat Kirt in the next round by .34 of a sec. I had a great run by taking it easy where I needed to and put the pedal down when I knew I could. I crossed the line first and I ended up beating Kirt by .48 of a sec which gave me the win overall and the 2002 NORBA Championship. I was so happy as all I wanted to do is win for my Mum on Mothers Day, and also dedicate this race to my dear Friend Tom Wright. Kirt ended up winning the National Title as he was the best American on the day. Lopes finished 3rd for the day and Kovarick 4th. Our team went out for dinner and celebrated our 2 wins for the weekend. I have to thank the Team staff and riders for helping out and being there for support. On the day I had Karl (Mechanic), Pavel (Team Manager) and IRC Joe at the start, Erin and Jeannie at the finish, Travis, Roland and Sue in the crowd cheering. May 10th So I am back on the Down hill circuit, everyone was so surprised, they would keep on asking me," What are you doing out here, the Dual course is over there". I was just having fun and filling in the day. I ended up doing 4 run early on and then rested up for Dual practice and Qualifying later that afternoon. Practice went well and I changed up a few things on my bike during practice, so I would be dialed in for qualifying. My first run down was good as it was the fastest time on that side, but the other side I was not as good on, but I still ended up qualifying first over all. I few guys had some trouble on one of the courses which then made the qualifying bracket a little tougher than normal. The bracket I was in had, Eric carter, Cedric Gracia, Mike King, Mike Hannah, Chris Kovarick, Brian Schmitt just to name a few of them. This will make it tough to make it to the final rounds on Saturday night. Roland Green (Trek/VW Team Mate) won the mens Cross Country, with our other team mate Travis Brown coming in a respectable 8th spot. Sue manage a 7th place finish in the Female Cross country which make this her best placing at an altitude race. Well done!! I went to the video premier of the "Evolution" Video and also seen the band "Lane eight" play as we were all there to raise money for Kelli Turcotte. May 9th Today I drove up to Big Bear and on the way stopped in at Robert Macpherson house. I arrived and checked out the course and moved all my stuff into the Team house that we rented for the weekend. The mechanics had all my bikes ready to go for tomorrow's Down hill practice and Dual practice and qualifying. The past few days I took it easy by just doing some nice easy beach rides, the weather has been great on the beach and also up here at Big Bear. May 5th The last few days I have been riding at the Irvine Slalom Trail getting ready for the Norba Dual Slalom National championship next weekend in Big Bear. This will be the only Dual slalom for the year and then they will turn over to the new 4 cross format, similar to the World cup format just 4 riders.
Today I went to Big Bear to meet up with Gary the Team Trek/VW mechanic and also Rock shock to built up and to test out my new bike and fork. I did a bunch of Downhill runs as I will be also racing Downhill in Big Bear. A few of the other Factory team were also up here testing and also riding by taking advantage of the chair lifts. I will be starting to load up some video footage in the video section, so check it out. We now have a new Team Manager for the Trek Mountain bike team, Pavel, he raced cross country for Gary Fisher last year. May 2nd I went down to Oakley today and rode with Steve Blick who is now in charge of cleaning my glasses at the races. On our ride we rode by Brian Lopes's new house, soon we will see some cool trails there. I always have to have lunch at Oakley as they have a really cool cafeteria. So I left Oakley with some cool new stuff and colors so check me out at the next race.
May 1st I went to the trails before I headed to the main headquarters of Vans to pick up some new shoes. It is always nice when you get to go back to the storage area of athlete shoes section and pick the ones you want. I came out with a box full of stuff plus a few more that will be shipped to me. When you travel so much you need to stock up on as much as you can as you never know when you will be back.
See you soon, PAST JOURNAL ENTRIES DOWN UNDER TOUR 2001-02 Mar/April
2002
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