Toronto, Canada Race
Just got back from Toronto and aside from getting there and then trying to get home, the trip was good. My flight to Toronto ended up in Washington DC where I got to spend the night for 3 hours before getting up to catch a new flight to Toronto and my flight home was changed twice because of delayes. Instead of ending up in Orange County at 10:30pm I had to get on a LA flight that got me in at 1:30am.
Friday night they had the Tim Da Silva memorial race which is MTB's vs. BMX. The race was dedicated to Tim who tragically died last summer while building a BMX track. He was rolling a berm when the roller tipped, trapping Tim and killing him. His brother was in Toronto racing and his sisters and parents were also there promoting the track which Tim built and now named after him.
I took the win Friday night on my MTB with Billy Au also on a MTB taking second.
Sat. was day two of racing and it went well also. I took my BMX bike to this race so I could get in as much track time as possible. It has been a long time since I raced my BMX bike and a real long time since I have raced two different sized wheel bikes in the same day. It is definitely not so easy these days to go from one bike to the other and then back, but I made the best of it and ended up taking the win in the MTB & BMX classes.
Sat. night I went to a local bar with some of the crew that was taking care of me and we watched the UFC fight featuring Randy Couture who came out of retirement at the age of 43 to fight the heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia. It was an exciting fight from the very start with Randy, who weighed in 43lbs less than Tim, knocking him down with a punch within the first 20 sec. It went all 5 rounds and the OLD guy, ya I like the OLD guys now, kicked his ass every round.
OK, Sunday was back to racing and was much like Sat. I won every heat on both bikes and felt good. I was confident on the MTB, but the BMX bike was an unknown to me. With a short first straight and the entire track being tight, it was key to get out front. Thankfully my BMX bike has gears and I was able to use a small gear to get out front quick. There was no 43 or 44/16 gears being used on this tight track. I had lane 4 in the final and I knew I had to get out and over which I did.
All in all it was a good weekend. Everyone was stoked I came and that alone made it worth the trip. Some good practice, cool people, and a good atmosphere all made it worth the travel nightmares.
Posted by Brian on March 6, 2007 12:26 AM