The Olympic Trials were in Chula Vista, CA at the Olmypic Training Center (OTC). For those of you that don't know, the BMX Olympic trials are a winner takes all race to determine which rider(s) would have a secured spot on the USA Olympic teams. The riders that were allowed to compete were choosen by UCI points and overall performance from the previous events including the UCI Supercross races as well as NBL and ABA events. The 8 riders that were choosen for these trials were Danny Caluag, Mike Day, Donny Robinson, David Herman, Bubba Harris, Kris Fox, Tyler Brown, and Steven Cisar. Bubba Harris injured himself two days before the actual event and ended up breaking a bone in his ankle during a practice session so he had no choice but to remove himself from the competition. The remained 7 riders would battle for the 1 Olympic spot. The points would be awarded to each rider depending on their Time Trial finish, individual moto placements, and the Main event.
Tim Dinger and I (Rich Montalvo) arrived on Friday 6/13 the day before the actual race to see what we could see. There was a press conference scheduled for 2pm but we arrived at noon to try and get some quick interviews before the NBC guys showed up and kicked us out. NBC holds all the rights for video for all olympic events for the 2008 games so if they say you can't do something that's pretty much the law.
So we snuck around the back way to the track and ran into Mike King (USA BMX Team Coach) and told him we were going to try and get a view clips of the track before anyone showed up. King said "sure thing, get what you can". So Tim Dinger and I made our way to the track as I started getting my camera and the mic ready for a sneak attack video shoot. It's a little difficult to hide a black camera the size of a football and a mic that says "Go211" in big red letters, but we did the best we could.
As we walked up to the track I thought to myself "This is the most amazing track I've ever seen, this is a BMXer's dream" right after those thoughts went threw my head Dinger said "I should have brought my bike, man this track is awesome". Both of us knew that we were looking at a track that we wished we could have in our back yards. USA track building Tom Ritz definitely out did himself. Tom build the same exact track in Beijing but many of the riders told us that this track is better then the actual Beijing track. Either way we were awstruck. When you look at the track the first thing that blows you away is the size of the starting hill. No other normal BMX track has a drop in starting hill as high and as step as this. It makes you think of the movie RAD and the Hell Track drop in, that's the closest thing I can think of that I can associate to this starting hill. What an amazing feeling it must be to be on the gate atop this starting hill waiting for the Horns to go off. We walked directly by the first straight and I just couldn't believe how badass the track was. First jump was a huge double followed by another big double and then a step-up-step-down going into the first turn. I mentioned to Dinger that hitting the first jump must be scary at the speed you are going down the hill. It looked like a super smooth transition on all the lips of the jumps, a few of the riders mentioned that you're going so fast that when you hit the lip of the first jump it's like hitting a quarter pipe. Over clearing the first jump is normal from what we could see during warmups. First order of
business for me was walking up to the top of the starting hill. I wanted to see how inverted the drop in really was from up there. Seeing it from the bottom up looked pretty cool but man when you're up at the top looking down it's a whole different story. There's really no way to describe it other then being at the top of a rollercoaster and looking down right before the coaster hits the peak and you're about to drop, but remember you're on a bike and there is NO safety bar. Even the photo here on the right doesn't really give it justice to how step it is. You can see that from the gate you can probably get about 3 full cranks before you hit the drop off. No one pedaled down the drop off because of the angle of the it. Towards the bottom of the hill they started full out pedaling again all the way up to the first double. The speeds they were reaching at the bottom of the hill were insane. Much respect to all those guys who went full speed down that hill. I would have definitely hit the brakes after the drop off.
After checking out the track from the top of the hill we quickly went back down to snag an interview with Danny Caluag who had just arrived and was waiting to be interviewed by the NBC crew who was towards the end of the track, luckily they hadn't seen us yet. We got a quick interview in with Danny C and Dinger asked a few quick questions, just as we were finishing up the interview a pretty darn good looking girl from the OTC came up to us and gave us the official "you can't tape anything here because it violates the NBC contract", so we got one interview in then got the boot. You can check out the interview with Danny C here.
