Jay Richards

Salem Hills? MNSCS #1
Mike Bushey (good to see you by the way, fantastic finish) said it sounded like a demo derby sledge hammer groupie was pounding on a bike. First thing I thought of when I finished was the time I was playing college hockey at Concordia and I got completely floored by a goon from St Johns on a rare shift on the ice. The goon on our team didn't like the fact the smallest player on the team got pummeled so he came flying to my rescue.... but things didn't go according to plan and somehow I ended up in the middle of this 585 pound goon sandwich. It felt like my jaw moved one inch to the right and my hip move one inch back. I lay on the ice.... and the trainer came and dragged me off. At that point I knew the fun year of playing JR hockey in Norway with big rinks, little checking and big sweeping circles was a thing of the past and my college hockey days were over. Anyways, when I finished on Sunday, my hip was in the hurt and warm fuzzies had I not.
The start went well. Hollywood leading us out followed by Paul, Brendan, Jesrin Gaier, EO, Fisher and me. Doug in front of Jay H? Everyone is riding nicely, spaced apart and spinning clean. Once we made the turn around and got ready to hit the singletrack....kaboom....I was down. All I know was that Joel Calahan came in hot and juicy and I was freaking clotheslined. Dang, that was nasty. I talked to Joel after the race, I was probably a bit rude but I at that point I was thinking my season was done, and he felt bad, he said he was pushed and had no way out. Whatever, thats racing, no hard feelings. He said he broke his handlebar in half and was done on the day. Bummer. Yes, there was a little gap before the tight and twisty but I like to leave and gap before the single in the starts because from 500 races experience, its good to do that just in case someone goes down. (Although I remember racing in the WIM (Washington Idaho Montana) three years in the 90's that the Idaho races didn't matter as they were always so dusty and you could never see.) Point is, someone felt like the gap needed to be closed. Its a long race folks, be patient and things will fall into place. So, after the crash I was dead last and after checking to see if everything was okay, on the bike. I hopped back on but the hip was really hurting. I thought I would finish the lap off and then call it a day but it felt okay so I started to slowly crank it up and I won't quit a race unless the bike doesn't move but would run with it if need be. Anyways, at that point it was a training ride and I wanted to get a good workout in. Looking at the results, I placed much better than I thought and just missed catching the group in front of me that had the 13th placed rider. Another lap and I think I might of been able to catch the Henderson float. Whatever, nice day. After the race I didn't felt like I had raced.
Steve Wenzel rolling the 29s nicely after doing the dual in GF the day before in snow. He's running a half marathon this weekend in FaRGO. Animal.
Lars had a nice race coming in 6th in Comp. Matt Wenzel stepping it up this year in Sport having a great race and Jake ecstatic to be racing again and riding his new Salsa set up by H-wood of course. Big thanks to Jay for getting it ready by race day. I was proud of Jake and his finish racing first year Comp in a course like this. The riding this year has been low key, nothing serious, and tough pickings with the snowy April. The two weeks of riding in Mexico was key of course but it wasn't serious, just keeping it fun and nothing over 2 hours. Riding with Adrian we learned it was not about the bike but the ride. He was changing his seat post height all the time and the Monkey mountain ride he was wearing sneakers. Point is, seems like riders get caught up in the parts, position, weight of the bike, training thing and we are just trying to keep it real and focus on having fun and get more serious in JR X 17-18. Jake's dirt track time had been minimal leading up to Spring Cup which is a big part of his "training". If you think launching off jumps is slacking, try getting a 40 pound fully suspended free ride bike up to 25 mph with no gravity assistance and stick a 6 foot gap jump and nail a bunch of other jumps for 2 minutes, keeping the rubber down. Personally I think this type of training is better than road racing which many people have made the comment to him he should do. Tinker, Tomac and Todd Wells all come from bmx/dirt jumping backgrounds and we all should know what they have done on the xc scene.

O Bros having some very nice finishes on the day. Well done.


Of course, this all wouldn't be possible without my wonderful wife Jonell and my mom to the left (who took the above pics except for the above by Bruce) cheering us on during Mothers day. Jonell is the greatest. She looks cold. Bless her heart. The whole family heading south to the big city and we stayed at Jonell's sister's place night before. Grandpa and bro in law fishing up north so Jonell's mom picked up a pound of Folgers and things were getting crazy. The "moms" went to the late movie Sat night and I was on nephew and kid patrol. Was told to have the kids in bed by 9-9:30 which meant 10:30 to me. What do you do when Jens is jumping on the bed and WWF'ing his nephews. 5 minutes before they get home, I had them all sleeping. Whew.