So team USA arrived August 15th and finally gave me some English speaking company. They really appreciated me being their "know all" of China history and landmarks. Luckily, I was staying with Kyle Bennett, who, even though I was acclimated to the time change, he wasn't. Totally loved waking up at 3 am, just chattin' about stuff...
Time-trials were held on August 20th. 100 riders were signed up in the Elite Men class and being ranked #1 in World Ranking points, I ran dead last. Since this was the Olympic test event we ran it just as the Olympics will be ran which meant out of the time-trials there would only be 32 positions available to move on to the qualifying rounds the next day. 68 riders went home after the first day. I really felt I had decent time-trial laps but I qualified 16th. Of course I was well inside the 32 rider mark, but I felt I should have qualified better. No worries, I knew the next day would make for good racing action.
August 21st was the qualifying rounds and the finals. We ran 3 quarter final motos and riders with low points in their heats would move on to the 3 semi final motos, where the low point riders from there would move on to the 8 rider, 1 main lap. I had some really good laps and made it through to the main event. I was the only American in the final, along with a few Dutch, French and Aussies. Many Americans were riding so well and definitely should have made the main but things happen in BMX and luckily I escaped any trouble on this day. In the main, I had gate 6 (towards the outside) and had a pretty great lap- I won! No words can describe how important this win was for myself. Just an honor to be able to win on the Olympic track at the test event in front of the great Chinese spectators. This win definitely was the icing on the cake for my whole China trip. 3 great weeks in China...topped off with a win. I just hope I will be able to make it back to the Olympics next year to have an even better day and bring the Gold Medal to the USA in BMX Supercross!
I left straight from China and headed to Eastern Canada for another race. Kyle Bennett and I decided to upgrade ourselves to Business Class home from China for $600- it was definitely worth it. I was supposed to arrive in Canada on August 22rd, get a hotel room and wait for Randy Stumpfhauser and Mike Day who were to arrive at 7 pm on August 23rd. I got to the airport and proceeded to try and find a hotel room. Long story short, there was not one room available in Syracuse, NY (where I flew in to) because of the state fair. So, that meant I had to spend the night in the airport. To make matters worse I had not eaten since that morning and when I got to the airport at 11 pm all the food places were closed. I figured I would just eat some protein bars out of my race bag and call it a night. Well, my race bag didn't show up. I was so tired, so hungry and so sleeping on a bench. Since I had to wait there for Stumpy and Day I had plenty of time for my bag to show up. All 6 flights that came in that following day didn't have my bag and to make everything worse, Stumpy called and said they weren't going to get in until midnight now! Did I mention that the drive from Syracuse to Canada was 2 hours? I was so bummed and miserable. Luckily, girl pro Jill Kitner got in at 10 pm and she and I just decided to rent a car and drive to Canada, without my bag. August 24th was practice and since I didn't have my race bag I had to borrow all gear but my bike. Stumpy finally got in on Friday and he picked up my bag that had finally arrived at the airport, I was so pumped.
Saturday was the race. Everything went well up until the semis when it started to rain. All the pros decided we needed to race no matter what the weather was because we had flights to catch on Sunday. The semis were crazy. With cement turns especially the laps were rough and everyone was nearly crashing everywhere. I ended up making it into the main. I had gate 8 in the main (standard). I got a great gate and was leading up until the first jump where I made a little mistake that allowed Stumpy to pass me. I went into the first turn in second following Stumpy and he slid out and I went with him. Stumpy is a safe person to follow and if he crashed, then there was something wrong with the track conditions.
I went home for 3 days and now I'm in Kentucky for the NBL Grands where I can hopefully come home with my second NBL title in a row. Then next Tuesday I head to NYC for an HP event that I'm super psyched for.
Talk to everyone soon,
Donny
