Jay Richards

Past week seems like a blur. After the trip up to Fargo/Moorhead today, think we had ten trips in a week. Crazy. Earlier in the week Jonell said this was going to be a busy one.... but like always, take a day at a time and it all works out. Camp staff rolling in during the week and getting thing everything set for that plus the usual making for non stop.


Jake punched #16 on Tuesday, took the dl test same day and driving solo.


At 1:15 today, the puck dropped in Moorhead Sports center north. Jon took the draw, Jake clipped in, Jens was cool guy on the water (photo from Uncle TJ phone) and Jonell and I were calling back and forth giving each other updates. Seemed like Jon would score after Jake came through on a lap. And...



.... Jack was singing Jesus loves me. Above: in the morning ready to head off to bible camp for one week.

Jon had tourney up in Fargo/Moorhead this weekend. I caught the game on Friday, two on Saturday and got home around 8 and was wiped. Jonell offered to take Jake to Duluth, drop Jack at camp and Jens to cousin Garrett Sunday and I took her up on it since I was in hockey mode and not in bike racing mode and was good to mix it up and felt like the right thing to do.
Jon played his first tourney with the Moorhead team, the Midwest Ice Hogs. Great group of kids, fantastic coaching, very nice parents and the whole tourney in general was top notch. Really enjoy talking to the parents of the Canadian teams. Met a guy that is from Lake Lenore SASK. We go goose hunting up there in the fall if we can and his kid makes a two hour trek south to play with a team from Saskatoon. Great oppurtunity for the kid and mirrors the situation of a lot of kids in AAA. Ringers for smaller teams and AAA gives them a chance to play on a level playing field and improve the skills etc. Anyways, he knew the farmers that had land we hunted on and talked about the Canadian shield. The Canadian teams in the tourney are something else. There was a Winnipeg based team that draws from a 80 mile radius. Only three kids from Winnipeg and rest from the area...gives you and idea of the quality of the team. They were blasting slappers from the point like no other team.

Steve Wenzel has 10 years back of precip recorded on his garage wall. Good stuff. Thanks to them for letting us crash Friday night.

Jake raced on Sunday and reports from Jonell was that it was hot. Seems like it has been hot in Duluth the past 4 years now. Even when we rode there outside of racing it was in the 90's. Think this cold thing is like how it rains in Seattle all the time. Anyways, Jake said he had a tough day. Good start 4th one up then dropping to 7th after first lap. Long race but great job toughing it out and getting a top 20 finish among a solid field of 45 riders. Was a bit bummed not to hold a higher place but tough competetion in a very solid expert race. This year is just good experience, have fun and enjoy riding the bike. Earlier in the year I tried to get a JR X thing going in MNSCS like they are doing in WORS but there is only 3 jrs really since Peter McDonnell is racing in CO and Jack Hinkens is totally ripping things apart so doesn't make sense for Jack to race shorter distance. And with Luke, Trent etc. racing Comp, there just aren't the numbers, unfortunately. Jake should be racing 1.5hrs max. but has to race expert/cat 1 since his license is such. I talked to John Kemp, the Devo coach about this last week and he has tried for years to get them to run shorter races on the National scene. In Europe all the mtb jrs are racing 1.25 and the speeds are fast. It carries over to SR. When the Americans are racing in Europe, they complain about the speeds. Blah blah. WORS cup on tap for next weekend and will be nice to race against more JRS and should be shorter distance. Jake will probably head out to Durango for a few weeks to train with Lars Ellefson and acclimate before Nationals. Should be nice time checking out all the awesome trails out there.