Jay Richards

First day of school. Can hardly believe it. Even Jens went a half day for pre-school. He fell asleep 10 min before we got there and I thought for sure he be tough to pass off but he was a trooper. First time in 13 years all the kids will be gone during the day for at least three hours, twice a week. Wow, where does the time go. Jonell and I towed in the tandem and went out for a nice 35 mile ride around Detroit Lake, Detroit Mountain and Sally/Melissa lakes. Beautiful day. We rode past the middle school when we went out to DM saw Jon in the playground. I am sure people will be talking in town now. Ha! The bmx track operator called last night saying September racing was on and Jon said he would go if I raced so I did. It was fun. When I got up to the start ramp to do some warmup laps, this kid about 7 says "don't go inside, you'll crash. The corners are soft" I said okay, I'll check it out. Racing felt pretty good. My chain had a little slack and I dropped it on one practice lap so I was a little cautious about that. I was in moto 1 Cruiser class with a 12 year old girl and a 13 year old boy. The girl schooled it. I was pretty careful off the start as I didn't think it would be good to be in the way and take out some kids, I am sure the parents would be happy about that. Anyways, I was third the first heat, 2nd the 2nd and was right on the wheel of the girl for the last time around and I dropped a chain again on the last berm just as I was going to try and make a move and go around. The last heat I told that 7 year old I was going to the inside to try and sneak out since my tyres were bigger and I could roll through the lose better. Next time I race I'll start recruiting some of those kids to mountain biking. Oh, when I came rolling in after dropping the chain, this guys comes up to me, who didn't see me drop the chain says "out of shape, huh" I said, yah, just got this bike. Haven't really ridden much before. Just quit smoking and trying to get in shape". Oh, yeah. Got to take home one of those fancy trophys.
Regarding bmx, the track in the back yard is just hard and smooth after the rain over the weekend and all the kids riding on it. Jon hit the gap jump last night for the first time. I see the UCI bmx calendar is released. Hopefully I will know our status soon!

Wrapped up a great weekend for the Laddies Loppet once again. There are so many little things that happened that put a smile on my face and if I had the time I would write about it. Bottom line some great people all having a good time and racing hard, all classes. The weather was putting me on edge Friday night and Saturday morning but the way the situation was in other parts of the state, we came through pretty darn good. I was impressed with Dan Swanson. He wins the tt, caught some bad luck in the STXC and rode smart and solid in the xc for a top 10 finish. He was pretty banged up from some road crash but held together nicely. Chris Fisher had a solid xc race to move up a few spots in the overall stage, which was taken by crazy man Paul Hanson. Good thing Paul and I didn't go to high school together the way he was doing rally car on Sat I hear. Reminds of the days I had this old Chevette and did that. Painted camo and the whole issue. Anyways, Some close times which made for some tight racing is what I was hoping it would be. Thanks again to everyone who came to support the race. I hope Jenna is okay. I'll have to touch base to see. .

Our former/bosses and owners of the Izaak Walton Inn are stopping by tonight. I am sure we'll reflect on some old stories. Should be fun. Damn kids, Larry would always say.