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Doing the track walk was more like an adventure. Mud, mud, mud and I'm surprised no one fell in it. 12 jumps(!) on this course which must be a record at a stoppelcross. Long straights too which meant fully blasting towards the sketchy jumps. I wasn't liking it but after the 10 minute practice session I was digging it. The long straights weren't that long after all and the ruts weren't deep yet. The more the track was used, the dryer it got as well. Having an uneven number in the MX2 class was an advantage now as this group started after the even numbers.

We still had over fourty riders in our group of uneven numbers. 22 of them would make it to the A-final, the rest would meet up with the losers of the Even number qualification heat. Pieter Does, Sander Bisseling, Eric Mulders and Rob Karsmakers were in the even number group and it started off bad for Pieter. 4 guys fell over at the start and fell on Pieter. His bike stalled. The gate dropped and everyone left, except for Pieter. After close to a full lap Pieter hit the track on his way to a top 22 position. He had some work cut out for him. Meanwhile Rob Karsmakers was doing fine in 5th and Eric Mulders was actually in the top 22 too. Sander Bisseling borrowed Lenny's CRF250f and entered his first MX race ever. Real cool to see that. Pieter even passed the leader of the race which gave him another lap to pass riders. At the end of the race he was in 10th spot. Incredible race for sure. Rob Karsmakers' self fixing clutch skills did not go so well. His clutch disappeared after he forgot to include one metal ring. B-final for him for the first time. Sander Bisseling was close to making the finals in 24th position. Wilco Groenendaal finished 30th but we had one happy camper in our crew; Eric Mulders had made the A-final!!!!!!

Knowing this the pressure was on in heat two of the MX2 hobby class. Rob van den Wildenberg and I lined up for that race. You have to draw a number for a gate pick. I think about 25 people fit on the gate. I drew number 47, meaning it was second row for me. As soon as the gate dropped it was looking for openings in the pack and keeping that throttle open as much as possible. On the way through the pack I did two superman jumps but I didn't mean to do them. Either the focus was off, I did not have enough skills to hit those dams little jumps at decent speed, or the ruts in the take-offs were so deep that it hit the bottom of the bike. Anyway, after a few skipped heartbeats I finished on place 8 and Olympic BMX finalist Rob van den Wildenberg got 7th.

A-final! For a year we've been looking forward to these SX races. There's a lot of shit talking going on all year and to avoid more shit talking, you better do good. One more chance to prove your MX talent (which isn't there). It was the first time that Eric Mulders and I lined up at the gate together. I've been giving him shit and he's been giving me shit so it was on. My 8th place qualifying finish gave me a spot behind the gate (good spot actually) and Eric had to start from the second row as he qualified in 15th. Pieter made it on the gate as well and had a super fast first straight. In the second corner though he was sampling some dirt and with 40 guys behind him he didn't know how fast he had to leave the track. I'd say I was in top 15 and basically stayed that way until I fell over in the only 180 degree left turn. That's where Rob van den Wildenberg passed me and I believe one more rider. But I wasn't worried about him as much as I was about Eric Mulders. I never saw him pass by though so that was good. Mission accomplished and ready to shit talk for another year.

The SX season for us is over. Looks like we're all too busy during the summertime so we wait for the shitty weather to arrive and then hit the mud. Good times for sure and you can count on the BMX-ers to be back again next year.

BdJ