The Last Chicken Dance!
So, we have a winner for our Revelation X2 helmet from M2R! And it is Stanley Zavatski from Houston, PA! I’ll be in touch with you to make the arrangements, and thanks for signing up and for your support!
For the rest of you out there that didn’t win I suppose the big question is what’s next month prize going to be? Well, it’s going to be a set of handguards of your choice and a front fender from our friends at Cycra Plastics. Thanks Ken and James for these great products.
You’ll notice that this Newsletter is actually for once coming at you a few days early, and unfortunately it’s going to be a bit shorter on content than usual this time. The reason is because my wife Carrie (the one who formats and puts it all together) leaves early tomorrow morning for LA because her sister Katie is on the verge of popping out their first grommet, so Carrie needs to be there. You know how sisters can be!
It was such a long and, more so, time consuming drive from Ohio out to Oregon for the Funky Chicken National Hare Scramble. Having made it to Denver, Colorado late on the Monday night. I had a few hours sleep and then continued the trek west bound to our destination of that night, Price, Utah where Carrie’s mum and step-dad live. Got there at 3pm just in time to go for a 2 hour MTB ride with step-dad Dave. The guy’s a machine and can pedal like no other. The freak actually pedaled over 5000 miles last year, offroad. By 9pm I was lights out for the next 12 hours, playing catch up.
Wednesday was “re-group” day, washing everything from the previous mud race, getting new tires on the van, a haircut, etc., and an hour at the local wave pool with Eden.
Thursday we’d made it to Elko, Nevada to spend the night with Carrie’s dad and step-mum. It was great to catch up with the rest of the in-laws that night over dinner.
 From Elko to the race was another 700 miles, and the next few days turned into a blur that went something like this; 1. left Elko later than we’d hoped, 2. missed a turn off out in the boonies of northern Nevada just before entering Oregon (my first major navigational blunder ever) and went an hour in the wrong direction, which we had to then backtrack the whole lot of it, 3. got caught in a snow blizzard, which isn’t much fun at 11pm on hills of 8% grade when you are driving 70 feet of vehicle, 4. finally getting to the track at 5 pm Saturday to find that our motorhome was too big and heavy to get it up to the start area, along the narrow, boggy switch-back dirt road, 5. prepping my practice 200XC until midnight to make it race ready, 6. missing sign-up on Sunday because we couldn’t get it together in time to arrive before it closed. Are you tired yet? I am just thinking about it!
Click here to read about the rest of the weird things that happened to me during the race.
Straight after the race we went right to the local car wash and threw in another $30 of change and then had some pizza!
From there we finally spent some time relaxing up near Crater Lake National Park until Thursday morning. What a beautiful place. We got to do some hiking, bicycling, drinking hot chocolate, and so on. We really needed that break but unfortunately it was too little, too short to fully recharge, at least for Carrie and I. Eden didn't seem to have much trouble, as you can see...
 Today we drove another 10 hours to Boise, Idaho for my next race which is one of the ISDE Qualifiers up at Idaho City. It’s supposed to be the best riding ever up here so I’m really looking forward to checking the place out.
It’s nearing midnight and we got to get this thing rapped up so as we can get some shut-eye before we rise and shine at 4am to get the girls off to the airport for their early morning flight. No rest for the wicked they say!
Cheers!
Link of the Week!
The BlueRibbon Coalition champions responsible use of public lands for the benefit of all recreationists by educating and empowering its members to:
- Secure, protect, and expand shared outdoor recreation access and use
- Work collaboratively with land managers and other recreationists
- Educate the general public media, elected officials, and other decision makers on recreation and access issues
- Promote equitable and responsible land management
- Affect the political and administrative process
- Support recreation on, and promote, respect for private property
- Encourage appropriate enforcement of the law
Yeah, Yeah...but, seriously, this is an important issue. If you have read the most recent Racer X Mag, in Riverside County, CA an ordinance was just passed to restrict, under most circumstances, OHV operations within the county-even on private property. If you can't even ride on your own property, what is going to happen to the private land and trails that we all love?
Product Highlight
Yep, you got it! These are essentials to the racing scene! If you have your pit board, your stop watch and your umbrella, you're ready for just about anything...well, except for maybe a bad start, a broken clutch, or a big mud hole. In that case, find someone else! For those of you in the pits, check out KTM's Hard Equipment website to order your gear today!
My Favorite Snap...
The last running of The Funky Chicken...a sad day, indeed! Well, as you can see here, I got to take away a piece of the Big K with me-in the form of lots and lots of mud!
Thanks to Tommy and Tyler Whitcomb at Whitcomb Photography for the sweet pic and the awesome memory of the final Dance of the Chicken!
And to ETRA-you guys put on a killer race...can't wait to see what you come up with to replace the Funky Chicken...it's going to have to be REALLY good to even compare!
And the winnder is…
Stanley Zavatski
 Check out M2R's website to take a look at your prize...but if you want the Shane Watts Replica...you'll have to wait a little bit longer!
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