We stuck around the track area after promising the OTC girl that we wouldn't record anymore interviews or anything. I put my camera and mic away and just snapped a few pics here and there. While we were hanging out Donny Robinson showed up waiting for this turn with the NBC camera crew. Caluag was calling out that he was next in line but Donny was trying to cut in line, so Dinger called out the solution "Paper, Rock Scissors". Thus a tournament would begin to determine whether Danny or Donny would be next to get their interview. As Danny was walking down the starting hill he was already talking that he was going to rule the contest and leave Donny waiting for his interview. Dinger would officiate the contest as he's had experience in this arena. Dinger had a Paper Rock Scissors tournament in Rockford back in 2005 with about 20 contestants. Donny made quick work of Danny in a 2 for 2 win. There was a do over in round two because Danny jumped the gun. So Danny would have to go last for the NBC interview. It's pretty interesting that a bunch of guys can settle and dispute with a round of paper rock scissors, no yelling, no fighting, just a quick game and it's done.
2:00 PM was press conference time with all of the athletes, so we made our way to the OTC classroom which was reserved for the media. The big news of the day was Bubba Harris' news that he would not be competing in the trials the following day. Dinger had already heard that Bubba had injured his ankle during practice two days before. I was extremely bummed out that Bubba could not make a run for the team, we all know how fast Bubba can ride on a bmx track being that he was the 2005 UCI World Champ. Dinger got with Bubba to ask him how he was feeling about the injury and what his plans were for the future since he wouldn't be able to compete for the Olympic team. Bubba gave us the run down of exactly what happened when he injured the ankle. Turns out that it wasn't the bad ankle that he's been dealing with all season, it was the other good ankle that he ended up breaking. Talk about bad luck, all year he was riding with a bad ankle at every national slowly reagetting it better and trying to get points to hopefully make it to the team and 2 days before the trials you fall during practice and break the other ankle. Bubba being the professional that he is was in good spirits and was there to show his support for the rest of the guys. It's great to see such sportsmanship and what else could we expect from Bubba, he's definitely a great guy and we hope he's back on the bike soon. Watch the entire Bubba interview
It was somewhat weird and cool to see all these guys at an official press conference. I've seen all these guys over the years at different races just hanging out, racing, and just being themselves. Now they've been put infront of the spot light and presented to the rest of the world as Olympic Hopefuls. I couldn't help to think of how great it is to have these group of riders representing BMX. The rest of the media people that were there had no idea who these guys were but Dinger and I knew we had a great bunch of talented riders. I must admit that I was a bit jealous, many people don't realize that I used to race not that long ago (2 years) and what athlete doesn't dream of going to the Olympics and representing their country. I wished I could be behind the table being asked how I would feel if I made the team. I seriously doubt I would drop in from the top of that starting hill though so...
Well Friday was done and it was time to head back to the hotel and start to review all the footage that we had gotten. I always laugh at Dingers out takes, one day I will make a out takes section and put all of Dingers funny clips on there. It'll get tons of views I'm sure.
Day 2: Saturday - Race Day.
11:00 AM arrival time at the OTC and things were already warming up. We got to the track area and were impressed with the amount of people that shown up to watch the trials. I would say there was easily close to 1,000 people there. We even ran into a group of east coast riders including the Orgorman brothers. Riders families and girlfriend were also in the stands and it was great to see so much support for the riders. Alot of people were wearing "Team Mike Day" tshirts which were really cool and we ran into Stephanie Barragan who had Danny C tshirts with a picture of Danny on the front. She even made a really cool "Go Baby" poster. NBC and the USAC did a great job with the presentation. There was a very large jumbotron set up behind turn 1 where they were playing videos of all the riders from different events. We had provided a bunch of videos to the USAC and it was pretty cool to see that they were using almost all of them on the jumbotron. NBC's live production was also being displayed on the jumbotron, so you can see all the camera angles and titles that introduced all the riders. The athletes were already on the track and in the middle of their warmup session. We saw Day and Cisar doing laps and trying out different lines in the rythm section. Day easily looked the fastest on that part of the track in the warm up sessions. Mike Redman was on hand to take care of the anouncing as he does all year long on the ABA Pro Circuit. Redman hyped up the crowd and began to introduce all the riders one at a time while the NBC cameras were doing close ups of the guys atop the huge starting hill. Intros were done, the crowd was hyped and it was time for the time trials.
