Grab another cup for this week’s Monday Morning Coffee column where we talk about what happened over the weekend in Motocross and more…
By Billy Rainford
Hello everyone from the comfort of my home office at DMX World HQ. I feel both comfortable and a little restless having not been to a motocross race this weekend. We won’t be on the line here in Canada until we head to Ste Julie, QC on June 28-29 for Round 3 of the 2025 Canadian Triple Crown Series MX Nationals.
I solved my restlessness on Sunday by entering an Ontario Cup MTB race that happened to be right here in London, Ontario, at our local little ski hill called Boler Mountain. Yes, we throw around the word “mountain” rather flippantly here in Ontario…
Truthfully, hills don’t have to be big if you’re constantly going up and down, and that’s exactly what these trails do. There is actually one section they call “Take a Break,” but other than that you are always on the gas.
I had just returned from the first 2 rounds of our nationals out in Alberta, so I’d been training in the mountains. I wasn’t sure if that meant I was going to be ready for this challenge or completely wiped out by it. It turned out I was feeling great as I unloaded the bike and did my warm up.
Our old friend Greg Poisson was one of the guys who spearheaded getting the race to return to our city, so kudos to him. He also took the win in the 19+ Novice class!
I’m not sure I’ve ever done an “O Cup” race before, unless the last time I raced here at Boler in 1993 was one, but I have no idea. All I can remember is that I blew out my 3rd set of Rock Shox forks halfway through the race and switched bikes. The organizer saw me do it and pointed out that you can’t really do that. Oh well, my back told me it was either this move or dropping out.
I lined up in the old fart Masters class and headed out near the back to make sure I didn’t bow up early. The course had a few places to make passes but I just stayed near the back and in control up the first, and toughest, hill climb.
OK, that was done, now to start making some moves in this 4-lap race.
I was riding with an older gentleman who I know is pretty strong, but I made an inside move on him in the Dragon’s Back section to which he yelled out, “Oh, using a motocross move on me!” We did in fact rub elbows and I made the pass and moved on down the trail.
It was around the start of the 2nd lap when I noticed something was amiss. My legs felt great and my breathing was fine, I just couldn’t get my head right. I decided to back it off and save myself for the final lap-and-a-half, so Ralph got by me again and I slid back off the pace a little.
I was still going OK but I just couldn’t figure out what was going on in my head that was keeping me from riding hard. Again, legs were great (in fact, I don’t even feel like I did a race yesterday), my breathing was in check, but my head was telling me something was wrong. Dammit.
I finished the race having no idea how it’d gone, went back to the parking lot and tried to cool off with some coasting up and down the long, shaded driveway, but my head just wouldn’t sort itself out.
I finally went to the van to get some cold water and change my clothes only to find out my keys were missing. Had I locked them in the van? Oh well, not a huge deal because one of my friends and his wife, Neil and Kat, were there and I could just get a ride to my place for my spare keys.
That meant I had to stay in my race gear and wander up to the patio to find them. I was feeling pretty crappy and as I walked past the announcer he said, “If anyone is missing a set of keys, I have them here with me.“
Yep, they were mine. Apparently, they’d fallen off the front tire and were sitting in the dirt beside my van and someone picked them up and brought them to him.
I joked with him that someone once grabbed my dog from my front lawn in Vancouver and took him to the dog pound. Same same…
Anyway, I went upstairs to the rooftop patio to sit with my friends when Ralph said, “Hey, Billy, congratulations, you won the age group!“
Whaat? How could that be?
He was right, I’d won one of the old guy Masters classes.
We got a podium photo and had a beer, but something still wasn’t feeling right in my head.
I headed home and turned on the TV to watch the final stage of the Dauphiné road bicycle race. When I started to read the positions etc. on the screen I realized I couldn’t read them! I couldn’t focus on anything I was looking directly at. And then the blurry, shimmering lace curtains started flickering at the edges of my vision. Yep, it was a migraine.
