Wade Bootes: Official Web Site

WADE'S JOURNAL

Sept 24

I was invited down to the Casino BMX club to run a WBR Athlete Development work shop for the riders who will be attending the NSW State Championships next weekend at Penrith. All the riders had a great time and a lot was achieved during the day. A big thanks to Ballistic for organizing the work shop for the local riders.

Casino BMX Clinic

Sept 19

Just got back from the State BMX Championships in Toowoomba. It was a crazy weekend as the wind was blowing so hard that no tents were left standing. The race was postponed until the afternoon on Saturday, but the wind did not die down too much. Sunday the wind was still hanging around but nowhere near as bad as Saturday, at least we could jump some of the jumps now. I raced in the AA and Pro invitational Pro Shoot out. Shoot out started with 8 riders dropping one each round until 1 rider was left. I ended up taking out the title of the Pro Shoot out with Glen Codega in 2nd. AA was going good, winning everything all weekend until the semi final. Due to the winds we could not hear the announcer at the pit area and I was doing an autograph session while my semi was on the gate. The gate nearly dropped until someone told me I am suppose to be at the start. I quickly grabbed my stuff and rode on the track backwards to the gate. I just got my gear on and the race was about to begin. I ended up hitting the gate and got shut down. I tried hard to get back into 4th but just missed out and finished 5th, not transferring to the main event. I was a little annoyed as I was told that there was a break, then trophy presentation for the Sprocket riders before going into the semi finals. I am just glad it was not an important race meeting that counted for an overall series.

There is a little break in racing right now and I have a bunch of clinic's lined up to do. Check out the development page on TeamWBR for option in athlete development.

Just got word my new JBL car system is in customs at Sydney and will be arriving to my place soon. When it is all installed I will post some pictures.

Besnard called me up this morning and I went out riding moto with Steve Johnson and David for the afternoon. They have found a spot close by which was really cool. After riding we went back to David's to play some ping pong, Steve has a crazy serve which got us both every time we got close in points.

Summer is nearly here and it will soon be warm enough to get out on the jet ski and also have some fun.

Sept 9th

The 2nd UCI super cross event for 2005 was held in San Jose California in conjunction with the Dew Action Sports tour. This was also the first UCI event that counts for the 2006 World Ranking series. The course was great, a huge starting ramp about 30 - 40' above the ground which you came blazing down like a ski jump taking off to the first landing of dirt. I ended up qualifying 7th and transferred from my motos to the quarters. Here they ran 3 moto quarter and then went into 1 semi and 1 final. I made it into the semi and had a hard heat. I did not get out so well and ended up putting on my brakes as I was getting squeezed. I slowed down so much I did not have the speed to jump the huge berm cap going into the first corner. I ended up 6th in the semi and an official result of 10th place. This was my first international BMX race in over 2 years due to my MTB commitments. It was great to get back on the bike and race all the guys I have raced for years within BMX. I am looking forward doing a solid year on my BMX bike and look to have a good overall World Ranking for 2006.

First jump of 30'plus.

Part of the track was still rollerable.

Leading one of my moto's

Jumping over the last berm, which is the 3rd jump on the first straight. You can see the 2nd and 3rd straight in the picture.

Photo credit- BMXMania.com

Sept 4th

Livigno was the host of the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships this past weekend in Italy. The weather was clear and crisp and a fast long race course was built for the riders which hit 68 kph and took 54 sec to complete. As the Worlds being the biggest event in the MTB schedule all riders have prepared especially for this time of the year.

I did not have a great start to the week as I had been struck down with food poisoning. I managed to do a minimal practice session and still qualified in 7th place by 1.2 of a sec. Race day things seemed to get worse and I was then taken to a doctor a few hours before the finals would begin. All was cleared by the doctor to race and medication was prescribed to help for after the race. I missed practice and went straight into the first round of the finals. I manage to transfer to the 1/4 finals. With not much energy I still competed and was sitting in 3rd place, I made a last ditch effort down the long last straight and gained a lot of ground and flew by the 2nd place rider across the line. The line judges gave the race to the Spanish rider. A protest was put in, but due to no video on the line there was no way to double check who really qualified to the Semi. The official result stayed the same and I was eliminated from the World Championships and ended up finishing in 10th position.

In the finals seen Brian Lopes taking the lead in front of Jared Graves. Michael Deldycke and Greg Minnaar trailed behind. Lopes went home with his 3 World Championship title 2 days before his 34th Birthday.

World Championships Results:

1 Brian Lopes (United States Of America)
2 Jared Graves (Australia)
3 Mickael Deldycke (France)
4 Greg Minnaar (South Africa)
5 Eric Carter (United States Of America)
6 Roger Rinderknecht (Switzerland)
7 Kamil Tatarkovic (Czech Republic)
8 Rafael Alvarez De Lara Lu (Spain)
9 Damien Godet (France)
10 Wade Bootes (Australia)