The time trials would determine how the guys would get lane choice and also count towards points for the overall. The winner of the time trials got first pick and 2nd would go next, and so on. First up on the gate was the young one, Kris Fox. Fox was looking great around the track and I was definitely impressed with his style and technic on the track. He came across the line with a time of 38.01 seconds which is pretty darn fast when you think of how long the track is. So the time to beat was 38.01, next up on the gate was David Herman. Herman blazed around the track looking very smooth and didn't miss a single backside. Across the line he earned himself a time of 37.44 seconds. Herman beat Fox's time and it was on to the next rider. Next up Tyler Brown, who looked really good on his warm up laps. I was thinking that Brown could take down Herman time by atleast a 1/3 of a second. Brown's lap looked pretty good but it seemed like he wasn't getting as much pump of some of the backsides as Herman was. Brown came across the line with a 37.63 second lap. Pretty respectable but not quit fast as Herman. At the top of the gate about to drop in was Danny Caluag, I was betting that Danny would be top 3 in the overall time trials. I've seen Danny race and he has what it takes to lay down some good times. Danny's first straight looked great but down the third and most important straight his flow seemed to not be there, I'm not sure if he clipped a backside or just couldn't find his rythm but he looked off a bit. Across the line Danny would come in with a lap time of 38.47 seconds. Unfortunately Danny's was the slowest time so far. As Redman anounced the next rider on the gate a bunch of people had been saying that they heard Mike Day has put down some 36.xx second times which would be faster by about a second then all the other riders. And who was up on the gate? None other then the crowd favorite, Mike Day. The gate went down and Day powered down the start hill. Day had the first straight down perfect, he hit the step-up-step-down with so much speed the he shot into the first turn faster than any other rider. Second straight no problem, third straight he was gaining more speed. By far the smoothest throw the third straight. He came around the last turn and killed it down the last straight. After the last jump Day didn't pedal as hard to the finish as the other guys but when his time was posted it was a good one, 36.60 seconds and Day takes the lead. Even though Day was leading most of us were waiting for the next two guys to hit the track. Both of them could easily give Day a run for his money. Next up was Day's roomate at the OTC and World #2 rider Steven Cisar. I had seen his warm up lines and he looked good. I was putting Cisar in second just by watching his warmup. I thought Day's first straight was awesome and now Cisar was showing an even faster run down the first straight. The problem with Cisar is that he goes so fast that he over shoots the second straight. Out of the first turn and over the step up Cisar did over shoot the step up by a few feet. He kept it smooth but you can see a little bit of speed scrubbed off. Third straight looked good but Day's seemed a bit quicker. Cisar pedalled all the way to the line and pulled a 36.95 second lap time which put him 2nd right behind Day. My prediction was on the money for that one. Last but not least was Donny Robinson the UCI Killer as some people have called him. Donny does real well on the UCI Supercross tracks and this was basically a copy of some of those tracks. Donny was charging so hard down the first straight that when he hit the backside of the first jump he handed on his back wheel and pedalled all the way down the backside. His first straight looked the fastest but like a few of the other guys his third straight didn't flow as well as Day's. He had a great last straight run and charged to the line for a 37.34 second lap landing him third. One of the coolest things about the time trials to me was hearing everyone in the stands cheer for all of the riders. In other sports you would hear people only cheering for their favorite rider, but here everyone was cheering for all the guys. We all wanted them to do well.
Time Trial Results
Mike Day 36.60 secs
Steven Cisar 36.95 secs
Donny Robinson 37.34 secs
David Herman 37.44 secs
Tyler Brown 37.63 secs
Kris Fox 38.01 secs
Danny Caluag 38.47 secs
Now it's time to get to some racing. There would be three motos and a main eveint to determine the winner. Unlike regular races where the winner is determined by the rider that wins the main event. In Olympic style BMX racing, each moto win will give the riders points towards their overall score and the time trials placement will also count to that final score. So consistancy is very important. Just because you win a moto or the time trials, that doesn't mean that you will be the winner of the entire event.
