Annual pilgrimage to High Point

One of the MX races not to miss, in my opinion. Weather was great, despite a huge rain that last 15 minutes, right before the start of 450 moto 2. Sunny, big crowd, good racing, good time. Davi rode great and showed a lot of heart despite a big crash in the last moto, on the very rutted and muddy track.

We really enjoyed visiting Morgantown and always promise our friends there to come back on a non-moto weekend, but never find the time. Bummer! It was great spending time with real good friends.

The region is also very beautiful, very hilly, very lush and green. Must be great for off-road and mtb.

SX: Crash Reel 2010 video

Enjoy this little teaser of things coming for us Motocross fans. It is Saturday January 8th 2011 and it is the long awaited opening of the 2011 Supercross season at the legendary Angel Stadium in Anaheim. A1! It's on and it's mega packed. I think we need to go back to 1985 or 1986 to have 4 to 6 riders who can potentially win races and the title, all healthy and lining up behind the gate. It's been a while that when walking the pits you ask someone who's their pick for a win tonight, people take time to think about it and are not sure, even if we all have a favorite, who will win.

From here on, things are going to change, riders are going to crash, some are going to get hurt, the stronger ones are going to establish a new - or a renewed - hierarchy, the weaker ones are going to settle towards the bottom 10 places. Things will become more predictable for the fan.

I am enjoying the moment, enjoying the next hours, from arrival at Angel stadium this morning, the track walk, the vibrant pits, the full house stadium trepiding in anticipation at opening ceremonies this evening when 7 pm comes. The roar of the first gate drop.

Here's a little video crash compilation from last season. Interesting to note how much Ryan Dungey, on his way to his first SX title as a rookie, and Ryan Villopoto crashed.

High Point 2010

This is one motocross race I try to never miss. The weekend in Morgantown, WV, is our favorite of the year. It's not only a great MX race to attend, it's also a very nice town, with cool little restaurants. In the end it is a great social weekend and one of those where the industry as a whole has a good time, socialize, talks business and is overall happy.

After having a great first AMA Outdoor National at the opener at Hangtown, Davi had been a bit hot and cold, always in the Top 5 but not as fast as he was in Sacramento. Our AGV dude did well at High Point though and was on path for another podium finish, when he went down during a good battle with Mike Alessi.

i just want to have a shout out for DM18 who got hurt the following weekend at Buds Creek. Davi crashed pretty hard in the first moto and ended up getting pretty badly hurt, almost fully loosing a kidney, breaking a few ribs, collapsing a lung, fracturing a finger. Of course his kidney injury is the most worrying and we all wish him a seriously good and prompt recovery.

I drove back from Morgantown to Lake Zurich and this was truly one of the nicest drive, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio are truly gorgeous states.

Here's a quick slideshow from High Point 2010.

of we go again

Packed all my necessary magazines, loaded the iphone with PulpMX and Racer X podcasts, got all my AGV and Dainese necessary info and off we go, I'm on for another transatlantic return trip. Going via France to Italy for the yearly sales meetings and presentation of the new 2010-2011 Dainese collection. Exciting. Are we going to "AIR" it out? ;-)
Crossing finger that the special one will be part of it this year.

So, for those who never check the internet and don't read magazines :-) the AGV Dainese guys have been doing well lately, even though, because I had to prepare this trip and take care of my clients before I left, I didn't attend 3 important race events on the US soil: the opening round of the AMA Motocross National series at Hangtown/Sacramento where AGV's Davi Millsaps score a 3rd overall with 3-2 moto finishes and a 2nd overall for Ashley Fiolek in the AMA Women MX race; the FIM Motocross US Grand Prix at Glen Helen/San Bernardino this past weekend, where both AGV/Yamaha Rinaldi riders had a challenging time with   David Philippaerts finishing 15th overall in MX1 and Gautier Paulin going 10th overall in MX2; and finally the World Superbike Championship U.S. round at Miller Motorpoark where Dainese's Max Biaggi scored two perfect race wins and took over the points lead in the 2010 WSBK series.

Instead, I enjoyed great time with the family and friends, riding my Triumph Tiger 1050 to work, spending time on the Fox River playing with wave-runners and riding our MTB's in the forests of Wisconsin. It has to be fun at times and not always "work, work, work."

Sitting in the Air France lounge at ORD right now, waiting for my flight to Nice, France, then it'll be a short one to the beautiful city of Venice and 3 days of hard, but fun, work at Dainese in Vicenza.

OK, I'll try to remain the moto-tourist that I am and will try to update as much as I can.

Cool pic of Gautier at Glen Helen, by Michael Rigdon.

Doug Henry Rides Again

Doug Henry has always been one of those heros of American motocross, one of those tough but extremely nice guys I always looked up to. Defying pain, fate and life-threatening injuries along his career Doug always came back, and did it with brava, coming back to the top of his sport.

In 1995 he severely broke his back at Budds Creek. He came back, stronger and was winning motos again by the the end of 1996.
In 1997, he suffered a double broken wrist injury, at Budds Creek.
Healed, worked hard and came back in 1998 to win the AMA Outdoor Nationals title, on the Yamaha YZF400, giving the 4-strokes its first title in modern motocross.

Doug enjoyed semi-retirement, racing MX races here and there and joining the Yamaha Supermoto team, winning the X Games but suffered another severe injury when he broke his back in a Supermoto crash in 2007, resulting in partial paralysis from his waist down.

But the man who won the 1993 AMA SX East title, the 1993 & 1994 AMA 125 Motocross titles, the 1998 AMA Motocross title, an X Game Gold Medal and is a AMA Hall of Fame member, wasn't going to sit in a wheel-chair and wait for life to go by.

Doug started to learn how to walk again, on his own, on crutches and of course, Doug decided he wanted to ride MX again.

Respect. Speechless. Admiration.


Doug Henry 2009 from DB Studios on Vimeo.