Jay Richards

Jonell and I finally got on the tandem. We rode two laps of the beginner course at dusk while Jake was on babysitting patrol. We tried to clean that first singletrack section but it didn't go so good. Probably not the best thing to do the first time out but I asked Jonell if she wanted to try it and she said sure so we went for it. The ski trails that were used in the course are so buffed and the downhills were crazy fast fun. A cold front came through yesterday and long sleeves were in order. Very nice. Earlier in the day I took the Salsa out for the first time and did a warm up lap. The first lap was at 31 min and I was, wow, this is good. So I did a fast lap and was gunning for a sub 29 but came across the line right on the money at 29. Just a few minor adjustments and it will be good to go.
If you were here for the Spring Opener this past weekend, you might of noticed the Parilla or Argentenean bbq. The day Arne completed the grill work (few weeks ago), I wanted to test it out so I did some dogs. Then a few days later I did some burgers, last night thought we thought we would spend our earnings from this past weekend to do some steaks so Jonell was in town and purchased a few ribeyes and tenderloins from the local meat market. We use the Texas charcoal which is basically wood scrapes that are converted to charcoal but you don't have the brisket soot taste. It works great. The grill has v grooves which collect the grease and some of it "steams" back to the meat for some tasty flavor.

Well, the bike race weekend. Everything went really, really well. A big thanks to all who came to participate and a big thanks to all the volunteers who helped make it happen. And of course, the sponsorship this year was 3-4 steps up for the Laddies which is necessary to cover the cash payouts, officials expenses and timing to name a few. Steve was a huge help with everything and guys like that are hard to come by. The officials were very impressed with the organization including the timing, and Bruce Adelsman and skinnyski. (don't forget to give credit to Bruce if you use his pics on your blog, thanks to those who do)

On Friday the officials walked the entire course and when they came back, there were three pages of suggestions/modifications. (I was told don't look at the report until Sunday night so I didn't and yesterday did that fast lap and noticed many of the things they were talking about that I was always numb to since i have ridden this course hundreds and hundreds of times and some fine tuning will only make it better) At first I was a little defensive and in panic mode but Steve and I got busy and did the changes requested, spending about 3.5 hours. After the weekend, Steve and I talked about that and we both agreed it made for a better event. The racers didn 't probably notice the changes but it was good. The officials were doing their job and they were really good people to work with. I'm the type of promoter that has the attitude that I will work with anyone to make things better. These folks have been doing it for almost 30 years and if you look at the number of them and all the events combined, it covers easily over 1000 events from low key events to Nationals, World Cups and Olympics. It was great talking to these folks and picking their brains because I love shooting the breeze on anything bike related. They do it for the love of cycling. They know all the Pros and some of them work a lot of regional events and know a lot of the riders in their regions. Also the USA Cycling folks I worked with were all very helpful and very quick to answer questions and always offered to help out in anyway.

With that said, I do have to throw my rants down which isn't my style but I will say it to get it off my chest and hopefully it doesn't open a can of worms. It really bothered me when the whole "NORBA Sucks" movement was going on. It seemed, to me, that Velonews took this as far as they could because it made for good press, doing pretty lengthly articles that I could see the points but I also thought there was another side of the coin that wasn't reported. I was promoting and racing through all of that and personally things were fine with me. Yes, there were some issues but all organizations go through some growing pains and people were just trying to do what they thought was best for cycling. Some changes have been made and there are the negative critics of these changes but hopefully the changes will improve the state of mtb racing in this country. Things are a lot different now with the gravity/freeride movement so huge and the point to point, 24 hour events really taking off.

With Velonews, I was disapointed that in their moutain bike preview, they did not list our event or Greenbriar, the only two UCI events not in the NMBS. They talk up the importance of UCI events this year but yet fail to mention two events that are helping riders with the chase. Also, in the calendar in the back, they had our contact info wrong. I contacted them about that but never heard back. I finally got through and just my e-mail address was corrected. Well, a few issues later, the e-mail address was wrong again so I contacted them. Still not changed. Finally, the issue that come out 3 days before our event (when I rec'd it anyways) the e-mail address was right and the website. I am probably making a bigger deal out of this than I should but having been a NORBA (now called USA Cycling-MTB) license holder for 17 years and a subscriber to Velonews (among a dozen of other cycling subscrptions) to steal from Velonews, USA Cycling makes the "hot" list and Velonews makes the "not" list. Anyways....

Along the lines of importance of UCI points, I was "slightly disappointed" (to quote myself) of more Pro riders. I didn't expect a field of 50 in the mens and womens, maybe more along the lines of 15 per field. So we were at about half. As I said to many people, the main reason why we went UCI was to help the Midwest riders out. It was great to see those riders score some UCI points and I hope it helps them out down the line. I also hope it helps out some of the Experts and Semi-Pros as well as I feel as the Midwest has some of the top riders in the country in these respective classes. Back to the Pro class, I have read in journals and diaries of top Pros that promoters need to take on more UCI points. So, here is Maplelag and Greenbriar stepping up to the plate. Greeenbriar got screwed a bit because a NMBS race was going on but they still pulled the likes of Wells, Bishop and Eatough, Compton, Haywood and Monroe to name a few which was great to see. So with no NMBS race going on, I thought some riders that maybe didn't have a great spring would try to pick up some points. I don't think you can say our location is an issue because any race that a racer has to travel to across the country for a National, spends at least a hour driving from a major airport to get to the venue. Fargo is one of the best airports in the country. Easy in and out and a easy hour from Maplelag. Basically you can leave the airport, maybe three stoplights and 5-6 stop signs, no traffic and you are at Maplelag. But, I understand the "unknown" of a first year event and if we do this again, I am sure there would be more riders. I would be more likely to do it again if we were guarenteed a certain number or riders. It would probably take more sponsorhip dollars to pay the way or part of for some of the riders.

Also, it has been a very busy spring for a lot of riders but so it has for Jeff, Paul, Jenna, Sue, Emily and Tristin. All those folks really. They were here. Look at NASCAR, those guys don't have the opportunity to take a weekend off when they want. I know, they are getting paid big bucks. Yes, mtb cyclists are not even close to NASCAR, you can't even compare but there are a handful of riders that are doing okay and if you are going to rant about not having enough UCI races, if promoters take the dive, be standing buy with a life preserver, esp if you tell them to swim.

Well, this got pretty long winded. I better get out and get going on some chores/projects. Don't get the wrong spin off on this. It was a great weekend and the best part is watching all the races from beginners to the pros. How about Jordan Horner (check out the bmx pics) and her late race move. Good stuff. Strong semi-pro field, just some great racing and fun times despite the smaller turnout. Thanks again! Keep the wheels moving!