Merry bmX-Mas and all the best for 2021. Check the best cards inside!

Dec 29, 2020

Written by Bart de Jong

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2020 was a strange one. It started off okay with many events on the program. In early January Mr. Zeiss and I escaped to the Penken for a few days of fresh powder in the Austrian mountains. We managed a day and a half and were beat after that. On January 24th my first trip to Australia was on the program. Let me tell you, it's a hell of a trip before you get there. But once there that was soon forgotten. The Sydney trip by Matt Holmes was great, including checking out Bondi Beach. Then the quick in and out to Brisbaine was amazing too, especially Australia day was one that I'll remember. Thanks Wade Bootes for that one. The bush fires almost killed this Australian trip and I'm glad it didn't. It was off to Shepparton (1600km road trip) for the first UCI BMX SX World Cup of 2020 followed by a few days in Melbourne checking the scene and then straight to Bathurst for Rounds 3 & 4 of the UCI BMXSX World Cup. To make things "easier" I flew back home to take off to Tokyo 3 days later. After a short week working on Tokyo 2020 it was back home to leave for the Austrian mountains the next day, a family trip this time. During the snow trip the first news about the virus did its rounds but we managed to enjoy the

time in full. With the 25 years of Paul's Boutique BMX shop celebration happening on 28 March the Sugar Hills trails needed some TLC and a start was made preparing the jumps. On 7 March the Dutch MXGP took place in Valkenswaard. Seeing a motocross race at its highest level is something we won't pass up easily and since it was just 35 minutes away we made good use of the MXGP weekend. Events with more than 500 visitors were called off right after this weekend and things were starting to look serious. The annual judges meeting in Lissabon was on the agenda next. Scheduled days were: 10 March departure. 16 March return. And after this the entire world shut down. Travel stopped. Events were canceled. People started working from home. Social distancing was in place.

The schedule for the rest of the year was insane. The trips mentioned above was just the beginning. No Mini FATJAM this year, no UCI BMX SX or Freestyle World Cups for the rest of the year. No Vans Pro Cups. No World Champs. No B.O.H.. No FATJAM. No Olympics. You name it, it was postponed or canceled.

It hasn't been an easy year to say the least but we've managed to survive until the end of 2020. Although the beginning of 2021 doesn't look too promising either, there's a vaccin on its way which should hopefully bring things back to normal. The batteries have been charged to 100%. We're ready. Bring on BMX.

Wishing everyone happy holidays. Make the most of it. Soon we'll be celebrating normal life together. It's something we've taken for granted. Proost maat!

BdJ

P.S. Show us your X-mas cards and we'll post them up in this post.