March 22, 2004 – Race number two for Team Maxxis in 2004 was the Nova Desert Classic in Fountain Hills, AZ. The Bean was off to do Pomona with his road team, Jittery Joes, so it was just me hanging out with Eric, Monk, and Moto the dog for the whole week chilling at the Comfort Inn.
We did a little training during the week but it was so hot during the day I was mostly trying to lay low and stay out of the sun. I was a little afraid Monk was going to die of boredom because the XC bikes don't take much to keep running. Things started to pick up as I starting riding the course and finding out about the dangers of riding in the desert; mainly getting flats, and quite a few.
The TT was on Friday – eight miles of desert singletrack – I only made it about two miles before my first flat. I made it about another two before I got a front flat; walked a while where it was rocky, and starting riding when it got smoother and got a third flat about a mile out. Yup, good news was I made it to the finish line and I was only 35 minutes behind on GC. Good thing it wasn't a real important race. Young Plankton took the stage win ahead of Ryder and JHK (Congrats go out to him on his engagement to Ms. Irmiger) and it looked like I was in it for training.
Monk went into full prototype mode after the TT trying to figure out a system to keep some air in my tires. Kept him busy all Saturday, a long day, with a 3:45pm start, and one of the tightest, sketchy, short track XC courses I have ever done. Managed to sneak to the front line, grabbed the holeshot, and decided to punch it for three laps and see what happened. Didn't really get too far so I eased back in the group, fell over a few times, and ended up seventh with a good burn on the lungs.
Sunday's XC was another late start and a shortened race due to the 98 degree temperature, I was happy to have a full zip and was running it wide open trying to keep cool. The Fisher boys laid down the smack with Ryder taking off and Liam following later; this kind of shattered the rest with many including me just trying to survive. Got some good training and testing in and rode to another seventh place finish. I'm almost looking forward to heading home and maybe seeing some rain, just happy that we were able to keep air in the tires and I didn't have to walk.
Got a good couple weekends of racing in my legs, some new presents to take home, and I am looking forward to getting back into training for a couple weeks before the big show at Sea Otter. This will be another good test before the racing really starts for me at the big show in Madrid; World Cup #1.
Author's notes: The Bean: Cesar Grajales, Plankton: Max Plaxton, JHK: Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Ryder: Ryder Hesjedal, Monk: Monk, Eric: Eric Wallace, Liam: Liam Killeen