BMX and Club Bud

With the Olympics winding dow, we've been as busy as ever while at work. In the past couple days we've seen the end of track cycling and the beginning and end of BMX cycling.

Track cycling ended with Chris Hoy taking his third gold medal for Great Britain in the individual sprint, wrapping up a very good Olympics for the British team. Theo Bos, the before mentioned favorite and cover boy of the sport, finished very poorly and appeared at a few moments to be on the verge of a total breakdown. But with an end to the very staid and regal atmosphere of track cycling comes the wild world of BMX at the Olympics.

We were all excited to get to talk to the BMX guys, just because of how different they are than their track cycling counterparts. Not to mention that the U.S. was very heavily favored to win several medals. I'd apologize for being a blatant homer, but I've heard Great Britain's national anthem way too many times over the past two weeks.

The finals were expected to be yesterday, but rain delayed the runs because BMX, unlike mountain biking, can't be run in the rain. So today began with the semifinal runs, and the winners decided after a single final run for men and women. If you look back at the course pic that I posted earlier, look at the first corner coming off of the ramp. That corner was a disaster for a lot of riders today. I don't know if it was the big stage, the idea they were gunning for an Olympic medal, or what was going on, but the riders were out for blood and the high speed the riders had off of the higher than usual start ramp meant spills galore. The female favorite, British rider Shanaze Reade, fell once two days ago during qualifying on that corner and then misjudged the jump leading into it today and spilled over her handlebars. That wouldn't even be the worst for her, as she made the final run, but instead of realizing she couldn't pass the leader on the final turn and settle for silver, she tried to dive underneath, clipped the leaders back tire and spilled. She said later she wanted gold nothing, and sadly for her, she ended up with the latter.

The crashes were also causing some sniping from teammates, as two Aussies got into trouble on that first turn and would later make comments to the media about it being on purpose, or more not knowing if it was on purpose. Just the mention though gives you an idea of what the girls were thinking.

And this doesn't mean that the guys were free of problems. Eventual bronze medallist, American Donny Robinson, was involved in a couple crashes, one in the first corner. If you were caught in the pack there, it would be bound to happen that someone would either not turn enough and take others down with them or turn too hard and wipe out.

It also turned out that the U.S. didn't dominate BMX like many expected. Mike Day too silver for the men with Robinson getting bronze behind a Latvian rider and American Jill Kintner took bronze behind two French riders. I would have liked to see the U.S. get a gold, but it may be better for the sport in the long run if others do better right now.

Our time here is rapidly growing shorter, so our time to get some more good times in is also short. A couple of us found time to go to Club Bud last night, which is like the Holland House but with the english speaking crowd. It also has free beer, which is never a bad thing. We got to hang out with a couple of the athletes that we've been covering lately, but it was a little bit of a let down that we didn't get to see the BMX riders. If the rain delay hadn't put everything back a day, they likely would've been there with their medals celebrating.

The place really was amazing, but unfortunately I couldn't get any pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it. Also, perhaps highlight of my life so far, I had a couple beers with Jay Mariotti, the columnist from the Chicago Sun-Times and a regular on ESPN's Around the Horn. I won't lie, I never really liked him on the show. I mostly don't agree with his opinions. But considering a couple of random guys came up to him at a bar and started talking to him, he was a really cool guy. Definitely a great way to be looking at the end of this trip.

OK, the trip is beginning to wind down. We've got a couple more fun things planned before we get out of China, so hopefully you'll look forward to that. Thanks for everyone that has read my blog, and thanks again to the Noblesville Ledger for posting me.