Moto 1: Since Mike Day had first lane pick he choose an outside gate. I was wondering why he would go for a outside lane seeing that it's usually better to get inside into the first turn but from speaking to him the day before he was saying that being on the outside is good so you can carry your speed around the sweeping first turn, it made sense. The riders we were guessing would be out front was ofcourse Mike Day and Steven Cisar since they were the two fastest in the time trials. As the guys came down the first straight Steven Cisar had a clear half bike advantage on Donny with Day right there aswell. Cisar hit the first turn first but Donny made a great move inside Cisar. I would say it was an outside inside but Donny wasn't really on the outside, he was more in the middle. He carved a good line in the middle and started cranking pretty good and came out first. Cisar dropped to second but had plenty of speed as Mike Day railed the first turn and he was coming out of the turn super fast. Cisar hit the step up with so much speed that he was over shooting the landing again. He came down over the backside front end down and he may have gotten a gust of wind of something because he was coming down a bit side ways. He hit front tire first and went down crashing to the right and slammed pretty bad. Mike Day avoided Cisar and he took off after Donny. The third straight was were Day was the fastest and he was coming after Donny pretty fast. Coming to the third straight Donny was on the outside and Day got himself to the inside and half way down the straight Day went by Donny and lead the rest of the guys to the finish with Donny grabbing a second and Danny Caluag pulling an impressive third.
Moto 1 Results:
Mike Day
Donny Robinson
Danny Caluag
Moto 2: Mike Day had a pretty good points lead going into moto 2. Donny would have to win this round to be close in the points. As the riders came down the hill of the second moto Donny was slowly pulling away from the rest of the pack. Cisar looked good after coming back from his crash but Donny and Day would pull ahead of the pack out of the first turn. David Herman snuck in a sllide into 3rd. Going into the second turn Donny was just pulling away more and more. By the end of the third straight he had about 3 almost 4 bikes on Day. Single file to the finish in moto 2 it would be Donny Robins, Mike Day, and David Herman. Donny's first place moved him up in the overall points but Day still had a pretty comfortable lead. The battle was going to be between Day and Robinson.
Moto 2 Results:
Donny Robinson
Mike Day
David Herman
Moto 3: Day moved to an inside lane for this 3rd moto and it looked like a great lane choice. Down the hill Day and Donny were battle but over the step-up-step-down Donny clipped the landing and lost some momentum and Day hit it perfect and pulled into the first turn with a bike and a half lead on Donny. Kris Fox was in third and all over Donny's back wheel as Day pulled a good 4 bike length lead down the second straight. Donny continued to have some trouble and clipped the backside of the turn jump going into the second turn giving Fox room to slide past for second. By this time Day was gone, out front with nobody giving him a challenge. On the third straight Donny slide all the way back to fourth and David Herman was in third and wasn't about to let anyone pass him.
Moto 3 Results:
Mike Day
Kris Fox
David Herman
The Results: As the crowd was waiting for the main event to be ready to go Mike Redman got on the mic and made an anouncement. For Olympic Trials competition only riders who have a mathematical chance of winning will be allowed to race in the main event. The only two riders that had enough points to actual win were Mike Day and Donny Robinson. So the rest of the guys were not allowed to race in the main event. It was determined that Donny Robinson did not have enough points to catch Mike Day and win so there would be no reason to run a main event. This made it official that Mike Day won the overall and would be the second confirmed male rider for the US Olympic Team, no main event would be run. Watch Day win the third moto and the celebration after, video is here
Overall Results:
Mike Day 32 pts
Donny Robinson 21 pts
David Herman 13 pts
Needless to say that Mike Day and all of his fans and family errupted in celebration. The entire crowd cheered and everyone was on their feet. It was an amazing site to see everyone cheering, Mike Day definitely deserved it as he proved he was the fastest rider at the Trials event. Day did a short victory lap down the last straight and went straight up to the fence where his father and family were watching from. Watching Day and his father hug each other gave me chills all over, it was an amazing site to see the pride that Steve Day had for his son. Steve was overcome with emotions and you can't blame him, it must be incredible to see your son make his dream come true.
We saw historyn in the making as 1 rider battled to become the first BMX racers to win an Olympic Trials event. It was amazing to be their and watch it all unfold. There were only 7 riders competing but the level of excitement at the event would make you think you were at the Grands. I wish more of the guys could have made the team as they all would have been great representatives the US BMX Team. We'll keep everyone updated on what goes on from here forward with the team and hopefully bring you lots of videos of the guys getting ready and hey, I might even be making the trip to China to report from the event as these guys go for Gold.
Thanks for reading, If you want to check out all the photos from the Olympic Trials check out our photo page here
For all the videos you can check out the video page here.
Rich Montalvo