I’ve only ever had 4 of these things now in my entire lifetime. I remember my dad would get them when I was a kid. He’d describe the feeling but it just didn’t make sense. It does now. No wonder I couldn’t get my damn head right out there on the trails!
In hindsight, I couldn’t really focus on the roots or rocks on the trail and I was really struggling to make even one lap! Truthfully, I feel better about the race now that I realize what I was dealing with.
I think this is where a motocross racer would say, “But, no excuses...” in their podium speech.
My head still doesn’t feel 100% this morning, but fortunately Emily is an emerg nurse and she’s dosed me up again today. “Take 2 of these, one of these, and drink this…“
Like I always tell a motocrosser after a bad day: “It’s days like this that make you appreciate the good ones.” Man, do I ever hate taking my own advice!
I’ll use this fitness that I definitely didn’t use up this weekend and find another race as soon as I can.
Big thanks to Dirt Care, Ryno Power, Scott Bikes, and Leatt for the gear that kept me moving.
Now, on to some real MX stuff…
As Ross from Friends would say, “We were on a break!” However, just because there was no round of the Canadian Triple Crown Series, there was lots of action south of the border at Round 4 of the 2025 AMA Pro Motocross Championship.
We had #800 Preston Masciangelo trying to make the motos at High Point Raceway in Mount Morris, PA but things didn’t go his way this time around. The AJE GasGas rider gave it his best but wasn’t able to convert that into a place in the motos.
Here are his numbers:
Q: 58
LCQ: 13
Here’s how he summer it up on his Instagram page:
“Rough day at highpoint for me.. struggled with some electronic issues on the bike in both qualifying sessions. Lcq is what it is, pretty hard to do anything in those things without a good start.
“Gonna go back to work and see what I can do for southwick. A big thank you goes out to all the amazing people who help me out.”
High Point Highlights:
Jared Allison to Race Ste Julie
It turns out we haven’t seen the last of #102 Jared Allison after all!
We’re being told we’ll see the 34-year-old Angus beef rancher at Round 3 of the Canadian Triple Crown Series in Ste Julie on board a 250 supplied by GDR Honda.
Jared currently sits 11th in the class after 12-8 results in Calgary and Cold Lake.
Some Triple Crown Numbers
We all know that both the 250 and 450 class should come down to a battle between Preston Kilroy and Ryder McNabb in the 250 class and Jess Pettis and Dylan Wright in the 450 class. How can we say this? Let’s look at the numbers.
Calgary:
250 Moto 1 – Kilroy then Mcnabb. 3rd place was 27 1/2 seconds behind
250 Moto 2 – Kilroy then McNabb. 3rd place was 27 seconds behind
450 Moto 1 – Pettis then Wright. 3rd place was 2 minutes behind!
450 moto 2 – Wright then Pettis. 3rd place was 1:07 behind.
Cold Lake:
250 Moto 1 – Kilroy then McNabb. 3rd place was 48 seconds behind.
250 Moto 2 – McNabb then Kilroy. 3rd place was 26 seconds behind.
450 Moto 1 – Pettis won by 50 seconds over Wright as he nursed his injured right arm.
450 Moto 2 – Pettis won by 1:16 over Phil Nicoletti after Wright took a mechanical DNF.
These numbers aren’t to say the racing has been boring. In fact, it’s been far from that. The battle for wins have been great and then the battles for 3rd have also been close. It just so happens we’ve got 4 riders who are head and shoulders above the rest of the pack.
Let’s see what happens after this long, 3-week break before we get racing again at Ste Julie June 28-29.
Mike Brown Injured
Our old friend Mike Brown suffered an ugly, high-speed crash on June 3rd and has sustained some pretty serious injuries as a result. Here’s the post from Road2Recovery:
Wishing you all the best, Mike.
Enjoy your week, everyone. There’s an FMSQ off-road race at Gopher Dunes this coming weekend, so I think that’s where you’re going to find me. It’s Round 3 of the series and all the top enduro dogs will be there!
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