Wade Bootes: Official Web Site

WADE'S JOURNAL

August 29th

Ready for some down hill from Leysin to Aigle, Switzerland.

August 28th.

Cruising the streets of the village I was staying in.

August 27th.

Getting some air at the UCI BMX track.

August 24th.

I headed off to Europe today to get ready for the Worlds in Switzerland. I will be staying near the UCI training center and hanging out at the Gym and the BMX track there. Also going to do some Mountain bike stuff with the UCI BMX organizer, Johan.

August 23rd.

The final round of the Jeep King of the Mountain series was held in Kirkwood, CA near Lake Tahoe. These events have been super cool, everything taken care of and organized well and all the riders had to do is show up and ride. Yesterday was qualifying and I ended up 1st with Steve Pete 2nd and Mike Hannah 3rd. I ended up having Kirt Vories in the first round and ended up winning both rounds. This is like the old slalom course but towards the end we ride on the same course to the finish with big jumps. They have called it the Y format which works really good. Next heat I had Cedric and again I won both rounds. In the final I had Bas De Bever. Bas won the first round on the faster side by .26 of a sec. Knowing I went .6 of a sec faster in qualifying on the faster side I knew I still had a good chance to win. The last race was really close, I was leading then Bas and back to me. I ended up winning by enough to take over the lead and the series final win for the day. Katrina finished 2nd to Moseley and this gave us the team win for the day as well. Knowing the points where close for the overall for everything, made it exciting to wait and hear the results. Bas ended up winning the overall individual mens and taking home a Jeep then same with Sabrina from France for the girls. For the Team overall I knew that Katrina and I had a good chance and when the results where added up again we ended up taking the overall team win. Taking home $10000 from Paul Mitchell and a Home surround sound stereo unit from Infinity. I also won a Fender Guitar as they were also a sponsor of the event along with a siemens phone. So by the end of the day Katrina and I took home over $20000 and prizes for a days work.... Not bad huh!!
Later that night we went down to South Lake Tahoe and had a nice dinner organized by the Jeep series and partied on at the Caesar's Palace Casino.

The perks of winning races sponsored by a Casino.

August 17th.

Starting a new career in short track??

Steve Pete celebrating his DH win and new hair style.

Kathy Pruitt and Nathan Rennie, Katrina Miller and Erin Collar, Chris Kovarick, April Lawyer and Steve Pete all enjoying the team podium for best dressed.

August 12th.

Went into Hollywood for an Oakley party. It was a big night, I had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone and enjoying the entertainment. It was a true Hollywood Party!!!

Crowd going crazy with the boys on the mic.

Blick from Oakley makes sure he takes care of his athletes.

August 10th.

I woke up with my foot already sore and decided at that time I was not going to risk jumping all the course and damage my foot any more. When I arrived to the track I was going to tell Tomas to suit up and take my spot, but he had been in hospital all night as he ended up breaking a rib in one of the crashes he had yesterday. So I spoke to the race organizer and told him I will not be completing the course but would still like to start and help do some helmet cam filming for the first half of the track. This was all good so I got all my gear on to warm up and film half a race.
The racing was pretty much follow the leader after the second corner but there was a lot of crashes in the first straight and corner. In the semi's only 4 riders made it out of the first corner in both semi's. The racing was still cool to watch as the guys were racing for $15000 for 1st. Everyone ended up winning some money as the from 17th-32nd received $500 for qualifying into the X games.
Brandon Meadows ended up winning with Kyle Bennett 2nd and Mike Day in 3rd.
After the racing I ended up doing a tour of Woodward West with one of the owners and a few friends. This place is so good, it has everything you want to play on. Then we drove back towards LA and stopped near Hollywood and had some really good Sushi.

August 9th.

40 riders were invited to the X Games and only 32 will end up qualifying for the race tomorrow. I am already qualified for tomorrow's race as I finished 4th last year as they are taking the top 8 from last years final. With 4 riders not showing up and 3 riders injured in practice, left only 33 riders to qualify and one to miss out. The final spot was between Tomas Allier and Christophe Leveque. Tomas had trouble getting down the course in qualifying as he had 2 big crashes during the day and finished with a max time of 1min 20sec. Christophe did not jump one of the jumps and finished the course in 52 sec. With myself not finishing the course gave me the last spot qualifier at 32nd. Fastest qualifier was Brandon Meadows who was the 2001 X Games Champion. I am going to see how I feel tomorrow and if I my foot is not up to racing I will pull out and let Tomas take my spot as he is completing the whole course.
Later that night most of the riders gathered at the lodge and had a few drinks and were all just shooting the shit.

August 8th.

Today was practice at the BMX Downhill X Games and this course is huge. I went into today being careful of my ankle and did what I felt comfortable with and to see if I will be able to race on Sunday. I ended up doing the top half of the track but was having trouble when landing as my foot could not take any hard hits. The ESPN medical staff taped up my foot which helped some but it was not taking away the pain I was feeling.

August 3rd.

I have been in Germany staying with the Australian Track team for the last few days and got to see Rochelle race an awesome race to place 2nd in the World in the 10km Scratch event. The only Gold medal for Australia went to the 4km team pursuit and smashing the world record by 2 1/2 seconds. Australia also came home with 7 silver medals. It was a quick trip as tomorrow I am off back to LA for the BMX downhill X games. Still not sure how I will go as my ankle is still sore from the BMX Worlds.