Jay Richards

Seems like yesterday I posted last. Its been a busy week. Obviously the bike race taking most of the action. Another great event. We always hash things out the day after and Jonell and I both thought this year was the best one ever. Having nice weather puts everyone in a good mood, which helps. No major injuries and no one getting lost are the key things. The bee sting thing was a bummer. I can't figure it out though. I have ridden that section probably a 1000 times the past 17 years and haven't been stung once. Maybe I have and didn't know it. When you get bit a couple hundreds times a day in the summer from deer flies, I guess you can numb to it. I know in 2002 I think it was, it was dry and one or two people got zapped. Hopefully everyone is doing okay and sorry that happened. The racing action was top notch, exciting to watch and call from the mic (I vid shot the last minute of the sxtc from my camera, just in case it was a photo finish and will try to post that tonight). The bottom line though is the people. Its a mixed bag with lots of kids and families and everyone is here with one common interest, bikes, and its all very good. With that said, thanks to everyone who came and supported the event.

I was pretty wiped out the past two days, hitting it hard on the ski trails, mowing, brushing and cutting since the forecast was/is calling for rain later this week (rain right now) so I didn't ride much being toast from bobcat and the heat. I did want to do a hot lap before the rain since the course was all buffed out so did a tt loop for starters then attacked the sport/expert loop. I made it to Suicide in record time and hitting 197 on the hr which was highest this year but from mile 4 on in, I hit the wall a bit and only managed 31 min. Bottomline, those guys were flying on Sunday. The first lap was a sub 30 which was crazy. When TJ and Sam came in 1:30 on third lap, that was nuts. How about Bill Benson at top 10 at age 53. If you didn't hear it, he won the 100+ category at Trans Rockie. Tough Canuck. Chris was making me sick with the jumps and tricks he was sticking on the dirt track Sun night. If tradition holds course, (Hall, Swanson, Malenkovich, Oberpriller taking the win the year of the Loppet then following up at Cheq) Jenna could have her year if she races. I was completely impressed with the four laps thing. TJ might be the victorious darkhouse at Cheq. Sam is a pure mtb climber but he was taking pulls in the stxc and might be starting to benefit from those crazy road miles in France. I always pull for the riders that come and support Laddies then race Cheq. I know some riders don't come here because they want to ride the Cheq. course and thats fine but in my opinion, on a course like Cheq., riding it won't make you faster. Doing a course like Maplelag, which is complete opposite, is almost like cross training and doesn't tax the muscles that will be taxed at Cheq. You don't ride the Cheq. course easy. Its like skate skiing uphill easy, you can do it low hr but the muscles get worked in a static form. Did I make some of you nervous? Ha, Just watch out for the Maplelagers Its going to be interesting for sure..... to see if LaLonde can show he is truly for real or if Simonson will just ride away from it, with no mechanicals like last year. Anyways, it is fun to try and ride lap pace like the races we have here. Makes for a good benchmark for training and confirms that there is nothing like racing to whip the form in to shape, in particular, early season. I can never match that lap pace seen on our course but racing with those guys brings the form to a new level. It would be fun to race the Loppet but with everything going on during the weekend, to crank out for laps or whatever would be tough to do at my normal race levels, probably be more a survial fest. Anyways, I had to check out the line Tom Miller (check out the pic) was taking on the first lakeside drop when I was riding. He was staying high but after doing that, I think you go into the bottom much better. I have always ridden the rut. There are some new lines out there now as well which is all good except for the rock garden. We'll put the log back so we can keep practicing going over the rocks and what not. Jake and I were talking and we are going to get serious about building some quality bridges, green treat and all, and possibly do some wood berms on the s turns after Suicide so you don't have to brake so much. Once the leaves are down and trail work is caught up, we will try and have a work day. Monday after we shored things up in the lodge, we took the boys to Ice Cracking for burgers. I contemplated doing the double but instead went all out with fried onions, cheese and bacon.



First day of school on Tuesday. I have to find my photos from years back to do the comparison thing. Kids all have good teachers, they are having fun and with good attitudes so we are off to a great start.


Yesterday evening we went over to Park Rapids to celebrate Grandpa Rodneys 65th. After a awesome German meal of vienerschnitzel at theSchwarzwald Inn we went back to their house for cake. On the way over Jonell yells out, "pull over, lets get some ice cream". I said "you can't do that" the kids and Jonell looked at me funny and said "what are you talking about, you would be the one to say/do that" I guess I didn't think about it. So we stop, Jonell gets out, starts walking through the lawn of some guys house to talk to the Schwans man and makes a deal. The owner of the house comes out from his house and is laughing. I had to take a picture and the Schwan guy says "is that going in your photo album" yeah, well kinda.


Grandpa with the grandkids and the fish cake.

Lots of rambling thoughts above. A few here.. I hope Cyclingnews posts the article I sent, thanks to Bruce, I sent in 40 pics and spent like 2.5hrs prepping the article. Hopefully in the MTB news roundup. I noticed the JR World Champ was from Ukraine. I told Andrii and he just smiled like he always does. He didn't know her. Outside the relay event, US is having a top go. I wondered what happened to Chloe. Results just posted for JR XC. Top US 30th........ We were going to do a skills day with Kyia but we couldn't nail down a day. Still might this fall. We talked to some other parents over the weekend and I thought maybe would be good to do a 2-3 day camp. We could have riding, training, skills, jump dirting. We would have to have counselors though. Jonell and Jake thought Paul Hanson would be a good counselor. Fisher and Jen M?? Would be fun. Maybe in May since we aren't doing the UCI race or we could do it leading up to the Loppet and then the kids could just stay here and race.