Wade Bootes: Official Web Site

WADE'S JOURNAL

Sept 15th.

Yesterday was cross country and I feel sorry for the riders as with the muddy conditions made for a hard race. Most of the day was packing up as the MTB season was over and I was heading back the States for a week to race the new UCI BMX super cross series.

Sept 13th.

Downhill finished and Nathan Rennie just won the Overall world cup....this is huge for him and Australia. Sabrina won the girls overall. We finally got on the 4 cross course and it was really soft but the crew did a great job to get it in the condition it was. They ended up covering most of the course with some gravel but not enough time to get the first straight covered. Of course this was the worst part of the track and caused a lot of problems with having a fair start as some lanes you would ride along and just flip over the bars due to the muddy conditions. So after practice they decided to try and move the start and have a more fair race. Not really sure what happened in the hour that UCI tried to figure it all out, but by the end of it they just canceled the race. With the rain starting to come down again and running out of day light it was probably the best decision to make at that time, but if they just did what they wanted at the time they made a call to move the start the race could have been ran. Seems to me there is to many head workers in the UCI mountain bike department and no one wants to be the one to make a decision. I hope they can figure it out for next year and listen and make quick decisions so that we can all race...... After the overall awards for the year where I finished 4th, we all took off to the Baum bar once again.

Sept 12th.

More rain had fallen during the night and again the UCI decided to give it one more day to hopefully see the sun and have a great race after the downhill on Saturday. All the changing of schedules was also messing up are night life at the Baum Bar, but this did not stop us from going out for a few hours each night and having a great time.

Sept 11th.

There was a change of schedule and they decided to do practice today and then qualify and race tomorrow. But due to the rain this week practice was again canceled, as it would have just destroyed the course.

Sept 10th.

I left Venice, Italy by train to head off to the World Cup finals in Kaprun, Austria. I arrived into Kaprun just in time for team dinner.

Sept 8th.

After another big night out, this time with most of the team, we just got up in time to get our bag down stairs and in the cars to start to head off to Kaprun. At the very last minute I decide to get on a train and spend a few days in Venice, so the team dropped me off on the way through Verona so that I could jump on a train.

Sept 5th.

Today was the Worlds for 4 cross but they did not start practice till 6pm and then the race at 9pm. So it was a very long day waiting to ride. The course was very fast during practice and I had to change up my set up a bit since qualifying. I was feeling good, the bike was working perfect, and I knew I had a chance to take home my second World Championship. I won the first 3 rounds easily and knocking out a few good guys on the way, like King and Bas de Bever. Going into the semi I had Prokolp, lane one, my self in 2 Cedric in 3 and Schmitt in 4. I had a great start and had the lead, Prokolp was bumping me in the hip over the first jump, trying to keep his line. For some stupid reason I started to put on the brakes as the first bend had 2 berm in it and I thought I was going to be heading towards the middle and crashing. Instead of just taking control and moving over more on Prokolp I ended up slowing down and letting all 3 riders go by..... In the second corner I got by Cedric and was gaining on the others but had no line to pass and finished 3rd for another year in a row in the semi and not making it to the main. I was so mad at myself for what I did and ended up going back to the top for the loser final and winning, which gave me 5th. I was for sure riding the best I have every been for a long time and was happy to feel like that again and knowing I was fast. Just so frustrated I could not go all the way to prove I was the fastest on the night when I was. Prokolp ended up wining from start to finish with Carter, Lopes and Schmitt to follow. Later that night I went out with some friends and had a really fun time at one of the local clubs. All I can say are that the drinks are expensive.

Sept 4th.

Practice and qualifying. The course was very loose with small rocks on top making it very slippery. We had some big jumps and also going pretty fast in sections. In qualifying I ended up sliding in one corner before a huge double which I ended up casing and loosing some time. I still qualified 5th with Prokolp 1st, Carter 2nd, deldicke 3rd, Beaumont 4th. Lopes was back racing and qualified 6th.

Sept 1st.

I drove up to Lugano from Aigle with some of the UCI staff and meet up with the rest of the Trek/Volkswagen team. This place was really nice, with a huge lake and Ferrari's all over the place just like if they where Honda Civics, it was crazy.