Grands Time !!!:

Allright you Milwaukee BMX'ers ... it's ABA Grand Nationals time ... who's going, what are your goals, and how have you prepared? I had a chance to talk to a few of you over the weekend, but hope that a few of you will take a few minutes to reply to this post with your own experiences in your own words. We look forward to reading your stories below.

Walworth Indoor BMX Videos:

These lame videos were shot with my KODAK D700 digital camera. They are grainy, but, what the heck ... we thought you might enjoy them anyway.

The first footage is the 36-40 and 41-45 cruiser mains, in which Curt Zizzo shows that he's still on top of his game by winning by nearly a straight over Milwaukee BMX regular Mark Kluth and Mike Coyne. Bryan Dickerson still has the pull in 41-45 cruiser and though chased all the way by a determined Ed Morris, who raced with us a lot this summer, hangs on for the win. Good stuff, you guys.

I'm posting the next video as another "sympathy" video to all you BMX mom's and dads. Earlier this summer, I wrote about how absolutely nerve racking it can be to send your little ones out there. With the amount of information we are asking 7, 6 or even 5 and under minds to process, it's just remarkable we get those kids on track at all.

The story here goes ... my son, Dane, who's a 7 novice, managed to qualify into the 7/8 open main last weekend at Elkhorn by winning his second moto. And, while it's easy for me to wrap my 40 year old brain around the fact that racing the fast kids is the way that you learn to step up your own game, I also realize, to a little kid, it's got to be intimidating as heck.

About 5 seconds after the gate drops, all heck breaks loose out there, and Dane, who's coming out of gate 6, winds up getting balled up with the fast kids coming in from the outside and another kid who is veering across from the inside, nearly out of control. Suddenly, there's little kids and little bikes, all coming to the same spot on the first jump. The fast kids, including Reece Rankins (who ran an awesome lap, finishing second) separate out, while the clump of kids somehow manages to separate itself, with everybody staying upright. (as a parent, this is where I breath my first huge sigh of relief). But, I can see that Dane is rattled, as riders move by him through the first turn and down the second straight.

As he crosses the line, I give him our customary thumbs up, but, he's not having anything to do with it. He's clearly bummed about finishing last. When I tell him how proud I am of him just for making that main, he breaks into tears. Not, like sniveling little tears of not getting his way, these were the waterfall style that typically seem reserved for life's biggest disappointments. Kids want to make their parents happy, and, at some point, Dane must have come to the conclusion that what makes me happy is him finishing well.

Of course, Dane's still got his "class" main to run, and, his main is coming up fast. Drying tears and giving my rider a pep talk in staging must have just been a strange scene to be sure. And, as I left him going into his staging lane, I had no idea what to expect from his lap. He started from gate 8, with the other riders down in 5 and 3 ... and gave a great chase all the way to the line ... to score the second ... (side note: to anybody who heard a giant whoosh as Dane finished that lap ... that was me finally taking a breath). Seems ironic that he did all the racing but at the end of the day I would speculate that I was just as exhausted as he was.

Nearly 25 years of BMX'ing now, it seems, and I just keep learning something new each time that I go to the track.

Kevin O'